Government statement on Mr Zhou Yongjun's case
**********************************************
In response to media enquiries on the case concerning Mr Zhou Yongjun, a government spokesman said today (October 12): "We do not comment on individual cases. The Immigration Department has the responsibility to uphold effective immigration control. The department handles all entry applications in accordance with the law and immigration policy, having due regard to individual circumstances. In general, a passenger whose travel document does not meet the entry requirements will be repatriated to his or her place of embarkation or origin."
Ends/Monday, October 12, 2009Issued at HKT 17:25
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Donald Tsang tries to deny wrongdoing
In an October 14 press conference, Hong Kong's Chief Executive Donald Tsang defensive tried to both dodge and defuse the question about Tiananmen Square student leader, Zhou Yongjun.
Zhou travelled from the U.S. to Macao in September, 2008, and tried to enter Hong Kong. Stopped by HK authorities, he was somehow sent to Mainland China to face bogus and politically motivated trumped up charges, in proceedings that violate Zhou's human rights.
Here is the press conference exchange:
Reporter: Did the Hong Kong government return Zhou Yongjun, a student leader from Tiananmen, to the Chinese authorities rather than going back to Macau as his family alleged a few days ago?
Chief Executive: Let me say first of all, I'm not in a position, like every other government, to comment on individual immigration cases.One thing is clear, let me explain very clearly to you, our immigration colleagues operate entirely according to the law of Hong Kong and according to established procedures. Anyone who legally enters Hong Kong will be welcome to do so. Anyone who travels with a false document will be treated accordingly, he'll be sent back to wherever is appropriate, that is established policy.
Thank you very much.
Zhou travelled from the U.S. to Macao in September, 2008, and tried to enter Hong Kong. Stopped by HK authorities, he was somehow sent to Mainland China to face bogus and politically motivated trumped up charges, in proceedings that violate Zhou's human rights.
Here is the press conference exchange:
Reporter: Did the Hong Kong government return Zhou Yongjun, a student leader from Tiananmen, to the Chinese authorities rather than going back to Macau as his family alleged a few days ago?
Chief Executive: Let me say first of all, I'm not in a position, like every other government, to comment on individual immigration cases.One thing is clear, let me explain very clearly to you, our immigration colleagues operate entirely according to the law of Hong Kong and according to established procedures. Anyone who legally enters Hong Kong will be welcome to do so. Anyone who travels with a false document will be treated accordingly, he'll be sent back to wherever is appropriate, that is established policy.
Thank you very much.
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Rep.Chris Smith (R-NJ) adds public statement re Oct. 1
Congressman Chris Smith Remembers the Victims of 60 Years of Communist Rule in China
U.S. Rep. Chris Smith (NJ-04), a senior Member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and the Ranking Member on the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, today called on free people every where to reject China's self-aggrandizing "celebrations" of its 60 years of Communist rule and instead remember and honor the millions of people who have been killed and those who endure limited freedoms, harassment and torture at the hands of the Chinese Communist dictatorship.
"The Chinese Communist government will mark the 60th year of the People's Republic of China with massive but highly choreographed celebrations-coupled with a massive ramping-up of police control, and roundup of dissidents," said Smith who was recently nominated by President Obama to be Congressional Representative to the United Nations said. "Over 60 years, the PRC government has shown itself by far the most deadly enemy the Chinese people have ever faced. Scholars estimate that this government has been responsible for killing approximately 65 million people in China.
"Rather than bogus celebration, today should be a day of remembrance," Smith said. "The victims of this government may seem like numberless millions, but each one had a human face, loved ones and a contribution to make. I propose that we remember them today, and resolve to pray and work that what happened and is still happening to the Chinese people will one day be stopped-and the Chinese people can truly say, "never again."
Smith, who traveled to China during the Olympics last year on a human rights trip, said that the current Chinese government routinely and viciously persecutes Falun Gong practitioners, Muslim Uighurs, Tibetans, and Christians, as well as activists and journalists promoting human rights and democracy.
"Its most massive crimes were in the 1950s and 60s but even today it perpetrates grave human rights abuses, from widespread use of torture, massive censorship and surveillance of the Internet, jailing of dissidents, across-the-board religious persecution, and ethnic persecution that killed hundreds and jailed thousands of Tibetans in 2008, and Uighurs in 2009. We cannot forget the killing, in the past ten years, of thousands of Falun Gong practitioners.
"October 1 marks 60 years of human rights abuse in China on a scale we can hardly grasp," he said.
Deutsche Presse-Agentur newswire reports "rising pressure" in HK
Hong Kong - Hong Kong leader Donald Tsang was under increasing pressure Tuesday to investigate the case of a former Tiananmen Square dissident sent over the border into China to be arrested.
Zhou Yongjun, 42, a student leader in the 1989 pro-democracy movement who is now in the process of becoming a US citizen, has been held for a year in China after being picked up in Hong Kong.
He faces fraud charges in mainland China after being found allegedly using fraudulent identity documents in September 2008 to enter Hong Kong from neighbouring Macau.
At a press conference Monday, his lawyer said that Zhou, who was jailed after the 1989 demonstrations and then left China for the US, had been tortured and denied family visits since his arrest last year.
