Situation.  The Chinese Communist Party is now at its greatest point of potential failure.   COVID-19 has exposed the CCP’s ill will toward USA and the rest of the world.  CCP leadership’s open distortion of facts, aggressions, and coercions has amplified its intentions to continue its strategy of global dominance regardless of the countless lives it will undoubtedly cost.

In this context, current CCP leaders, the CCP itself, the People’s Republic of China, and the Chinese People have vulnerabilities to be targeted and exploited.  While the CCP leadership wields great power and advantage, it does so “on feet of clay.”

Focus.  A large mass of vulnerabilities becomes the strong basis for counter-balancing whatever advantages the CCP’s leadership has accomplished to date over USA, like-minded allies, and the rest of the world.

Categories.  In weighing these vulnerabilities, the following categories emerge as a baseline to exploit:

• Innate vulnerabilities.  These have to do with culturally- and philosophically- entrenched mentalities and methods.
• Irreversible vulnerabilities.  These are ones that can only be overcome by destroying the system.
• Regenerative vulnerabilities.  These are self-perpetuating mentalities and practices that strengthen or reinforce vulnerabilities.
• Blind vulnerabilities.  These have to do with lack of self-awareness in a highly interactive, globalized environment.
• Vacuum-related dependencies. These are ones that have evolved by dependency on near-perfect artificial conditions contrived by the CCP as well as accommodated by the international community. 
• Overreach-related dependencies.  The CCP is over-extended globally.  The CCP cannot secure all that it touches and initially controls or influences.
• Thin command and control-dependent vulnerabilities.   This focuses on the reality that the CCP’s success is dependent on coercive control of a very thin caste of powerful elites at home and abroad.
• Vulnerabilities targetable by American citizens and others.  These are the ones that afford citizens from Main Street to Wall Street to take independent action with extraordinary clout.

In reviewing the following functional lists of vulnerabilities, some vulnerabilities fall into several of the eight categories above. These are consequently more at risk and attackable.

Organization.

• Fatal Flaws
• Macro Facts
• Survival
• Economics
• Warfare
• Command and Control
• Fears
• Citizens’ Clout
• Implications
• Final Comments

Fatal Flaws.  The following vulnerabilities reflect imbedded flaws in the CCP’s mentality and model.  The integral nature of these for the CCP’s success constitutes a system ultimately organized against itself.  This means long-term, sustainable success cannot happen.  The CCP’s exclusionist model is not repeatable by others.  However… the USA’s model is.  https://thechinafactor.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/012-Fatal-Flaws.pdf

Macro Facts.  The linkage of the following facts provides a set of vulnerabilities that make the Chinese Communist Party highly vulnerable.  https://thechinafactor.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/012-Macro-Facts.pdf

Survival.  China has many vulnerabilities that suggest the need to create goodwill in global relationships.  The CCP leadership has done the exact opposite of this. It opted for a strategy of deception.  This now places the CCP’s survival and China’s well-being in jeopardy.  https://thechinafactor.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/012-Survival.pdf

Economics.  The CCP’s brilliant economic strategy as “war by other means” has been predicated on the imperative to dupe and coerce the rest of the world.  The impracticality of this is now being born out.  The CCP’s philosophy and practices are toxic for globalized economics.  “Made in China” now reveals itself as “Had by China.”  https://thechinafactor.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/012-Economics.pdf

Warfare.  A combination of vulnerabilities reveals that China is overextended globally and subject to revolt and resistance on its mainland and among near perimeter nations.  This is so without the military capacity to contest this.  It cannot protect its overseas holdings due to a lack of credible military power projection and presence.  https://thechinafactor.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/012-Warfare.pdf

Command and Control (C2).  In a globalized context, command has to do with commanding respect and allegiances.  Control involves controlling good will and outcomes.  The CCP’s model is incapable of this.   https://thechinafactor.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/012-Command-and-Control.pdf

Fears.  The CCP leadership is hobbled by a combination of fears, which reinforce its tendency to rely more heavily on deception; coercion; and oppression.  This traps the CCP leadership in paranoia-based rationalization in all competitive and combative matters.  This rationalization strengthens top-down authoritarian control of all matters, which, despite the CCP’s strengths, greatly limits its options.  https://thechinafactor.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/012-Fears.pdf

Citizen Clout.  The American citizen and counterparts in other countries around the world, by virtue of purchasing, investment, and voting power have massive power potential yet to be wielded.  https://thechinafactor.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/012-Citizen-Clout.pdf

Implications.

