Now many people have realized that reformism is not feasible.However, there are still many people who think that there is still hope for reform, and accuse the people who advocate revolution.Some of these people are secret agents propagandizing for the Communist Party, which is a traditional job for the Chinese secret police.I am going to put these people aside and talk about the other kind, who are bigots that could cause harm despite good intentions, just like the Mr. Dong Guo in the Chinese fable who saved the wolf and ended up being eaten by the wolf. These people are acting in good faith but are unrealistic. The result is to help the villains but betray the friends.

I am sure that they are certainly not convinced of my description. "Is not reform something good?" "Would you only be satisfied when blood is running like rivers and cities become broken ruins?" These thoughts would be serious accusations. These people think I am not being kind when I am against their idea of waiting for bread to fall out of the sky for the hungry. The issue is not that it would be wonderful or not to feed on bread that falls from the sky, but that is just not realistic. What is the reality then? That reality is that from the beginning of Mao Zedong, until Deng Xiaoping and Zhao Ziyang, all have tried to reform, even on a fairly large scale. However, due to the reality of one party dictatorship, it was impossible to achieve a good result from these reforms. Thus, we demand for democracy and human rights. We want to restore various rights that belong to the people, even through the means of revolution. That is the reality.

People do know that Deng Xiaoping and Hu Yaobang wanted reform. However, to say that Mao Zedong also wanted reform, many will question. Is not that true that Mao self-claimed the Proletarian Cultural Revolution? How did that turn into a reform? Well, we should not take the propaganda of the Communist Party as a guideline. Rather we should understand it after some analysis. What is the fundamental difference between reform and revolution? The difference lies that both reform and improvement do not touch the basic principle, that is the essential autocracy. However, what the revolution wants to change is exactly this essential autocracy. Did the so-called revolution by Mao Zedong touch the essence of so-called proletariat dictatorship? No. So no matter how ferociously he claimed, to the best, it was only improvement.

Look at the reality of this Cultural Revolution that we now know. Burning books, burying scholars, and smashing the "four olds" of ideology, culture, customs and habits were the ideals for the May Fourth Movement in 1919. Completely wiping out the traditional Chinese culture for a total Westernization, thus enabling the achievement of Western-style democracy or socialism was the common ideal of several generations of the intellectual elite in China around the May Fourth Movement. Mao Zedong was the person who truly and completely realized this ideal, thus bringing about a cultural catastrophe to China. When Mao Zedong launched the Cultural Revolution, the members of the Central Committee of the Communist Party unanimously agreed without objection, exactly because that was their common ideal.

After the Chinese Communist Party achieved its one-party dictatorship, it quickly started its corruption and autocracy, which began people's resentment and resistance. Eliminating the corrupt elements so people could have democracy directly in the form of a Paris Commune were the ideals of that generation of communists. Mao Zedong also made his experiments during the Cultural Revolution that finally ended in failure. In the first seventeen years after the Chinese Communists seized power, they were not engaged in a complete Soviet-style planned economy. Mao Zedong believed that the unsatisfactory economic development was due to this reason, instead of just the reverse. Therefore, the biggest action during the Cultural Revolution period was to carry out a complete implementation of the planned economy, even to the degree that farmers' private plots were cut off as the tails of capitalism. The result was that the economy remained in trouble, while people's living conditions declined. The only exception was in northeast China, where the Communist chief Li Desheng was able to raise the monthly ration of 5 oz of cooking oil to 8 oz. At that time, that extra 3 oz per month of cooking oil brought the local people enormous happiness.

There is no evidence that proves the Cultural Revolution changed the one-party dictatorship. Instead, it strengthened both one-party dictatorship and personal dictatorship, a fact everyone recognizes. So no matter how much action was taken, that was only a reform, not a revolution. Further, it also illustrates that the purpose for Mao Zedong to launch the Cultural Revolution was not for the sole purpose of seizing power. Seizing power was only one of his goals, which was accomplished easily at the beginning. After that, Mao spent most of his time and effort to reform the irrational reality, to realize the ideals that his generation had fought for when they were young. From this perspective, Mao Zedong was indeed an idealist. His stubbornness was the root reason that he broke off with Lin Biao and the others. It was the rebellion of Lin Biao that prompted Mao to admit a defeat in his heart, which left an opportunity to continue the improvement effort for Hua Guofeng and Deng Xiaoping later on.

Hua Guofeng was relatively slow-witted. Mao did not admit his own mistake, so Hua thought that there really was no mistake, to the degree that he thought people's hails were sincere. The result was that Hua left the opportunity of reform to Deng Xiaoping. At that time, most of the people did not support our appeal for revolution. They had yet to realize that the root cause was the one-party dictatorship. They kindly thought that reform would come at relatively less cost, so why not push for it? So, Deng Xiaoping received almost unanimous support from top to bottom of the society at that time. Actually, Deng's actions were big: he got rid of much of the remaining communist system including the basic Stalinist planned economy. However, Deng did not say that this was a revolution, and modestly said it was only reform.

Indeed, in theory, Deng only got rid of half of the Communist system, while retaining the even more fundamental one-party dictatorship. So we can only say that it was improvement, instead of revolution. There were a large number of people both inside and outside the Communist Party who tried to hit the one-party dictatorship in the name of reform. Yet, Deng suppressed them without hesitation, even mercilessly suppressing the two General Secretaries of the Communist Party that he personally promoted, and even launching a military coup without hesitation. Deng Xiaoping had faithfully implemented the "continuing revolution under the proletariat dictatorship" theory of Mao Zedong.

Deng's results had the same fate as Mao's. In his later years, Deng had to admit defeat in his heart. Of course, just like Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping would never admit it in words. Such may be the common character of all dictators. Should we continue with more improvements? But what else could be improved? Most people with lofty ideals can see it clearly enough. All that could be tried was tried and there are no new tricks anymore. So nowadays there are people even starting to recommend the leftovers from Mao of "singing praises for the red and hitting the black society" movement. This kind of politically retarded intelligence that only dines on others’ leftovers will only become the laughing stock of history.

There is only one way left out for China. That is to get rid of the one-party dictatorial political system. Further, no matter what way is used to end the one-party dictatorship, it will be a revolution. The people's rebellion is a revolution. A bloody coup is a revolution. A political coup without bloodshed, which has very little chance but is still a possibility, is also a revolution. Only by getting rid of the one-party dictatorship can most of the problems in China be solved. Otherwise, it is difficult to get rid of all the ills due to this one-party dictatorship.