WASHINGTON, D.C.—The number of Chinese people renouncing their ties to the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and its affiliated organizations passed the 20-million milestone early Monday morning.
The resignations are tallied on a special website set up for that purpose, tuidang.epochtimes.com, and are received through faxes, phone calls, and the internet from locations across China, and from Mainland Chinese who now live overseas. Recent statements can be read, in English, on another website: Nine Commentaries.com.
This wave of withdrawals from the CCP was sparked by the publication of the "Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party," a series of Epoch Times editorials published in November 2004.
The commentaries expose the CCP's history of killing, deceipt, destruction of culture, and the tragedy it has brought on the Chinese people. As many as 80 million Chinese people have died unnatural deaths under the CCP since it was founded, more than the totals of the both World Wars combined. Yet much of this history had been hidden from Mainland Chinese, who grow up educated in Communist Party-controlled schools. Media in Mainland China is also heavily censored by the CCP.
The 20 million withdrawals are seen by those at the rallies as an omen of the CCP's imminent collapse.
Since last Saturday, there have been celebration rallies organized by overseas Chinese in many cities around the world, including Munich, Sidney, Paris, Daegu (South Korea), Gothenburg (Sweden), Houston, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C.
"This celebration of the 20 million Chinese people that have publicly announced their withdrawals from the CCP is a worldwide event," explained Alex Ma, director of the Northern California Service Center for Quitting the CCP, which supports those wishing to quit the party.
"The CCP's roots have been pulled out; what are you waiting for? ... A tree with its roots out is going to fall or die at any minute—that's the current situation of the CCP," commented Dr. Li Dayong, co-founder and spokesperson of the Global Service Centre, said in his speech at the Washington, D.C. rally last Saturday.
Widespread Discontent
According to Dr. Li, Chinese people who quit the CCP include people from all provinces across China and all walks of life, from peasants to military staff, from factory workers to government officials.
An analysis of the 11 million people who quit and posted withdrawal statements on the website set up by The Epoch Times between Dec. 4, 2004 and June 27, 2006, shows that 60.5 per cent quit from the Communist Party. The rest quit the Communist Youth League and/or the Young Pioneers, affiliate organizations of the CCP.
Among those posting withdrawals who provided their job information, 20,488 indicated they were officials, 879 said they work for police or the judiciary, 584 work for corruption-related departments, 138 work for the courts, 72 work for National Security Bureaus, 22 National Affairs staff, and 21 were workers posted inside the Chinese Communist Party leadership compound, Zhongnanhai.
A vast disparity between the rich and poor, coupled with widespread corruption, have added to discontent with the party.
According to the state-run China Youth newspaper, citing a report, 0.4 per cent of families in China (about 1.5 million) own 70 per cent of the wealth. While 240,000 Chinese own over US$10 million, nearly 210 million families earn less than US$1 per day.
According to official figures from the Public Security Ministry, the number of large-scale riots or protests jumped dramatically in the last 12 years, from 10,000 in 1994 to 87,000 in 2005—which means that on average, there is a large-scale riot or protest every 6 minutes in China.
Handwriting on the Wall
Photos taken inside China show that discontent with the CCP has also been displayed publicly.
Residents of northeastern China sent The Epoch Times photos of slogans posted publicly in Mainland China. Other images have surfaced in regions across the country.
Slogans about quitting the CCP include statements like, "Heaven Eliminates the CCP." This kind of prophecy regarding Communist rule is particularly meaningful in China, where the ruling dynasty's beginning and end were traditionally thought to be chosen by Heaven.
Quitting the CCP Accelerates
In the past three months, the number of people quitting CCP organizations has accelerated, reaching over one million each month since December. The daily number of withdrawals has increased from 20,000 to 30,000 and then from 30,000 to 40,000.
On March 17, at a public meeting in Los Angeles, a young man from Mainland China, Zhang Fengchun, openly quit the Chinese Communist Party and joined a pro-democracy party. In China, he had worked at a local-level government agency. He said that he joined the CCP at the age of 20, and was said to be a very promising Party member.
He later fled to the United States.
"The CCP is too corrupt. There's no hope," Zhang said, explaining why he quit the CCP.
In February, during the Chinese New Year, the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party and programs about quitting the CCP organizations replaced local television broadcasts in Shangrao village areas in Jiangxi Province for an hour. Reports also indicate that the Nine Commentaries was distributed as a New Year's gift in many Chinese villages.
Hong Kong democracy activist Sun Bin said at a rally in February: "I have been to Hebei, Guangxi, and other provinces in Mainland China. There's truly a hidden current steaming there. It is the wave of quitting the CCP organizations. Many friends in China asked for my help. They didn't need any gifts but simply 'Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party.' The CCP fears 'Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party' very much."
More tourists from Mainland China quit the CCP organizations at sightseeing locations in Hong Kong and other areas in Southeast Asia. Volunteers have set up booths where Chinese can register their statements of renouncing the party. Sometimes entire buses of Mainland Chinese tourists quit CCP organizations.
In another sign of this trend, recently, Chinese intellectuals including Xie Tao, the Vice Principal of the Renmin University of China in Beijing, raised theories that openly deny communism and assume multi-party future and democracy in China.
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