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【Text/Zhang Jingjuan, Observer.com】According to reports from CNN, the Associated Press and other media on the 30th, Paul Dans, the head of the "Project 2025" of the US right-wing conservative think tank, resigned amid strong criticism, including from former US President Trump. The full text of the plan that Dans was in charge of is 922 pages in total, in which the word "China" appears 483 times. The South China Morning Post previously reported that he showed "shocking malice" in his China policy.

Dance was a senior aide to Trump. He was in charge of the "2025 Plan", a series of policy proposals initiated by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank in the United States.

Since its founding in 1973, the Heritage Foundation has used its resources and influence to advance its conservative agenda in all aspects of American life, chief among them opposition to abortion, climate policy, anti-gay propaganda, and calls for an expansion of the military budget and Washington's military role around the world.

According to reports, Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts confirmed to CNN that Dance has resigned and will leave the organization.

"Under Dance's leadership, Project 2025 has accomplished what it set out to do," Roberts said. "It is a plan that any future administration can use."

A Heritage Foundation spokesman reportedly said that despite Dance's withdrawal, work on the current phase of Project 2025, which is seeking to find loyal conservatives across the country to fill out the Trump administration, will continue.

In April 2023, the Heritage Foundation released a 992-page conceptual document for the "2025 Plan" that was supported by dozens of right-wing groups.

The document emphasizes that any conservative president can inherit and implement the project, and does not explicitly point out a direct link with Trump's policies. However, judging from the content, most of the document is closely related to Trump's policy goals, and covers election issues including abortion, immigration governance, changing the way the FBI operates, and abolishing the Department of Education.

Al Jazeera said the plans to accuse the US government reflect a long-standing left-wing movement that has controlled the federal government, is hostile to American citizens, besieges their freedoms and imposes strange liberal values ​​on them.

In the opening section of the plan, Roberts succinctly summarized the goal of the "2025 Plan": a commitment to make the United States a conservative country. To this end, the next presidential administration must focus on four major areas that will determine the future of the United States, including restoring the family as the center of American life and protecting children; abolishing the administrative state and returning autonomy to the American people; defending national sovereignty, borders and resources from global threats; and ensuring the individual rights given by God and guaranteed by the Constitution to live freely.

The Associated Press believes that the "2025 Plan" is a potential far-right White House, and outside groups will be ready to take action if Trump wins a second term.

"History tells us that a president's power to execute his agenda peaks in the first days of his administration. Implementation requires a well-thought-out, coordinated, and unified plan and a well-trained, committed staff to carry it out," the plan's introduction reads.

It is reported that in addition to detailed policy recommendations that can be implemented on the first day Trump enters the White House, the plan also aims to establish a huge "Conservative LinkedIn" database to supply the new government with a large number of candidates for positions at all levels. At the same time, it will organize a "Presidential Administrative Academy" to enable right-wing politicians entering the government to quickly master how Washington works through systematic training.

Trump tried to distance himself from the issue, and Democrats used it to attack

Recently, Trump has fiercely criticized the "2025 Plan", saying that some of the ideas in it are "absolutely ridiculous and terrible". He tried his best to distance himself from it and publicly stated on social platforms that he did not know who was behind the plan. Chris LaCivita, a strategic adviser to the Trump campaign team, called the "2025 Plan" a "pain point" for the Trump campaign team.

In a statement, Lacivita and Susie Wiles, another strategic adviser to the Trump campaign, emphasized that "the Trump team has always been very clear that the '2025 Plan' has nothing to do with the campaign, does not represent the campaign, and should not have any association with the campaign or Trump."

However, the so-called "mastermind" behind the plan is actually an old acquaintance of Trump. CNN found that at least 140 people who had worked in the Trump administration were involved in the plan, and dozens of staff members held positions in conservative groups that provided consulting services for the 2025 plan, including Trump's former chief of staff Mark Meadows and long-time adviser Stephen Miller.

Trump is also being "verbally attacked" by the Democratic Party and other left-wing groups because of this extremely conservative plan, which is considered a "governing blueprint." The Associated Press said that the "2025 Plan" is becoming a burden for Trump and the Republican Party.

Vice President Harris, a possible Democratic presidential candidate, directly linked the plan to Trump at her first campaign rally, vowing to "defeat Trump and his extreme '2025' agenda."

Harris, who will take over from Biden, will also make attacking the plan a core part of her early campaign. On the 30th, Harris' campaign team made it clear that the change in leadership will not stop its efforts to share the content of the "2025 Plan" with voters.

"This is his agenda, written by his allies for him to impose on our country. Hiding this agenda from the American people does not make it less real. In fact, it should make voters more concerned about what else Trump and his allies are hiding," said Julie Chavez Rodriguez, Harris' campaign manager.

On the 28th, U.S. Senate Majority Leader and Democrat Schumer also said in an interview that the "2025 Plan" is extreme, and said that the plan shows that the Republican Party and the Trump-Vance campaign combination will deprive women of their rights, deprive working people of their rights, only help the very wealthy, and even pose a threat to our democratic system.

Full of hostility towards China

According to statistics from the South China Morning Post, the word "China" appeared 483 times in the "2025 Plan" document, showing "shocking malice" in its China policy.

Roberts pointed out directly in the preface of the plan that "China is an enemy of the United States, not a strategic partner or fair competitor." Sun Yun, director of the China Project at the Washington think tank Stimson Center, said in an interview with the South China Morning Post that the policy stance on China in the plan is very clear, "China is a threat, not a competitor," and "If Trump is re-elected, the US policy toward China will be tougher, and China should be aware that things will get worse."

In the field of Sino-US trade, Roberts claimed in the plan that "unrestricted trade with China is a disaster", "American factories have closed, jobs have been outsourced, and the manufacturing economy has been financialized. Companies have failed to export our values; instead, they have introduced China's anti-American values ​​into their executive ranks."

On the geopolitical level, Christopher Miller, the former acting Secretary of Defense during the Trump administration, directly provoked China in his plan, declaring that the United States should focus its defense planning on China, especially "effective denial defense against Taiwan." He also called on the Pentagon to actively counter China's "Belt and Road" initiative globally.

In the field of Sino-US technological competition, Brendan Carr, a member of the Federal Communications Commission appointed by Trump, proposed in his plan that TikTok should be banned, and proposed a comprehensive plan to prevent "US entities from directly or indirectly contributing to China's malicious artificial intelligence goals." But in March 2024, Trump himself threw a "boomerang". He posted on social media to oppose the ban on TikTok. By June, Trump himself chose to open a TikTok account in order to win over young voters and his followers increased at a fast speed. At least in terms of banning TikTok, the "plan" really couldn't keep up with the changes.

Regarding this malicious plan, Li Cheng, former director of the John L. Thornton China Center at the Brookings Institution and founding director of the Center for Contemporary China and the World at the University of Hong Kong, told the South China Morning Post that the "2025 Plan" reflects the basic position of the Republican Party, which holds a very hawkish stance on China.

But at the same time, Li Cheng also pointed out that "the concerns about hawkish Republicans are correct, but it is too hasty to say that they are determined to fight China." There are still differences within the Republican Party on the best strategy for dealing with Beijing.

Professor Zhu Feng of Nanjing University emphasized, "For China, I think we really need to be fully prepared." He pointed out that the Heritage Foundation's "2025 Plan" and the recently adopted "Republican Party Platform 2024" both regard suppressing China as an important way for the United States to gain new industrial development and consolidate its global hegemony.

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