Gregory Copley: China’s ‘Civil War’ Fought Through Lockdowns

Shanghai’s lockdown is like a civil war. As Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s faction brawls within the party with anti-Xi forces, Xi’s legitimacy and absolute correctness must be established to ensure he will get a third term in power. Even as the controversial lockdowns affect millions of people, to Xi, lockdowns must be maintained, while the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) treats human lives as an expendable resource in the process. Some say that this is a return to the Mao Zedong era of total state control and massive human casualties via political movements under the CCP.

I speak with Gregory Copley, author and president of the International Strategic Studies Association in Washington. His latest book is “The New Total War of the 21st Century and the Trigger of the Fear Pandemic.” We discuss what the reality of Shanghai’s latest COVID-19 measures means and try to make sense of the internal civil war brought by the CCP.