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Peaceful Evolution theory


The "Peaceful Evolution" theory in international political thought refers to the alleged attempt to effect a political transformation of the Chinese socialist system by peaceful means, primarily by the United States.

The phrase was formulated by United States Secretary of State John Foster Dulles during the Cold War in the 1950s chiefly in the context of the Soviet Union, but has not subsequently featured in official discussions of U.S. China policy. Chinese analyses of U.S. foreign policy, however, hold that it has constituted part of the theoretical foundation for the United States' relations with the People's Republic of China since then.

According to the thesis, the United States maintains a strategy to infiltrate and subvert socialist countries, notably China, by spreading Western political ideas and lifestyles, inciting discontent, and encouraging groups to challenge the Party leadership. The hoped for aim of this process, according to Chinese readings of the alleged policy, is that the socialist system is transformed from within.

The Communist Party of China (CPC) has resisted the idea of Peaceful Evolution, beginning when the idea was first raised in the Mao era. The Party sees such a process as "the biggest threat to its continuous rule," because nothing is more important for the Party than the preservation of its rule.

Successive generations of CPC leaders have struggled against the Peaceful Evolution theory, including Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping, Hu Jintao, and Jiang Zemin. The theory is not currently part of the United States' official policy approach to the PRC, but communist military strategists consider it a cause of ongoing concern.

The precise locution "peaceful evolution" was a modification, by John Foster Dulles, of the doctrine originally outlined by George F. Kennan, who, in his Long Telegram of February 22, 1946, proposed that the socialist and capitalist blocs could reach a state of "peaceful coexistence."


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