作者：陀先润
第二篇：亲儿子的命运——马共与泰共
1961年，马来亚共产党总书记陈平秘密来到北京。
他来的目的很明确：告诉中国同志，马共打不下去了。从二战结束时的一万多人，到现在躲在泰马边境丛林里的不足六百人，打了十几年，什么都没打出来。英国人走了，马来亚独立了，新政府对马共的清剿越来越有效，丛林里的人越来越少，补给越来越难。陈平准备宣布放弃武装斗争，带着剩下的人出来谈判，换一条活路。
接见他的是邓小平。
邓小平告诉他：东南亚的形势即将发生巨变，对共产主义越来越有利，不要改变政策，要继续打下去。
陈平回去了，继续打。
十八年后的1979年，陈平再次被叫去见邓小平。这一次邓小平告诉他：中国不会再支持马共了，你们自己想办法吧。
两次谈话，同一个人，完全相反的指令。两次谈话之间死了多少人，没有人统计过，也没有人在乎。
马共的历史，从诞生的第一天就埋下了悲剧的种子。
1925年，共产国际代表鲍罗廷派了一个助手南下到南洋，在新加坡建立了南洋共产主义支部。这就是马共最早的前身，从第一天起就是中国共产党的海外分支，不是在马来亚土地上自然生长出来的，是被种下去的。1930年，在胡志明的主持下，南洋共产党正式改组为马来亚共产党。党员几乎清一色是华侨，领导层全是华人，建党的钱是中国出的，政治纲领是中国定的。
这个先天条件，后来成了马共无法摆脱的致命伤。马来西亚政府把马共的武装斗争定性为华人对马来人的统治战争，让马共在当地始终无法真正发动群众。你打出去的旗号是共产主义革命，但当地的马来人看到的是一群华人拿着枪要来领导他们，这场仗从政治上就输掉了一半。
但在日本占领马来亚期间，马共一度成为这片土地上最重要的武装力量。英国人给了他们武器，马共组建了马来亚人民抗日军，控制了马来半岛三分之二以上的国土，武装人员超过一万人。那是马共历史上唯一一段真正强大的时光，也是他们距离胜利最近的时候。
然后，一个叫莱特的人出现了。
莱特是越南籍华侨，说自己是共产国际的代表。他进入马共的时候，正是中共和马来亚之间的联络完全中断的那段空档，没有任何人能核实他的身份。他就靠着这个身份，在马共里站稳了脚跟，一路做到总书记。
没有人知道他同时在为法国人、英国人和日本人工作。
1942年2月，马共决定在一个叫黑风洞的地方召开秘密会议，出席的是马共和抗日军的大部分高级将领。日本人提前得到了通知，包围了现场，把所有人杀了个干净。那是马共历史上最惨烈的一次清洗，几乎所有的核心骨干都死在那里。莱特原本应该出席，临时说车子坏了，没能到场。
战后他又以共产国际代表的名义，说服马共把辛苦积攒的武装力量解散了，说要走合法斗争的路线，不要和新的殖民政府正面对抗。马共信了他，把枪交出去了。然后他卷走了党的全部经费，消失了。
1947年，他在泰国曼谷被泰共党员认出来，追上去当街击毙。
莱特死后，马共才开始彻查，发现他当年做的每一件事背后都有出卖的影子。黑风洞的屠杀，武装力量的解散，每一次马共遭受重创，莱特都是最大的受益者。但到了这个时候，人死了，证据没了，一切都只能是推断。
马共用了整整十年，才从莱特造成的破坏里重新站起来。这十年里，一个外来的间谍把马共掏空了，这件事本身就说明了马共的根本问题：它没有真正扎进马来亚土地里的根基，离开北京的指挥和保护，它就是一盘散沙。
莱特走了之后，马共真正的终结者出现了。这个人不是英国军队，不是马来西亚政府，而是一个叫李光耀的年轻律师。
1950年代初，李光耀从英国剑桥留学回来，回到新加坡开始执业。他主动找上了马共的外围组织，找上了各个左翼工会和劳工团体，说要帮他们打官司，免费提供法律援助。他在这些组织里混得如鱼得水，很快成了新加坡左翼圈子里人脉最广的人。
然后他提出了一个建议：成立一个合法的政党，叫人民行动党，用议会选举的方式来争取政权。他的理由很充分——马共是非法组织，进不了议会，只能在丛林里打游击，而打游击已经证明行不通了，不如走合法路线，把力量引入体制内。马共的人觉得这个思路有道理，开始全力支持他，帮他拉票，帮他组织工人和学生，把他的人气一点一点做起来。
1959年，人民行动党赢得新加坡大选，李光耀成为新加坡自治邦首席部长。
权力到手之后，李光耀开始动手。
他动手的方式是一个一个来的，不是一刀切，而是精准打击。首先是马共背景的人，凡是有组织关系的，全部逮捕，关进监狱，不经审判，无限期关押。有人一关就是十几年，有人关到白发苍苍，有人关到死在狱中。内部安全法给了他这个权力，不需要证据，不需要法庭，一纸命令就够了。
然后是中共南方情报系统派来的人，也就是那批以学者、教师、报人身份出现的地下工作者。这批人他没有关，而是礼送出境，客客气气地把你送走，走之前甚至还给你道别。南洋大学是当时中共在马来亚最重要的教育和培训基地，李光耀直接把它关掉，说是要合并到新加坡大学，理由冠冕堂皇，没有人能当面反驳。
