“If The United States Attacked China, I Would Surrender”

The following is a famous post allegedly written by someone from China’s prestigious Peking University that has circulated on the Chinese internet many times before, regularly reappearing every so often.

On Tiexue, ChinaRen, Tianya, & KDS:

Famous Beida [Beijing/Peking University] Post: If the American military were to attack China, I would surrender to them

If the United States of America were to attack China, I would just run with my girlfriend to her home. My girlfriend’s home is in the mountains, and there is nothing of value there, but there is food and water. This way, America will never send its Tomahawk guided missiles there. Then our entire family will be guaranteed to be out of harm’s way.

As long as we’re not hit by a Tomahawk missile, there won’t be much to be afraid of. I know now from watching television that the American military is not like the Japanese military in the past. They won’t burn, kill, and rape, no Three Alls Policy. During the Korean War, why did the Chinese fight America so desperately? It was because at the time, the government had propaganda that seriously vilified America, and the people at the time all thought that if America captured China, the things they would do would be even worse than what Little Japan did. This was the misunderstanding of a Chinese people who did not understand America at the time. On the contrary, America’s military was doing its best to avoid hurting innocent people, giving food and water, saving the dying and healing the injured, better than China’s “government forces”. So what is there to be afraid of. Just sit at home and wait for America to defeat China.

For this country, it doesn’t matter who is the government. Because I have always been a docile citizen [someone who readily submits to invaders or new regimes], having been one for decades now, it is all the same who I am a docile citizen for. Besides, being a docile citizen for America or an “American puppet government” might mean my life will be a bit better. Aren’t the common people of Afghanistan doing much better than when they were under the Taliban?

If the government isn’t willing to let me go, insisting on giving me a gun and forcing me onto the battlefield, then of course I can only grit my teeth and go. However, I will definitely not go be a hero, like being a “suicide bomber” or anything. Even if they gave me 300 or 400 thousand American dollars, I would not go do it. I will just roar with the crowd. When everyone is charging forth, I will run along. When everyone is retreating, I will lead the way. I imagine when the time comes where someone like me is needed to go on the battlefield, the country will already almost be done for, and the military would collapse on the battlefield. Nor will I follow everyone into the mountains to fight a guerrilla war. I will raise my hands and surrender to the American army, and open the path for them.

There’s nothing bad about being a prisoner of war. In the prison camps, there is food, clothes, safety, and most importantly, you can survive. Stay alive and then be a docile citizen. Besides, I have a wife and kids at home, so for me, they are a hundred times more important than some country or nation.

There will definitely be many patriots cursing me as a Chinese traitor, but go ahead, I don’t care, because this country has nothing to do with me. I am just a small, lowly docile citizen, something I am certain of from the bottom of my heart. After decades, I have seen through this government, and I am no longer that 20-something young patriot I used to be.

In the past, I too did not know this. When I was a student, I too was like the anti-American people on the internet these days, a hot-blooded youth. Back then, my schoolmates and I thought of ourselves as the country’s pillar, that we should devote our lives to the country, and because of this, was so presumptuous as to make demands of our master, not expecting that the moment I said to the master: “Master, your clothes are a little dirty,” I was immediately slapped two times across the face and my mouth stuffed with stinking horse shit. From that moment on, I suddenly woke up, and realized just exactly what I actually was.

Turns out, I am just meant to be a docile citizen, and the matters of the country actually have nothing to do with me. So why should I care for something that doesn’t care for me? From that moment on, I became honest and wholeheartedly embraced being a docile citizen. I don’t care who my master is. Whoever wants to be my master, I will be their docile citizen.

However, docile citizens still have a docile citizen’s principle. The principle of docile citizens is: Only sell our dignity, but not our lives. If the master does not treat me as a person, I won’t treat myself as a person either. Human rights and the like, I have never been interested in.

But if the master tells me to give up my life for him, I will resolutely refuse. My life is my own, not something given by the master.

The master normally does not treat me as a person, only having me be totally subservient, not allowed to say what I want or do what I want. But when the day comes when the country is no longer stable, when the government is in trouble, and it wants to treat me as a person, asking me to do my duty, at that time I will apologize and say to the master: “What were you doing before? Now, I’m sorry, but old me no longer waits on you.”

Therefore, I will surrender to the American military! And open the path for them!

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