Experts Lay Out Plan for Post-CCP China

WASHINGTON—The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) rule won’t last forever, and the United States should start preparing for the day when China is free of communism, said experts at a recent Hudson Institute event.

Having that discussion is essential, as a sudden regime collapse in China could also prove to be “very formidable,” said Miles Yu, former adviser to former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and director of the China Center at the Hudson Institute.

Decades of the CCP’s repressive rule have created “scars and institutional flaws that could be very dangerous to the rest of the world, too,” he said at the event titled “After the Fall: Planning for a Post-Communist China.”

“We have to think about the same kind of formidable task that the world faced after, say, the regime collapse of Nazi Germany, imperial Japan, and even the collapse of Soviet communism in Eastern Europe,” he said.

In each instance, the United States dealt with the question of how to stabilize the country and “transition those societies into normal members of the international community,” he noted.

“Totalitarian regimes can collapse anytime,” and the CCP thinks about that possibility all the time, Yu pointed out.

“Every day, it lives in paranoia,” he said.

Gordon Chang, senior fellow at the Gatestone Institute and author of “The Coming Collapse of China,” echoed Yu’s remarks, saying that the communist authorities are “very, very insecure in Beijing.”

“Right now, we’re seeing the Communist Party in turmoil. Suppose the infighting gets worse, who knows what’s going to happen,” Chang told The Epoch Times.

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The regime change could go from either top down or bottom up, he said, and there’s “only a million ways that this can happen.”

Chang pointed to the months-long protests in China in late 2022, sparked by widespread frustration at the regime’s harsh COVID-19 restrictions that deprived many of access to food and critical medicine. Protesters in some places went so far as to demand that the CCP step down.

“The Chinese people are not happy,” he said.

“The regime is putting so much effort into keeping China together; it means the place is unstable.”

Much like with East Germany and the Soviet Union, the CCP’s demise probably won’t happen in slow motion, Chang said.

“I think when it happens, we’re going to be taken by surprise,” he said. “All of a sudden, bam, it happens. That’s how these things play out.”

Financial Security

In the event of the CCP’s collapse, the United States should act swiftly to seize Chinese assets within the country, starting with Chinese banks, according to Chang.

According to an April report by S&P Global Market Intelligence, the world’s four largest banks by assets in 2024 were China’s state-owned banks. Industrial and Commercial Bank of China had assets of nearly $6.7 trillion; in comparison, the biggest U.S. bank, JPMorgan Chase, had more than $4 trillion in assets.

China’s foreign exchange reserve stood at $3.28 trillion in May, the largest in the world, according to Chinese official data.

In the aftermath of a collapse, some factions vying for power in China could potentially loot Chinese banks to fund their political ambitions, Chang said, or they could exploit the country’s foreign exchange reserves to increase volatility around the world.

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China expert Gordon Chang speaks at the Hudson Institute during an event called "After the Fall: Planning for a Post-Communist China" in Washington on July 16, 2025. Madalina Kilroy/The Epoch Times

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“Time is of the essence,” he said. As the “ultimate guarantor of financial security around the world,” the U.S. federal regulators should secure assets, expecting other countries to follow the United States’ lead.

Likewise, the Treasury Department should also seize Chinese foreign exchange reserves and coordinate with authorities in known Chinese tax havens, such as London, to look out for disruptive activities, he said.

To safeguard U.S. food security, Chang suggested that the United States seize ownership of Virginia-based Smithfield Foods, the largest pork producer in the United States, which China’s meat processor WH Group purchased for $4.7 billion in 2013.

Governance

Other suggested focuses for the transition include restructuring and downsizing the Chinese military, as well as bringing accountability for human rights abuses.

Nina Shea, senior fellow and director of the Center for Religious Freedom at Hudson Institute, said she hopes to see the United States take immediate steps to pressure the CCP to release religious and political prisoners, such as nine Catholic bishops, labor camp detainees in Xinjiang, and pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong.

To stop the regime’s state-sanctioned forced organ harvesting, hospitals and transplant centers in China should suspend organ transplant surgeries until they prove they are sourcing organs from voluntary donors, she said, and houses of worship that have been shut down should reopen.

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A detention facility in the northwestern Xinjiang region, China, on July 19, 2023. Pedro Pardo/AFP via Getty Images

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There’s also the question of how the different ethnic groups in China envision their future government.

Shea said that she expected Hong Kong and at least three of the five autonomous regions under the CCP—Inner Mongolia, Ningxia, and Xinjiang—to seek independence. Forced cultural assimilation in Inner Mongolia and Ningxia, and the genocidal campaign in Xinjiang, have led to widespread distrust in these areas in any potential new central authority, she said.

She said Hong Kong would likely be at the forefront in seizing any opportunity for autonomy. With its recent democratic experience, high degree of human development, and the vibrant economy—until the CCP crushed its freedoms—the city is the most likely to succeed, she said.

For each region seeking secession, the United States should weigh the viability based on the will of the people residing there, regional conditions, and a set of guidelines reflecting U.S. interests, Shea added.

The panelists deliberated on whether the country could become a “United States of China,” with each region retaining autonomy. One challenge, however, is the lack of a shared ideal, such as democracy and freedoms like those in America, Shea said.

Shea and Yu both agreed that the people will shape the future of a post-CCP China.

“If they want to be a part of the federated state, that’s fine; if not, just be independent,” Yu told The Epoch Times.

“Again, let people decide.”

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