最后是那些曾经帮他竞选、帮他拉票、把他送进议会的左翼同僚。这些人里有他的战友，有他的朋友，有在最艰难的时候站出来支持他的人。他把他们一个一个送进监狱，用的罪名是勾结共产党，威胁国家安全。其中有人在狱中待了将近三十年，出来的时候已经是老人。
李光耀后来被很多人称为华人世界里难得的政治天才。这个评价大概是对的。但天才的代价，是由那些帮过他的人用一生来承担的。马共和左翼力量把他送进了议会，他用他们的尸体巩固了自己的权力，然后建立了一个在华人世界里独一无二的高效威权体制。
新加坡的马共，就这样被彻底消灭了。
失去了新加坡的马共，退回到马来半岛的丛林里继续打。但他们面对的是一个根本无法解决的困境：领导层是华人，在一个马来人占多数的国家搞武装革命，永远都会被定性为外来势力入侵。他们在丛林里坚持，坚持了一年又一年，人越来越少，补给越来越困难，和外部世界的联系越来越薄弱。
丛林里的生活是什么样的，很少有人描述过。那些在里面待了几十年的人，大部分没有留下文字。偶尔有人回忆，讲的是常年潮湿的丛林、腐烂的树叶、永远不够吃的食物、时刻警惕的神经。他们结婚、生子、老去，在那片丛林里过完了自己最好的年华。他们的孩子在丛林里出生，有些孩子从来没有见过外面的世界。
这一切，都是因为1961年邓小平那句”要继续打下去”。
1979年，邓小平访问新加坡。李光耀当面告诉他：你要和东盟国家搞好关系，就必须停止支持东南亚的共产党。邓小平答应了，然后找来陈平，告诉他中国不再支持马共。
中国在湖南益阳给马共建立的秘密基地关掉了，马来西亚之声广播电台停播了，武器供应和经费全部切断。马共在中国培训的干部被遣返，那些在中国待了多年、学会了一口普通话的马共干部，一夜之间发现自己无处可去。
又撑了十年，1989年，马共终于走到了尽头。
在泰国政府的见证下，马共和马来西亚政府签署了和平协议。马共宣布解散，成员放下武器，向马来西亚最高元首宣誓效忠。作为交换，马来西亚政府承诺不追究法律责任，愿意回国的发一笔补偿金安置，留在泰国的划出几块土地让他们居住。
解散时大约还有一千多人，是当年一万多人的零头。
一部分人回了马来西亚，领了钱，找个地方过日子，从此不提过去的事。另一部分留在了泰南边境，住进了泰国政府划出来的几个村子。这几个村子后来被冠以一位泰国公主的名字，改造成了旅游景点，叫朱拉彭公主村，一共四个村。游客去那里喝咖啡、拍照，买当地人做的土产纪念品，脚下的土地曾经埋过什么，没有人告诉他们，他们也不会问。
陈平想回马来西亚，被政府拒绝了。他在泰国等了很多年，2013年在曼谷去世，终究没能回家。他第一次去北京见邓小平的时候四十岁，死的时候八十八岁。这四十八年，他把自己最好的岁月全部交给了一场注定失败的战争，而这场战争打多久、打到什么程度，从来都不是他能决定的。
泰共的故事和马共高度相似，只是结局更加诡异。
泰共比马共还要纯正。1926年由中共南洋支部直接建立，1942年正式建党，第一任总书记李启新是中共党员，后来回国当了新华社香港分社的副社长。新华社香港分社在那个年代是什么，明白的人都明白——它是中共情报和统战系统在香港的核心机构，以新闻机构为掩护，实际上做的是情报工作。泰共的第一任总书记，本身就是情报系统的人。这样的党，和中共之间是什么关系，不言而喻。
1960年中苏关系破裂，全球共产党被迫表态站队，泰共是东南亚第一个公开支持中国的共产党。不需要讨论，不需要考虑，因为他们就是中共系统的一部分。1962年，中国在云南建立了泰国人民之声广播电台，开始对泰国进行革命宣传。1965年，泰共正式开始武装斗争，中国提供培训、武器和经费，全力支持。
泰共打了十年，稳扎稳打，在泰国北部和东北部的山区建立了相当稳固的根据地。1976年是他们历史上最高光的时刻。那一年泰国发生军事政变，曼谷的大学里爆发了大规模的学生运动，军队镇压，死了很多人。大批学生和知识分子逃进丛林，加入泰共。武装力量从几千人急速膨胀到八千人，控制区域波及泰国将近一半的省份。泰国政府一度非常紧张，认为革命真的要来了。
但1979年，一切在几个月之内就结束了。
中国决定联合泰国共同对抗越南，不能再维持对泰共的支持。泰国人民之声电台停播，所有援助切断。老挝在越南的压力下，把境内的泰共武装全部驱逐出境，泰共失去了最重要的后方基地。没有了援助，没有了退路，泰共迅速瓦解。大部分成员接受政府招安，陆续走出丛林。到1991年，武装力量全部消失。
但有一件事始终是个谜。
泰共1976年之前的领导层几乎全是华人，是中共直接培养或派遣过去的干部。这批人在泰共解散之后，泰国政府没有通缉他们，没有审判他们，连一纸大赦令都没有发，就好像这些人从来不存在一样。他们去了哪里，没有任何公开记录。泰国政府不说，中国政府也不说，双方之间有一种心照不宣的默契，这件事被压在水面以下，从此再没有浮起来。
在中共输出革命的历史里，消失是最好的结局。它意味着你回来之后仍然是自己人，仍然可以在体制内得到妥善安置。那些留下名字的，反而是真正被抛弃的人。陈平留下了名字，所以他死在泰国。泰共的华人领导层没有留下名字，所以他们安静地回来了，从历史记录里消失，在另一个地方重新开始。
