Wang Chu wrote a very interesting article on Asia Times Online today:
“Over the past few years, Chinese scholars have begun to re-examine the cause of the collapse of the former superpower Soviet Union and the Eastern European bloc from an independent and academic perspective. Their conclusions do not necessarily coincide with the established version published in the Chinese Communist Party’s propaganda leaflets. These intrepid Chinese scholars may have set foot in one of the biggest forbidden political zones.
According to well-placed sources, some Chinese academics now embrace the opinions of two American researchers who argue that the breakdown of the Soviet Union resulted from the emergence of various interest groups within the establishment, groups that had lost their faith in socialism. This contrasts with the generally accepted official position that the collapse of the Soviet Union was brought about by a so-called “peaceful evolution” by Western powers. It has been learned that some communist officials share the view that loss of faith in socialism is what ultimately brought down the Soviet state.”
