When the statue of the Victims of Communism Memorial was dedicated on June 12, the speakers, including President Bush, spoke of the victims of communism as if they were all from the past. The Memorial commemorates the more than 100 million who perished under Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot and other tyrants. But communist regimes are still left standing in the world, and their prisons are still holding political and religious victims.
Today, communism still rules over 25% of the world's population and its oppressive nature has not changed.
On Monday, July 2, the Victims of Communism Memorial, with its statue of a replica of the Goddess of Democracy, was a gathering place for a peaceful demonstration against the leading surviving communist regime, the People's Republic of China.
The statue is an inspiring bronze figure of three meters. The Memorial is located at the intersection of Massachusetts Ave., New Jersey Ave. and G Street, N.W., two blocks from Union Station. The monument and its dedication three weeks earlier had caused a bit of a stir with the communists. "The Foreign Ministry of Communist China and the leader of the Russian Communist Party both denounced the Memorial," according to the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation website.
Most of the protesters at the Victims Memorial on Monday were members of the China Peace and Democracy Federation (CPDF) and were calling for a renewal of the "June 4th" Democracy Movement, echoing the pro-democracy movement that was brought to a sudden end by tanks and the PRC army at Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989.
"Today, in the United States, the statue of the Goddess of Democracy is standing again, and here we initiate a second June 4th. We demand an end of this evil regime," said CPDF chairman Baiqiao Tang. At the time when Beijing was the epicenter of the pro-democracy movement, Tang was participating as a pro-democracy student activist in Hunan province, China. After the Tiananmen Square massacre, Tang fled south to Guangdong province, but was found and arrested, and spent three years in jail for his pro-democracy advocacy.
The crowd laid fresh flowers at the feet of the goddess and bowed before the statue for a moment of silence. They were showing respect for the "souls" killed by Communism worldwide, two-thirds of whom were Chinese, said Tang.
Freedom First, Olympics Second!
Besides the pro-democracy sentiments, the Olympic boycott is another rallying cry by those opposed to Chinese communism.
"China holds the world's record in mass murder, and to host the Olympics is an undeserved reward for crimes against humanity," said John Kusumi, president of the China Support Network (http://www.chinasupport.net/).
Kusumi said it was not just the atrocities of the past and the killing of 80 millions that he objected to, but its continuation into the present that made it unconscionable for the United States to participate in the Olympics. He referred to the rounding up of Falun Gong practitioners and the organ harvesting as matters that shock the conscience. He asked: how can we participate in "games" when "life-and-death issues" are at stake?
The timing of Kusumi's remarks coincided with a campaign launched by Reporters Without Borders to call attention to the Beijing Olympics and the lack of any progress in addressing the human rights situation in China that was promised when the Olympics were awarded to Beijing in 2001. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) held a session in Guatemala City from July 4 to 7, just two days following this demonstration at the Victims of Communism Memorial.
With only 13 months left before the start of the Games, the press freedom organization said in a letter June 28 to International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge, it was time to call "attention to the cynicism of the Chinese government's refusal to allow greater freedom of expression and release the approximately 100 journalists and cyber-dissidents it is holding."
"Throughout the world, concern is growing about the holding of these Olympics, which have been taken hostage by a government that balks at taking action to guarantee freedom of expression and respect for the Olympic Charter's humanistic values…," says the letter to IOC president Rogge. It continues:
"You know better than anyone that the…Communist Party attach[es] the utmost importance to the success of the Olympic Games for their own sakes, but without keeping any of the promises they have made. Mr. [Rogge], it is not too late to get the Chinese organisers, who are for the most part also senior political officials, to release prisoners of conscience, reform repressive laws and end censorship…"
Kusumi summed it up at the July 2 demonstration by the phrase, "Freedom first, Olympics second!"
Reporters Without Borders' campaign "Beijing 2008" uses an eye-catching graphic of the Olympic rings replaced by handcuffs. "The organisation will distribute this campaign ad all over the world for one year, without any let-up," says Reporters without Borders. The graphic is available in a high-definition version (EPS, 300 DPI, CMJN) and in six languages at www.rsf.org.
"Communism is Not Dead Yet!"
Although President Bush was criticized at this gathering for speaking primarily in the past tense, it was pointed out that the president read from his speech: "The evil and hatred that inspired the death of tens of millions of people in the 20th century is still at work in the world."
Tianliang Zhang, Epoch Times commentator, reminded the crowd that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is continuing mass killings of Falun Gong practitioners and suppresses political dissidents, Christian home churches, Tibetan monks and ordinary people. The Victims of Communism Memorial is different than other memorials such as the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, he explained, in that the suffering continues under communism. "Communism is not dead yet," Zhang said.
Zhang referred to the Epoch Times publication of the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party two and half years ago, which describe the crimes committed by the CCP and its evil nature. This series of articles ignited a mass campaign of "moral awakening." More than 23 million people have denounced the CCP by quitting it or its affiliated organizations, he said.
"The Communist Party can do evil because its propaganda brainwashes people, and its violence compels people to comply and cooperate with it," Zhang said. The Nine Commentaries helps people to see through the CCP lies and encourages them to resist the evil. This has led to "a mass consolidation of righteous forces in China," and non-violent resistance campaign in China. People are helping other people by spreading the Nine Commentaries and helping those who have not quit the CCP to do so, he said.
"This process is the process of dissolving the CCP peacefully. It is also a process of peaceful transformation of China from a Communist Party regime to a free society," said Zhang.
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