马共打了六十四年，从1925年建党到1989年解散。泰共打了二十五年，从1965年到1991年。这两个中共最忠诚的亲儿子，一生都在按照北京的指令行事。北京说打，他们打。北京说停，他们停。他们从来没有真正独立过，从来没有根据自己的判断做过一个重要决定。
最后，马共的普通战士老死在异国他乡改造成旅游景点的村子里，泰共的华人领导层悄无声息地消失在历史记录里，那些在丛林里死去的人，连名字都没有留下。
棋子就是棋子，用完了就该收起来。至于棋子自己怎么想，从来不在棋手的考虑之内。
编辑：李晶 校对：周敏 翻译：戈冰
The Party’s Pawns: A Secret History of the CCP’s Export of Revolution
Author: Tuo Xianrun
Part Two: The Fate of the Biological Son—The Communist Party of Malaya and the Communist Party of Thailand
In 1961, Chin Peng, the Secretary-General of the Communist Party of Malaya (CPM), secretly arrived in Beijing.
The purpose of his visit was very clear: to tell the Chinese comrades that the CPM could no longer keep fighting. From a force of over 10,000 at the end of World War II, they had dwindled to fewer than 600 men hiding out in the jungles along the Thailand-Malaya border. They had fought for over a decade, yet had achieved absolutely nothing. The British had left, Malaya had achieved independence, and the new government’s counter-insurgency campaigns against the CPM were becoming increasingly effective. The number of people in the jungle grew fewer by the day, and securing supplies became harder and harder. Chin Peng was prepared to announce the abandonment of armed struggle and lead the remaining men out to negotiate, in order to trade their weapons for a path to survival.
The person who received him was Deng Xiaoping.
Deng Xiaoping told him: The situation in Southeast Asia is on the verge of a massive shift, becoming increasingly favorable to communism; do not alter your policies, and you must keep fighting on.
Chin Peng went back and kept fighting.
Eighteen years later, in 1979, Chin Peng was summoned once again to meet with Deng Xiaoping. This time, Deng Xiaoping told him: China will no longer support the CPM; you will have to find your own way.
Two conversations, with the exact same person, yielding entirely opposite directives. No one has ever tallied how many people died between these two conversations, and no one cared.
