Less than three weeks after U.S. President Bush dedicated the Victims of Communism Memorial in Washington D.C., it has become "a new favored place at which to hold rallies in the cause of Chinese freedom," said John Kusumi, president of the China Support Network.
The honor to be the first to hold a rally at the Communist memorial site after its dedication goes to the China Peace and Democracy Federation (CPDF), which held a special rally Monday, July 2nd. They mourned the Chinese victims under communism and called for an end to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
The memorial is set in downtown Washington, D.C. and is marked by a replica of the Goddess of Liberty similar to the one created by Chinese students during their democracy protests at Tiananmen Square in 1989.
About fifty members of the CPDF from across the U.S. attended the event. Flowers were laid at the feet of the statue of the goddess and the group paused for a moment of silence to remember those who died.
"In 1989, when tanks destroyed the Goddess of Democracy statue on Tiananmen Square, what they destroyed was not just a statue, rather they destroyed a generation's hope and passion. Eighteen years later, everyone can reflect once more, and set out anew, and then we will once again find our focus point," said Baiqiao Tang, chairman of the CPDF.
"Today, in the United States the statue of the Goddess of Democracy is standing again, here we initiate a second June Fourth. We demand an end of this evil regime," said Tang.
Epoch Times columnist Tianliang Zhang also spoke at the event explaining, "The Communist Party can do evil because its propaganda brainwashes people, and its violence compels people to comply and cooperate with it." He explained that the answer to this is to see clearly what the CCP is saying and to recognize that "the moral wakeup caused by the 'Nine Commentaries' helps people see through the CCP's lies and encourages people to refuse the CCP's evil."
John Kusumi spoke about China and the Olympics, directing his comments especially to the International Olympic Committee President, Jacques Rogge.
The Beijing Olympics "are not only comparable to the 1936 Olympics in Hitler's Nazi Germany; they are in fact worse than 1936. In 1936, Hitler's killing spree was ahead of him; there was no World War II body count [yet]."
"The Communist Chinese make Hitler look like an amateur troublemaker, because they are holding the world's record for more killings inside China than occurred in World War II around the globe!"
Kusumi criticized the media for not covering China honestly enough and for being influenced by business; he also criticized politicians in Washington for "playing games."
Catholic University professor Sen Nieh encouraged members of the China Peace and Democracy Federation to share their experiences of China with the world, "All overseas Chinese have the responsibility to the people around you to share the truth of China that you know, to break through the CCP's control of the media and let the world know the truth of China."
Professor Nieh also mentioned the recent illegal deportation by Hong Kong of 800 Falun Gong practitioners who had come from Taiwan, Macau and other places for the protest at the July 1 celebrations of the return of Hong Kong to the mainland. He expressed his surprise that Hong Kong mainstream media did not report on these illegal deportations. He said the CCP fears Falun Gong practitioners will protest during the festivities and support the recent lawsuit filed in Hong Kong against former communist leader Jiang Zemin.
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