The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) “will kill as many as it has to kill, to preserve its power,” according to Alan Kors, a professor emeritus of history at the University of Pennsylvania. “When it faces a choice between further prosperity, further liberalization of an economy and the loss of political power, [the CCP] will place everything on the preservation of political power,” Kors, co-chair at Washington-based advocacy group Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation (VOC), told EpochTV’s “China Insider” program on Jan. 25. Since 1978, the CCP implemented a series of economic policies as part of its “reform and opening up.” Many Western intellectuals believed this reform would naturally lead China to liberalize politically, and eventually result in democracy. However, Kors argued throughout the 1980s that this would not happen, as the “critical variable” of Chinese communism was the preservation of power. He believes the events that followed proved him right. …