The history of the CPM was planted with the seeds of tragedy from its very first day.
In 1925, Borodin, a representative of the Communist International, dispatched an assistant southward to the South Seas (Nanyang), establishing the Nanyang Communist Branch in Singapore. This was the earliest predecessor of the CPM. From day one, it was an overseas branch of the Chinese Communist Party; it did not grow naturally from the soil of Malaya, but was planted there. In 1930, under the stewardship of Ho Chi Minh, the Nanyang Communist Party was formally reorganized into the Communist Party of Malaya. The party members were almost exclusively overseas Chinese, the leadership was entirely Chinese, the funding for building the party came from China, and the political program was dictated by China.
This congenital condition later became a fatal weakness that the CPM could never escape. The Malaysian government framed the CPM’s armed struggle as a war of Chinese domination over the Malays, making it impossible for the CPM to ever truly mobilize the local masses. The banner you flew was that of communist revolution, but the local Malays saw only a group of Chinese wielding guns coming to rule over them; politically, this war was already half-lost from the start.
Yet, during the Japanese occupation of Malaya, the CPM briefly became the most critical armed force on this land. The British provided them with weapons, and the CPM formed the Malayan Peoples’ Anti-Japanese Army (MPAJA), which controlled over two-thirds of the territory on the Malay Peninsula, with armed personnel exceeding 10,000. That was the only period in the history of the CPM where they were truly powerful, and it was also the closest they ever came to victory.
Then, a man named Lai Teck appeared.
Lai Teck was an overseas Chinese of Vietnamese nationality who claimed to be a representative of the Communist International. When he entered the CPM, it happened to be during a hiatus when all communication between the Chinese Communist Party and Malaya had been completely severed, so absolutely no one could verify his identity. Relying on this status, he established a firm foothold within the CPM and made his way all the way up to Secretary-General.
No one knew that he was simultaneously working for the French, the British, and the Japanese.
In February 1942, the CPM decided to convene a secret meeting at a place called Batu Caves, attended by most of the high-ranking commanders of the CPM and the Anti-Japanese Army. The Japanese received advance notice, surrounded the site, and slaughtered everyone down to the last man. That was the most tragic and horrific purge in the history of the CPM, where virtually all of its core backbone died. Lai Teck was originally supposed to attend, but at the last minute claimed his car had broken down and failed to show up.
After the war, once again in the name of a Communist International representative, he persuaded the CPM to disband the armed forces they had painstakingly built up, saying they should pursue the path of legal struggle and avoid direct confrontation with the new colonial government. The CPM believed him and handed over their guns. Then, he absconded with all of the party’s funds and vanished.
In 1947, he was recognized in Bangkok, Thailand, by members of the Communist Party of Thailand, who pursued him and shot him dead right on the street.
Only after Lai Teck’s death did the CPM begin a thorough investigation, discovering that behind every single thing he had done back then lay the shadow of betrayal. The massacre at Batu Caves, the disbanding of the armed forces—every time the CPM suffered a heavy blow, Lai Teck was the biggest beneficiary. But by this time, the man was dead, the evidence was gone, and everything could only be a matter of inference.
It took the CPM a full decade just to stand back up from the destruction caused by Lai Teck. During these ten years, a foreign spy had hollowed out the CPM, a fact which in itself illustrated the fundamental problem of the CPM: it lacked roots truly dug into the soil of Malaya; stripped of Beijing’s command and protection, it was nothing more than a heap of loose sand.
After Lai Teck was gone, the true terminator of the CPM emerged. This person was not the British military, nor was it the Malaysian government, but a young lawyer named Lee Kuan Yew.
In the early 1950s, Lee Kuan Yew returned from studying at Cambridge in the United Kingdom and began practicing law in Singapore. He took the initiative to approach the front organizations of the CPM, as well as various left-wing trade unions and labor groups, offering to help them fight lawsuits and providing free legal aid. He moved like a fish in water within these organizations, quickly becoming the person with the most extensive network of contacts in Singapore’s left-wing circles.
Then he put forward a proposal: to establish a legal political party called the People’s Action Party (PAP), and to strive for political power through parliamentary elections. His reasoning was solid—the CPM was an illegal organization that could not enter parliament and could only fight guerrilla warfare in the jungles, and guerrilla warfare had already proven to be unviable. It would be better, he argued, to take the legal route and channel their strength into the system. The people of the CPM felt that this line of thinking made sense, so they began to support him with all their might, helping him canvass votes, helping him organize workers and students, and building up his popularity bit by bit.
