Arthur Waldron, China historian and Lauder Professor of International Relations in the Department of History at the University of Pennsylvania, made the remarks in a recent interview on The Epoch Times’ American Thought Leaders. He shared his views on the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) imminent collapse, U.S. foreign policy on China, and the relentless Hong Kong protests that have posed a major challenge to Beijing’s rule.
The CCP has started on a path of decline and is headed towards a similar fate as the Soviet Union when it collapsed in 1991, the professor said.
"I believe that China is in this stage of disintegration or ’jie ti (解體)’, and it’s something that you don’t see immediately," said Waldron.
The Chinese regime’s practice of forced organ harvesting‐which results in an estimated tens of thousands of prisoners of conscience killed every year to supply its organ transplant market‐and its treatment of Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in the northwestern region of Xinjiang, made it "the most evil regime" since the Nazi Germany, Waldron said.
He recalled a conversation with an unidentified person, who is a close advisor to Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
"He said to me, Arthur, what the hell are we going to do? Everybody knows that this [political] system doesn’t work. We have reached a "si hu tong" (死胡同)," said Waldron said, explaining that the Chinese phrase means a "dead-end street."
The advisor continued: "But what we don’t know is what is the next step to take because ... there are mines everywhere and if we take a step, we may set off a terrible explosion."
The Chinese economy is not high-flying as it used to be. The country’s third-quarter (GDP) growth rose 6.0 percent year-on-year, the slowest rate in 27 years. According to Reuters, the growth decline was attributed by economists to weakness in export-related industries, particularly the manufacturing sector.
"This regime knows it’s in grave peril, domestically," Waldron said, before adding "So the real intellectual problem is how do you exit communism?"