The Party’s Over! Rally for a Free China

The Soviet Union, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Romania… when communism passed in these nations, it happened so swiftly that it caught the whole world off guard. The same thing could happen any day now in China.

That was the message of the march and rally in Flushing Saturday to celebrate five million people quitting the Chinese Communist Party in the past year: Communism in China is crumbling, history is happening, and this time the world should take notice. It could all be over in a flash.

Speakers at the rally came from the Bronx, Flushing, New York City… and as far away as Romania and Germany. Assemblymen, human rights activists, and folk singers joined the rally to support the courageous Chinese citizens who have renounced the Chinese Communist Party and to tell the world that a free China is coming, and quickly, and that this is a very good thing for the whole world.

"On the Verge of a Great Change in China"

Fifteen hundred people gathered near the Flushing Mall, after marching through the streets of the city, to hear speakers like Timothy Cooper, Executive Director of Worldrights, a non-governmental organization (NGO) focusing on human rights in China.

Mr.Cooper told the crowd, “There can be no doubt that we are on the verge of a great change in China… and I will do everything in my power to help you win liberty and justice in China.”

Cooper, who successfully for the passage of resolutions on behalf of imprisoned Chinese dissidents by the Parliament of Canada, the U.S House of Representatives, the British House of Commons, and the Taiwan Legislative Yuan, asked the audience, “How does it feel to watch the birth of a new conscience in China?”

Queens Assemblyman William Scarborough waited patiently in the rain for two hours for a chance to address the crowd. “As an African-American, I understand a people struggling to win their freedom. I fully support those that speak out in the face of the Chinese Communist Party’s oppression… I know you will bring freedom to China.”

Chinese people who publicly renounce the CCP do so at great personal risk. Even resigning anonymously by phone, fax or email is dangerous, as the CCP employs hundreds of thousands of special police to monitor these activities. Nonetheless, tens of thousands of Chinese are choosing every day to take the risk and make the choice to renounce their party affiliation, believing that the CCP has brought nothing but harm to China.

Change Could Come Overnight

Californian Steven Ispas, just back from a tour of Eastern Europe where he attended several forums on The Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party (published by The Epoch Times) spoke of the speed with which Communism collapsed in his native Romania in 1989. “When the rest of Eastern Europe rejected Communism, Romania seemed strongly communist, just as China seems strongly communist now. Yet it was only four days from the first protests in Bucharest until the communist dictator was ousted and executed for his crimes. It could happen that fast in China.”

Doctor Torsten Trey from Germany also drew parallels between the collapse of communism in Europe and its coming collapse in China. “Though 1989 was a year of tragedy in China [because of the Tiananmen Square Massacre] it was a year of joy in Germany, as democracy in West Germany won out over communism in East Germany.”

No one expected the Berlin Wall to fall; no one expected the Soviet Union to dissolve; no one in Germany expected the Communist Party in East Germany to collapse, but it’s time had come. “As in Germany in 1989,” said Dr. Trey, “the time is near for communism to fall in China.”

“Communism may have been once an interesting theory by Karl Marx in the 1800s, but it doesn’t actually work. It drives people to take control over others under the guise of equality,” said Stewart Weisman, a local attorney who marched in the parade.

“I’m here to show solidarity with people who have quit the CCP, and in hopes that more people will do so,” said Weisman. Weisman has done work for the World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong, which investigates and collects information surrounding the persecution of people who practice Falun Gong, a meditation practice, in China.

Bronx Assemblyman Michael Benjamin posed the question, “We’re asking for freedom in Iraq, why aren’t we working toward freedom in China?” Benjamin said that he and his wife, a Tai Chi instructor, are very much interested in Chinese culture and Chinese democracy.

“The United States and Europe have a lot of investment in China. We need to use our leverage,” said Benjamin. Assemblyman Benjamin plans on raising support for Democracy in China in the New York State Assembly and issuing a proclamation of support.

Marcher Maria Salzman from Boston grew up in communist Poland. “I still remember the tear gas on the streets as the communists were trying to eradicate the solidarity movement. But this year, we celebrated 25 years since solidarity was formed. We’ve had another free election and Poland is growing… I hope more Chinese people in mainland China can take this opportunity to see through the Communist Party’s lies.”

”The Party Is Over”

Washington D.C. activist Court Pearman, from The Global Coalition to Say Goodbye to the CCP, had high praise for the five million people who have found the courage to quit the CCP.

Pearman described how the Communist Party is responsible for more deaths than all the wars of humankind since the dawn of history and how the CCP has slaughtered tens of millions of its own people in what it calls the “5 percent Rule”: At any time, the CCP will persecute 5 percent of the population; be they intellectuals, landowners, democracy activists, labor unionists, or Falun Gong practitioners, some group that comprises five percent of the population will be harassed, imprisoned, tortured, and publicly murdered to keep the other 95% of the population in a state of fear.

Those who are not persecuted will do almost anything, including denounce their own friends and family, to avoid being part of that 5 percent.

“The CCP turns people against each other until no one knows the truth, and everyone is afraid.” Now, however, in part due the spreading of The Nine Commentaries in China, people are seeing the truth and choosing to leave the Party. As the truth of what the CCP has wrought on China spreads more widely, more and more Chinese people are opting to quit the CCP, and the number of resignations will continue to climb until the Party collapses.

“The Party is dead, it just doesn’t know it! Communism is dead! The CCP is dead; free China!,” Pearman proclaimed with the support of the audience.

Pearman announced that the Global Coalition will be holding a “Party to End the Party” in Washington, DC on Sunday and encouraged all to make the trip. “Come celebrate the passing of the CCP! Tell the CCP that the Party is over!”

Please see Activists March in Flushing to Condemn Communism for more reporting on this event.

Additional reporting by Caylan Ford