In 1959, the People’s Action Party won the Singapore general election, and Lee Kuan Yew became the Prime Minister of the State of Singapore.
Once political power was in his hands, Lee Kuan Yew began to take action.
The way he took action was one by one; it was not a blanket sweep, but rather precision strikes. First were those with a CPM background—anyone with organizational ties was arrested across the board and thrown into prison, detained indefinitely without trial. Some were locked up for over a decade, some were detained until their hair turned white, and some were detained until they died in prison. The Internal Security Act gave him this power; no evidence was required, no court of law was needed, a single piece of written order was enough.
Next were the people dispatched by the Chinese Communist Party’s southern intelligence system, which was that group of underground workers appearing in the capacities of scholars, teachers, and journalists. This group of people he did not imprison; instead, he politely deported them, seeing them off with utmost courtesy, even bidding them farewell before they left. Nanyang University was at that time the most important education and training base for the Chinese Communist Party in Malaya; Lee Kuan Yew shut it down directly, claiming it was to be merged into the University of Singapore, offering a high-sounding rationale that no one could refute to his face.
Finally, there were those left-wing colleagues who had once helped him campaign, helped him canvass votes, and sent him into parliament. Among these people were his comrades-in-arms, his friends, and those who had stood up to support him in his darkest hours. He sent them into prison one by one under the charges of colluding with the Communist Party and threatening national security. Some of them stayed in prison for nearly thirty years, and were already old men by the time they came out.
Lee Kuan Yew was later hailed by many as a rare political genius in the ethnic Chinese world. This assessment is probably correct. But the price of genius was borne with their entire lives by those who had helped him. The CPM and the left-wing forces sent him into parliament, and he used their corpses to consolidate his own power, subsequently establishing an efficient authoritarian system unique in the ethnic Chinese world.
The CPM in Singapore was thus completely wiped out.
Having lost Singapore, the CPM retreated into the jungles of the Malay Peninsula to keep fighting. But they faced a dilemma that was fundamentally unresolvable: the leadership was Chinese, and waging an armed revolution in a Malay-majority country would forever be framed as an invasion by foreign forces. They persisted in the jungles, persisting year after year; their numbers grew fewer and fewer, supplies became increasingly difficult, and their connections to the outside world grew weaker and weaker.
What life in the jungle was like has rarely been described. Most of those who stayed inside for decades left no written records. Occasionally, someone would reminisce, speaking of the perennially damp jungle, decaying leaves, food that was never enough, and nerves that were constantly on high alert. They married, bore children, and grew old, spending the best years of their lives inside that jungle. Their children were born in the jungle, and some of these children had never even seen the outside world.
All of this was because of Deng Xiaoping’s phrase back in 1961: “you must keep fighting on.”
In 1979, Deng Xiaoping visited Singapore. Lee Kuan Yew told him to his face: If you want to build good relations with ASEAN countries, you must stop supporting the communist parties in Southeast Asia. Deng Xiaoping agreed, and then summoned Chin Peng, telling him that China would no longer support the CPM.
The secret base that China had established for the CPM in Yiyang, Hunan was shut down, the Voice of the Malayan Revolution radio station ceased broadcasting, and all weapon supplies and funding were completely cut off. CPM cadres who had been trained in China were repatriated; those CPM cadres who had spent many years in China and learned to speak fluent Mandarin discovered overnight that they had nowhere to go.
Having endured for another ten years, in 1989, the CPM finally reached the end of the line.
Under the witness of the Thai government, the CPM and the Malaysian government signed a peace agreement. The CPM announced its dissolution, its members laid down their arms, and swore allegiance to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong (Supreme Head of State) of Malaysia. In exchange, the Malaysian government promised not to pursue legal liability, offered a sum of resettlement compensation to those willing to return to the country, and allocated several plots of land for those staying in Thailand to reside on.
At the time of dissolution, there were still about 1,000-odd people left, a mere fraction of the original 10,000-plus force.
One part of the population returned to Malaysia, collected their money, found a place to live out their days, and never mentioned the past again. The other part remained at the border of southern Thailand, moving into several villages allocated by the Thai government. These villages were later bestowed with the name of a Thai princess and transformed into tourist attractions called the Princess Chulabhorn Villages, totaling four villages. Tourists go there to drink coffee, take photos, and buy local souvenirs made by the residents; no one tells them what was once buried in the soil beneath their feet, nor would they ask.
