As early as 1945, Fu Sinian (1896-1950), a renowned Chinese educator, historian, and linguist, predicted that if the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) seized power, Chinese culture would face “a catastrophe.” Little did anyone know how prophetic his words would prove to be.
In 1966, Mao’s Cultural Revolution erupted in China, led initially by zealous Red Guards — many still in middle school — who turned against their own teachers, beating some to death in acts of blind fanaticism. What followed was a breakdown of moral order: Children denounced their parents, neighbors betrayed neighbors, and so-called “rebels” waged war against established institutions and traditions. Over the next decade, hundreds of millions of people across China were caught in this bloody catastrophe, plunging China into a violent disaster that trampled the cultural heritage and ethical foundations of Chinese civilization.
Even before Fu Sinian’s warning, President Chiang Kai-shek (1887-1975), leader of the Republic of China, had issued his warning, arguing that the Communist Party would never allow the Chinese people to live as moral and upright individuals.
In hindsight, both Chiang Kai-shek and Fu Sinian demonstrated remarkable foresight in their shared warnings, and history has since confirmed just how accurate they were.
Fu Sinian: If the CCP seizes power, Chinese culture will suffer a catastrophe
Fu Sinian came from a distinguished family with a long legacy of scholarship and public service. His seventh-generation ancestor, Fu Yijian (1609-1665), was the first zhuangyuan (top scorer in the imperial examination) in the liberal arts after Emperor Shunzhi (1638-1661) of the Qing Dynasty established his capital in Beijing. Fu Yijian later served as a prime minister, and in the generations that followed, the Fu family produced numerous high-ranking officials, including many prefects and county magistrates.
Fu Sinian began studying the Chinese classics at a young age before entering Tsinghua School. He later pursued higher education in Europe and, upon returning to China, became a prominent intellectual. After the Anti-Japanese War, he served as acting president of Peking University while Hu Shi, the official president, was in the United States. Following the establishment of the People’s Republic of China, Fu relocated to Taiwan, where he became president of the National Taiwan University and played a central role in guiding it toward becoming a world-class institution.
Known by the nickname “Cannon Fu” for his sharp intellect and outspoken nature, Fu Sinian was one of the few who possessed a profound understanding of Mao Zedong’s character and ambitions, perhaps more so than any of his contemporaries.
On May 4, 1919, students protested the Chinese government’s weak response to the Treaty of Versailles, which ceded German holdings in Shandong Province to Japan after World War I. This protest, known as the May Fourth Movement, marked a pivotal moment in modern Chinese history, fueling a surge in nationalism, calls for science and democracy, and a critical reexamination of traditional Chinese culture.
At the heart of the movement was Peking University, where Fu Sinian emerged as a prominent student leader. At the same time, Mao Zedong was working quietly as a library assistant at the university. Fu, a frequent visitor to the library, met Mao during this period. The two would soon part ways — Mao returning to his native Hunan to launch the Xiangjiang Review, and Fu establishing the influential magazine New Tide (Xin Chao) at Peking University.
In July 1945, Fu Sinian visited Yan’an, the headquarters of the Chinese Communist Party at the time. Mao Zedong invited him for a private conversation that lasted late into the night. Fu was struck by Mao’s wide-ranging familiarity with literature — including even vulgar or lowbrow fiction — which Mao admitted to studying as a way to understand popular psychology and make use of them.
After returning to Chongqing, Fu shared his impressions with friends, remarking that the CCP was closely following the Soviet model, and that Mao himself embodied the spirit of Song Jiang, a historical figure who led a rebel uprising against the Song Dynasty in the early 12th century. That same year, Fu published an article titled China Needs a Government, in which he issued a stark warning: If the Communist Party were to seize power, the Chinese nation would face disaster, especially in the realm of culture. History cannot be assumed, but the events that unfolded in the years to come tragically confirmed Fu Sinian’s extraordinary foresight and chilling accuracy of his prediction.
