Stepping Forward in the Face of Tyranny

San Francisco Epoch Times staff and others conducted a hunger strike last weekend to protest the recent beating of Dr. Yuan Li, The Epoch Times' Chief Technical Officer, as well as to support a massive relay hunger strike which began in China earlier this month.

At the same time, The Epoch Times held a rally and a forum to support the eight million people who have renounced the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and its affiliated organizations. The rally took place in San Francisco, and the forum, which focused on Vietnam, was held in San José.

Hunger strikers gathered at Portsmouth Square in San Francisco for a rally addressing the eight million who have disowned the CCP before heading to the Chinese Consulate to continue the protest. Not all were Epoch Times staff; also participating were Mr. Yu, a San Francisco resident, and Shen Mo, president of China Amnesty.

The Epoch Times hunger strikes began after CCP agents held Dr. Li at gunpoint and beat him in his Atlanta home on Feb. 8. They also stole two laptops and an external hard drive, as well as some documents. Following the incident, The Epoch News Group, consisting of editions in 14 languages, declared that offices around the world would begin a hunger strike protesting the acts of terror committed by the CCP.

Steve Ispas, head of the English edition of Epoch Times Northern California, said that with his participation he wanted to send the message that "the world knows and cares about what China and its secret agents are doing. More and more people are raising their voices peacefully against this tyranny. The message is for China: The world is watching. Stop the atrocities before it is too late!"

Also joining in the hunger strike was Youzhi Ma, an editor for the Chinese Epoch Times who also appears to have been targeted by CCP agents. His house was broken into twice last year, and his laptops stolen. Following the initial break in, Ma said that he started receiving phone calls and letters from his family in China asking him to stop his involvement with the paper and related activities. He believes that they have been pressured by the regime in China, as they had no prior knowledge of his role with The Epoch Times .

Worldwide Relay Hunger Strike for Human Rights

This hunger strike effort dovetails with a larger movement started by Gao Zhisheng, a famous Chinese human rights lawyer, called the Relay Hunger Strike for Human Rights. The relay hunger strike had been in planning when Gao learned of the beating of another human rights lawyer, Guo Feixiong, and began the relay himself.

Shortly after beginning, people around the world began hunger striking in support, most for 24 hours at a time. Now over 1,200 people around the world have participated, with more signed up at a website dedicated to the movement ( www.jueshi.org ). The Chinese communist regime is taking notice. Some of those participating in the hunger strikes in China have disappeared, or are now under house arrest. People trying to help Gao have been arrested and taken away.

Gao first faced persecution from the CCP after publishing three open letters calling on the Chinese leadership to put an end to the persecution of Falun Gong, a spiritual practice which has faced brutal suppression in China since 1999. The CCP reacted by shutting down his law firm, putting him under house arrest, monitoring him and his family, and when he did not stop speaking up for human rights, even tried to assassinate him.

Hunger striking is "a peaceful method that has been used before to protest unjust treatment and tyranny," said Ispas. "It is very significant in that it is such a universal way of protesting injustice with dignity, with courage, and with compassion."

The Nine Commentaries

Concurrent with and preceding the hunger strike movement is another peaceful method of protest against the CCP, that of renouncing the Party, known in Chinese as Tuidang. Since the publication of The Epoch Times' Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party , an editorial exposing the history and nature of the CCP, over eight million people have renounced the Party. This includes government officials, and has led to defections overseas, including Chen Yonglin, the former First Secretary of the Chinese Embassy in Australia.

On Saturday, The Epoch Times held a rally where Epoch Times staff, as well as people from different organizations, spoke about the Nine Commentaries and the current state of China. The rally was held in Portsmouth Square in Chinatown, where there are often many Chinese who staunchly favor the Party, and yell derogatory terms towards the speakers at events like the one on Saturday. Some of them even go so far as to tear up copies of the Nine Commentaries .

Many forums have been held around the world where different speakers, ranging from government officials to academics to those who experienced persecution under communist regimes, have discussed the implications of the Nine Commentaries and the present and future of China.

Vietnamese Nine Commentaries Forum

The Epoch Times , along with Sound of Hope Radio Network, hosted a Vietnamese Nine Commentaries forum at San José State University on Saturday. Steve Ispas, who was also participating in the hunger strike, opened the forum with a brief introduction about The Epoch Times and the importance of the Nine Commentaries in providing a comprehensive analysis of China's Communist Party.

"To know the real story [of China], we have to turn to those who have spent long, hard decades under CCP rule, who have come to know the inner workings of the CCP first-hand, and who have watched the CCP evolve into what it is today," said Ispas. "[The Nine Commentaries ] offers a penetrating look at China's Communist Party then and now, and in so doing reveals as never before what the Party's plans are for China and the world."

Allen Zeng, a representative of Sound of Hope, a non-profit radio network serving general Chinese communities in over 40 cities throughout the world, explained that people in mainland China are starving for the truth. Ten days after the radio version of the Nine Commentaries debuted, shortwave radios were sold out in Beijing and adjacent areas.

Today, one and a half years later, the Nine Commentaries has triggered over eight million people to renounce the CCP, with around 20,000 people stepping away each day. Zeng mentioned that China's Communist Party recently launched a national policy of "re-education," a movement that reveals its nervous state resulting from the sudden mass renunciations.

One prominent speaker at the forum was a dissident poet, Nguyen Chi Tien, who spent a total of 27 years in a Vietnamese prison. Under heavy surveillance in prison, he crafted approximately 700 poems without the help of pen and paper, which are now translated into English, French, German, Dutch, and Czech.

He feels that the situation in Vietnam, where people are thrown into prison for voicing opinions different from what the communist government endorses, is similar to what is happening in China. Nguyen expressed his determination to spread the Nine Commentaries in Vietnam, saying that "It is the tool to fight for democracy in Vietnam in the most peaceful way."

When asked what helped him survive the long, torturous time in prison, Nguyen said, "Hope kept me alive."