Chin Peng wanted to return to Malaysia, but was rejected by the government. He waited in Thailand for many years and passed away in Bangkok in 2013, ultimately failing to return home. He was forty years old when he went to Beijing to meet Deng Xiaoping for the first time, and eighty-eight when he died. Throughout these forty-eight years, he handed over the best years of his life entirely to a war destined to fail, and how long this war would be fought, or to what extent it would be waged, was never something he could decide.
The story of the Communist Party of Thailand (CPT) is highly similar to that of the CPM, only its ending is even more bizarre.
The CPT was even more pure-bred than the CPM. It was directly established by the Nanyang Branch of the Chinese Communist Party in 1926, and formally founded as a party in 1942. Its first Secretary-General, Li Qixin, was a CCP member who later returned to China to serve as the Deputy Director of the Xinhua News Agency Hong Kong Branch. What the Xinhua News Agency Hong Kong Branch was during that era is perfectly understood by anyone in the know—it was the core agency of the CCP’s intelligence and united front system in Hong Kong, operating under the cover of a news organization while actually carrying out intelligence work. The CPT’s first Secretary-General was himself a man of the intelligence system. What kind of relationship such a party shared with the CCP goes without saying.
In 1960, the Sino-Soviet split occurred, and communist parties worldwide were forced to declare their stance and choose a side; the CPT was the first communist party in Southeast Asia to openly support China. No discussion was needed, and no consideration was required, because they were simply a part of the CCP system. In 1962, China established the Voice of the People of Thailand radio station in Yunnan and began broadcasting revolutionary propaganda to Thailand. In 1965, the CPT formally commenced its armed struggle, with China providing training, weapons, and funds in full support.
The CPT fought for ten years, advancing steadily and building quite stable base areas in the mountainous regions of northern and northeastern Thailand. The year 1976 was the highest highlight of their history. That year, a military coup occurred in Thailand, and a large-scale student movement erupted in the universities of Bangkok; the military suppressed it, and many people died. Large numbers of students and intellectuals fled into the jungles to join the CPT. The armed forces rapidly swelled from a few thousand to 8,000 men, and their controlled areas expanded to affect nearly half of Thailand’s provinces. The Thai government was highly tense for a time, believing that the revolution was truly coming.
But in 1979, everything was over within a matter of a few months.
China decided to unite with Thailand to jointly confront Vietnam, and could no longer maintain its support for the CPT. The Voice of the People of Thailand radio station ceased broadcasting, and all aid was cut off. Under pressure from Vietnam, Laos expelled all CPT armed forces within its borders, causing the CPT to lose its most vital rear base. Without aid and without a path of retreat, the CPT disintegrated rapidly. Most members accepted the government’s offer of amnesty and left the jungles one after another. By 1991, the armed forces had completely vanished.
Yet, one matter has remained a mystery from beginning to end.
The leadership of the CPT prior to 1976 was almost entirely composed of ethnic Chinese, who were cadres directly trained or dispatched by the CCP. After the CPT dissolved, the Thai government did not place these people on wanted lists, did not put them on trial, and did not even issue a single amnesty decree, acting as if these individuals had never existed. Where they went has no public record whatsoever. The Thai government does not speak of it, and the Chinese government does not speak of it either; there is a tacit understanding between the two sides, and this matter was pressed beneath the surface of the water, never to float up again.
In the history of the CCP exporting revolution, vanishing is the best outcome. It means that after you return, you are still one of our own, and you can still be properly settled within the system. Those who left behind their names, conversely, are the ones who were truly abandoned. Chin Peng left behind his name, so he died in Thailand. The ethnic Chinese leadership of the CPT did not leave behind their names, so they returned quietly, vanishing from historical records to start anew in another place.
The CPM fought for sixty-four years, from its party founding in 1925 to its dissolution in 1989. The CPT fought for twenty-five years, from 1965 to 1991. These two most loyal, biological sons of the CCP spent their entire lives acting in accordance with Beijing’s directives. When Beijing said fight, they fought. When Beijing said stop, they stopped. They were never truly independent, and they never made a single major decision based on their own judgment.
In the end, the ordinary soldiers of the CPM grew old and died in foreign villages that had been transformed into tourist attractions, the ethnic Chinese leadership of the CPT quietly vanished from historical records, and those who died in the jungles did not even leave behind their names.
Chess pieces are just chess pieces; when they are used up, they ought to be put away. As for what the chess pieces themselves think, it is never within the consideration of the chess player.
Editor: Li Jing Proofreader: Zhou Min Translator: Ge Bing
