Pro-democracy groups, human rights organizations, Epoch Times staff, and others came together to celebrate nearly six million Chinese people quitting the CCP, at the "New Era for China" rally sponsored by The Global Service Center for Quitting the CCP and The Epoch Times on November 26, 2005.
Since the publication of the Epoch Times editorial series Nine Commentaries on the Chinese Communist Party in November of last year, Chinese people have been quitting the Chinese Communist Party at the rate of tens of thousands every day. The importance of these resignations has not yet been realized in the Western world, but in China, and among the expatriate Chinese community, the impact of the Nine Commentaries is well understood.
Just as the various communist governments of Eastern Europe dissolved, so the Chinese Communist Party is dissolving. The dissolution of the Eastern European communist regimes were proceeded by waves of mass withdrawals from the communist parties in those countries, exactly as is happening in China today.
Most Western media and governments were caught off guard by the collapses of the Eastern European regimes and the breakup of the Soviet Union. The Epoch Times and the Global Service Center, through the hundreds of events they have sponsored around the world, are trying to alert the world to the historic events unfolding before them.
The Miami Beach event featured speeches by a wide range of China experts, as well as by people who grew up in China or Cuba and knew first-hand the realities of life under a Communist regime.
Master of Ceremonies Mr. Gary N. Pansey praised the nearly six million Chinese who have quit the CCP, urging them to "feel proud that you have led the way to a new era for China and the world; You have conquered the chilling fear instilled in you by a vicious and manipulative political entity and your bold and noble deed must be publicized all over the world so it will inspire even more of your fellow citizens to take the same exalted and magnificent path."
"Communism's days are numbered," proclaimed Mr. Pansey, predicting that the "Red Wall would fall, not through violence, bloodshed or cruelty, but by reason, enlightenment and wisdom, as more and more people read the Nine Commentaries and withdraw from the CCP."
The Global Service Center for Quitting the CCP was represented by statewide coordinator Ms. Paulene Jasurek. She described how the Global Service Center was established to provide a way for the millions of disillusioned Chinese to safely resign from the CCP.
The Global Service Center, a non-profit organization with branches around the world, has set up websites, hotlines, faxes, voicemail systems and email addresses so that Chinese people can safely, anonymously, and publicly renounce their affiliation with the Chinese Communist Party.
As these withdrawal statements are tabulated and published by volunteers all around the world, the rising number serves as encouragement for others.
Quitting the CCP can bring serious consequences for Chinese citizens. Merely possessing a copy of the Nine Commentaries is grounds for immediate imprisonment in China. The Global Service Center works with other human rights organizations to expose and stop the CCP's persecution of those who quit the party.
Many passers by were attracted by two large picture displays which gave a brief illustrated history of the CCP and its effects on China. Many people were unaware that the CCP's various political campaigns, like the Three- and Five-anti campaigns, the Great Leap Forward, and the Cultural Revolution, had cost approximately eighty million Chinese citizens their lives. Many were unaware of the CCP's brutal persecution of Falun Gong, and did not know that the Roman Catholic faith, as well as any non-communist Christian religions, are illegal in China.
Dr. Sherwood Liu, a marine biologist now living in St. Petersburg, described growing up in China at the end of the Cultural Revolution. He described the dense wall of propaganda that kept the Chinese people from knowing anything true about the outside world or the facts of what the CCP was doing inside China.
Dr. Liu described how one of his classmates, still in China sent him several Chinese newspaper articles applauding the terrible terrorist destruction wrought on September 11. He was shocked not that the CCP's media would applaud the actions of terrorists, but that his understanding of the world was so different from his classmate's after just a few years abroad. Dr. Liu well understood how such warped notions could flourish in a country ruled by fear, deception, and suppression.
Dr. Liu also spoke of the pressures that Chinese-Americans face even after escaping from the CCP. Dr. Liu described how he has been contacted, in America, by members of the CCP's Security Bureau, threatening to punish his parents, younger brother and younger brother's children, still in China, if Dr. Liu continued his human rights work in the United States.
Despite all the pressure, Dr. Liu proclaimed, "I am here to say loudly and clearly to all CCP agents, "I am not afraid of you" because I completely see through the evil nature of the CCP. Six million courageous Chinese people have announced their resignations from the CCP. When all Chinese people know the truth, the collapse of the CCP will be imminent."