Chiang Kai-shek: The CCP will bring unprecedented disaster to China
In 1933, Chiang Kai-shek gave a stark warning about the Chinese Communist Party in the opening speech of the second Military Officer Training Corps. He emphasized the urgent need to eradicate what he called the “communist bandits,” declaring that the CCP was not merely a political threat, but a force fundamentally opposed to the moral foundation of Chinese civilization. He described the Party as “a beast in human skin,” accusing it of trampling on the moral principles passed down by sages throughout Chinese history. Its goal, he said, was to turn the Chinese people into beings without loyalty, filial piety, propriety, or righteousness, reducing them to little more than animals.
Chiang further condemned the CCP as having “a human face with a beast’s heart.” Though they looked like ordinary people, he said, their thoughts, spirit, and actions were as vicious as wild beasts. Such individuals, he concluded, were nothing more than “beasts in human skin” and unworthy of being called human. In his eyes, the fight against the Communists was not just a political or military struggle — it was a moral battle to save the people and their humanity.
Chiang Kai-shek warned that wherever the Communist bandits went, they brought chaos and destruction — killing, burning, raping, and looting — making it impossible for ordinary people to live and work in peace. More than just physical violence, he emphasized that the CCP’s presence corrupted the moral fabric of society. It encouraged people to disrespect their ancestors, be unfilial to their parents, neglect brotherly love, and abandon their duty to country and nation. They rejected propriety and morality, and systematically sought to dismantle China’s ethical and cultural heritage.
For 5,000 years, Chiang noted, China’s sages and philosophers had passed down the core principles of what it meant to be truly human. These principles were expressed in the virtues of “loyalty, filial piety, benevolence, faith, and harmony.” Only by upholding all of these virtues could one be considered fully human — a true and complete Chinese.
Chiang Kai-shek condemned the Chinese Communist Party as a force that had utterly betrayed the Republic of China and the Chinese nation. He accused the CCP of betraying both superiors and subordinates, and of engaging in ruthless violence, killing and mutilating people without regard for guilt or innocence, and using every form of torture imaginable. In his view, they acted with no sense of humanity and no moral integrity whatsoever.
Chiang further denounced the CCP for abandoning China’s ancestral traditions and instead worshipping foreign figures like Lenin and Marx as their ideological ancestors. Such disloyal, unfilial, unkind, and unjust individuals, he said, were no different from beasts. They were unworthy of being called human beings, let alone Chinese.
The choice before us
Looking back, the warnings of Fu Sinian and Chiang Kai-shek were far from alarmist rhetoric — they were remarkably clear-sighted visions rooted in a deep understanding of communist ideology. Though coming from different backgrounds, both men independently foresaw the same future, not only the political upheaval a CCP takeover would bring, but the profound moral and cultural devastation that would inevitably follow. Their strikingly similar assessments and predictions reveal a shared clarity of insight. While their cautions were dismissed or ignored by many at the time, history has since confirmed their warnings as chillingly accurate forecasts of the widespread suffering unleashed during events such as the Great Leap Forward, the Cultural Revolution, the Anti-Rightist Campaign, and other brutal campaigns orchestrated by the CCP.
In the name of these revolutionary movements, the CCP systematically dismantled centuries of ethical teachings, turned families against one another, and uprooted the spiritual and cultural foundations of Chinese civilization. This included the deliberate destruction of priceless cultural relics and the suppression of China’s true history — history that contained vital lessons to guide the nation’s future. Within China, countless individuals have been deceived, remained silent out of fear, or become complicit due to financial or political gain. Even today, many in the East — and especially those in the West — fail to fully comprehend the extent of the CCP’s twisted and immoral ideology.
The warnings of Fu Sinian and Chiang Kai-shek stand as urgent calls to remember what has been lost — and to safeguard any remaining vestiges of upright culture. To preserve the dignity of a people and the soul of a nation, truth must be boldly spoken, and moral courage must be revived. As the truth of the CCP’s crimes continues to surface, both the Chinese people and the global community face a solemn choice: to stand firmly with what is good, or to be dragged down with a regime built on deception and evil.
Translated by Patty Zhang and edited by Tatiana Denning
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