Jack Belden擔心中共會走向原來理想的反面，實行暴政，也不幸言中。

“The Communists took power by making love to the people of China,” and “won the people to their cause” by meeting their needs better. But in order to do so, Mao and the Party built a “wholly new power apparatus.” They may have sincerely intended to represent the interests of the common people but their new power apparatus would also “elude their intentions and tend to exist for its own sake.” He warned that “there may arise a new elite, a set of managers standing above the Chinese masses”, bringing a danger that “rulers not subject to democratic checks” may “confusing themselves with God”, “expand their private viewpoints into an arbitrary vision of what society should be..., force their dreams on others, blunder into grave political mistakes and finally plunge into outright tyranny.”