Mr. Kent McKinney, a representative from the Global Rescue Mission, which focuses on saving the lives of children whose parents have been arrested for practicing Falun Gong, told several touching tales of families torn apart as parents were imprisoned without trial for practicing Falun Gong, a traditional meditation exercise. He described the plight of children coming home from school to find their parents gone, with no one left to care for the children. This sort of heartless behavior perfectly characterizes the CCP, he said.
David Lee, a prominent Chinese-American lawyer described the Chinese justice system, which is wholly controlled by the CCP. "Nine out of ten trials are "show trials," where the verdict and even the result of the appeal is decided in advance," he explained.
Miami resident Henry Barreras, who escaped from Cuba at the age of thirteen after his father was imprisoned in a Cuban labor camp for two years, described the similarities and close connections between the CCP and Castro's regime.
"China also imprisons law-abiding citizens in jails and forced labor camps. I am glad so many Chinese are waking up and quitting the CCP. I hope the Cuban people will also read the Nine Commentaries and resign from the party. Quit the Cuban Communist Party! Quit the CCP!"
Many of the passers-by were of Cuban ancestry, and understood immediately the grim realities of life under a communist system. One man who was bicycling by with his sons in tow exclaimed, "I'm from Cuba and I want my sons safe from Communism!"
Most of the audience also signed petitions supporting a free China, and supporting the nearly six million Chinese who found the courage to quit the party. Many people had no idea of the actual situation inside China, as they only heard the media propaganda released by the CCP, and the U.S. media reports which often parrot the CCP's propaganda. When they saw pictures of the horrible tortures and murderous terror-tactics the CCP uses to control its own population, many were shocked and all were supportive of the Chinese people's efforts to dissolve the CCP.
Psychologist Dr. Regina Joe described the CCP as "unscrupulous and brutally violent, with a blatant disregard for anyone but itself… the central and classic traits of a sociopath."
"Throughout its history the CCP has intentionally and aggressively stripped the people of China of their long and rich spiritual culture, their social fabric, and their human rights." Dr. Joe related that in China, Protestant ministers can be jailed for distributing Bilbes, and people are regularly tortured to death for practicing Falun Gong.
"Why do Falun Gong practitioners continue to practice when there is such great danger in doing so? Why does the Protestant minister hand out Bibles when there is such great danger in doing so?" she asked. "They do so because they follow their hearts over the fear of a red fist or a black baton. Quitting the CCP is valuing virtue and valor; it is valuing human rights, freedom of thought, and freedom of belief."
Dr. Ming-Lon Young, from the Florida chapter of the Global Alliance for Democracy and Peace, described how his grandparents were starved to death by the CCP during the Cultural Revolution. "Throughout its 80-plus years, the CCP has shown no respect for human rights. Today, the CCP does not have any intention of loosening its authoritarian grip. The Chinese authoritarian government continues to brutally repress anyone who openly expresses dissenting political or religious views."
Dr. Young, a Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Miami, said, "We should not forget our Chinese brothers and sisters who are struggling to survive CCP's repression. I strongly support your efforts to bring about a new China that respects the universal values of freedom, human rights, and democracy."
Mr. Leo Yue from the Global Alliance for Saying Goodbye, CCP described the impact of the mass withdrawals form the point of view of a Chinese scientist and scholar who, after leaving China, could see more clearly the oppressive nature of the Party, and the depth of the propaganda which had been his only source of information about the outside world.
Finally, Ms. Annie Li, a Beijing native who came to the U.S. several years ago, related her experiences growing up under a Communist regime. She described how her grandfather, a respected elementary school principal, was persecuted by the CCP and banished to the farthest reaches of China, forced to eke out a living as a shepherd, because he was viewed as an intellectual and as the scion of a wealthy family- the CCP had to destroy all respected figures to set up their own authoritarian system.
Ms. Li described the difficulties her mother endured as the daughter of a target of the CCP's wrath. She was unable to enter any universities, despite her high test scores, and was separated from her fiancé because he was politically prominent and he could not marry a woman whose father had been named "an enemy of the CCP." Throughout their lives, Ms. Li and her mother suffered because of the CCP's persecution.
Ms. Li described how her mother, upon reading the Nine Commentaries, was finally able to understand the suffering she and her family had endured for the past fifty-five years.
Additional reporting by Marcus Green
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