• Tradition.  Half a century of deceptive habits is now systemic.  The CCP leadership is stuck with their narrow coercive mentality, model, and methods.  No quick fixes.

• Flipped Strengths.  Today China and the CCP have an expanding persona non grata image.  This is the result of a global community punished by both COVID-19 and the CCP’s exposed strategy of global dominance.  By continuing exposures, many of the CCP’s contrived strengths have flipped into vulnerabilities.  The CCP’s near-fatal dependency on these false strengths unbalance CCP in ways that make it difficult to systemically recover.  Today the aggression by the CCP is a reflection of the extent of its fears.   The issue here becomes one of the durability of CCP’s actual strengths.

• Defendability.  Since the CCP has been on the offense, and since many of its strengths have been flipped into vulnerabilities, the CCP leadership faces a totally new competitive context in which it must now “defend the indefensible.”  This is a radical shift for them.  “Defending exposed lies” is a completely different game from “Exploiting hidden lies and deceptions.”

Final Comments.

• Wake up.  Given the CCP has proven unambiguous aggression against USA to dominate it, it makes no sense to allow China’s navy to get stronger and more globally active.  This is strategic folly.  

• Regime Change.  The current leadership of the CCP is the proximate cause of China becoming America’s most threatening existential threat there is.  According to the main anti-communist alliance spanning the S and SE Asia region, “China has been shaking from its Politburo to the top CCP leadership.  It is the right time to remove this evil regime… It is vital to engage and assist the neutral and reformist sections within the CCP, to this end.”

• Hatred.  The CCP is widely hated across this region, because the CCP’s strategic aims involve subordination of everyone.  There is extraordinary power potential to be harnessed here.  This will require USA and allies engaging both at and below nation-state level.

• Backlash.  While various nations, alliances, and associations cannot diplomatically state what they honestly feel, members within these entities are heavily anti-CCP and pro-West, especially in business and religious communities.  There are long-standing anti-China and anti-CCP alliances to be engaged and enabled.  This can have a “swarming effect” that USA itself is incapable of mounting and sustaining.

• Hong Kong.  Hong Kong is a main battle front today.  It is vital to massify any and all competencies, capabilities, and capacities among like-minded allies in support of its freedom-seeking citizens.  This can “beard the lion in its den” to keep the CCP reactive.

• Crimes.  Open up an offensive to isolate the CCP for its violations of The Rome Statute for genocide and crimes against humanity.  The evidence is massive.  Weaponize it and debunk all CCP propaganda as to its legitimacy in the global community.  Morally isolate the CCP.

• 3-Way Quandary.  CCP leadership has little choice but to face the reality that their mentality, model and methods are anathema to globalization.  Trust is gone.  This puts the People’s Republic of China in a three-way survival quandary:  Current regime survival vs CCP survival vs China Survival.  The sum of the CPP’s aggressions and deceptions now comes back hard at all in China[MT1] .

• Authoritarian Triad Plus.  By this dilemma, the CCP has little choice but to strengthen collaboration with Russia and Iran as a baseline authoritarian block against USA and The West.  Many of the CCP’s authoritarian weaknesses apply to both these powers.  This reality bids USA’s decisiveness in making a fundamental shift on how to deal with authoritarian regimes bent on weakening USA and coercing the rest of the global community.  The implications demand daring innovation with all traditional elements of national power, as well as deft wielding of a broad range of new partners and “borrowed swords” in common cause.  Collaborative authoritarian power blocks are an extraordinary existential threat.  Issue:  Delay and face this later after they are more powerful or fully face this now and get on with it.

• Fear Factor.  Given its significant advantages, the Chinese Communist Party has equally significant vulnerable points for massive targeting.  The CCP is also vulnerable by the fact that it has not yet experienced a determined adversary willing to take strong action against both its strengths and weaknesses.  Moreover, the CCP has not experienced irregular warfare and competitive methods used against China.  There are other factors to be exploited, because more than anything else, the CCP is driven by fear.  Allowing the CCP to recover and become stronger would be a strategic mistake.  There are moderates and reformists in the Communist Party.  These need to replace the radical conservatives presently in power.  They will never be able to do so until and unless USA goes after current rogue CCP leadership in detail.  There is no middle ground in this, though such matters as rare earth mineral monopolies and other US dependencies remain problematic.

• Counterintelligence.  China and its allies have massive intelligence networks operating in US and among its allies.  It is essential to drastically reduce these by laws, penalties, exclusions, isolations, disincentives, and restrictions that are not presently in being and or are not being enforced.