Hong Kong chief executive Donald Tsang was facing renewed pressure Tuesday to investigate the case, which a leading lawmaker said was effectively an illegal extradition.
Speaking on government-run radio station RTHK, Albert Ho, chairman of the Democratic Party, said the case 'constitutes a very serious infringement' of Zhou's rights.
Ho said that Zhou had been picked up by immigration officers, put into a van and driven across the border to mainland China against his will, even though there is no agreement for cross-border extraditions.
Ho appealed to Tsang to make available police records of the incident and to press for Zhou's release, warning that the case could open the door to politically motivated cross-border transfers.
Zhou came to Hong Kong in September 2008 with the intention of visiting his elderly parents in China, using a Malaysian national's passport. He has no Chinese visa since fleeing to the US.
Girlfriend Zhang Yuewei said that Zhou's family only learned of his arrest and detention in Sichuan seven months after he was placed in custody in mainland China.
Zhou, one of the most prominent of the 1989 student demonstrators, was pictured kneeling on the steps of the Great Hall of the People during the Tiananmen Square protests pleading for political reforms.
Asked about the case by reporters Monday evening, however, Beijing-appointed Tsang would only say that he could not comment on individual cases.
Hong Kong reverted to Chinese sovereignty in 1997 under a 'one country, two systems' agreement, after 150 years of British colonial rule.
The city has a separate legal and political system and a mini- constitution that guarantees freedom of speech and political freedoms. There is no formal rendition agreement with China.
Zhou is said to be facing charges including defrauding the Hang Seng Bank, accusations believed to relate to his use of a bogus identity to attempt to enter China.
Hundreds, possibly thousands, of students were killed by Chinese troops in June 1989 when the pro-democracy movement was brutally crushed in the streets around Tiananmen Square.
Sunday, October 04, 2009
Speech by Michael Tsang
Ed. Note. The following speech was delivered by activist Michael Tsang, at the "10-4" (October 4) rally held at the Boston Common to mark the fact that 60 million Chinese people have quit from the Communist Party during the Tuidang campaign of 2005 to the present.
Michael Tsang has words of warning for both Americans and Chinese (and perhaps Australians and others). His speech follows--
The Chinese Communist regime has just celebrated its 60th anniversary. At the same time 60 million of its Chinese people have resigned their membership in the Chinese Communist Party and its affiliated organizations in a movement called "Quit the Chinese Communist Party," or "Quit the CCP." --That's the real thing deserving celebration, and a sign that the days of the CCP are numbered.
Why? There is no shortage of reasons why, let me just recount a few:
- Recently the news is that 70,000 Beijing taxis are now equipped with micro-monitors that can monitor conversations of passengers remotely controlled by the CCP. Coupled with a GPS system you are just so damn vulnerable in this Orwellian society.
- It's been a number of years now that the CCP employs fleets of death-mobiles – these are buses equipped to handle harvesting of organs from executed prisoners, or live Falun Gong practitioners. They travel from detention center to detention center; even homeless people today have been increasingly targeted. In the world of human organ trafficking, China is the only country known to operate it as a systemic practice and state-sanctioned though it is an underground operation.
- "United Front" is an operation by the United Front Work Department that sits below the CCP Central Committee. Its mission is to infiltrate Western society and its politicians, to have them curry favor and back Beijing policies at critical times. If a targeted politician could not be bribed by financial means, then entrapment or fabricated evidence are used to coerce them to submission. This works very well on Westerners, as they are terrified when they are set up – fearing for their future career.
- Recently, in a failed attempt to acquire a stake in an Australian mining giant--Rio Tinto--for $19 billion, the CCP arrested the company's executive on charges of stealing state secrets without providing details or evidence and waited 3 days to inform the Australian government. This is a slip up finally coming through on an international level. God knows how many innocent Chinese citizens have been treated this way arbitrarily, many are even tortured and incarcerated and not heard from again. What are State Secrets? They are basically things that cannot see the light of day and they are trying hard to cover up.
- This is just a sample of recent misconducts by this totalitarian regime. You all know about the hazardous products from China right? And the persecution of the Tibetans, Uighurs, Falun Gong, underground Christians, pro-democracy dissidents, taking land from poor farmers. Recent news also pointed to the disbarment of all human rights lawyers in China that defended the oppressed. Here is another item: the rampant rape of women and young girls by Chinese officials is a sign of status and prestige. Not to mention, the regime caused 80 million unnatural deaths in the history of Communist China; the supply of WMD and related technology to rogue countries; the tortured and murdered in Chinese prisons; the list goes on.
If this was an individual or organized crime in the U.S., they would have been stopped, apprehended and imprisoned, with the keys thrown away. But this is a legitimate government of 1.3 or 1.4 billion people, and the world kowtows to them for business. Nothing has been able to put an end to their despicable violence and countless crimes.
Do people know why? Not many have the time, or sufficient interest, to stop and think about it in the Western world. Many are too busy making money, busy buying cheap consumer goods - guess from where? But do stop and think about it, because this is not just a matter of whether the U.S. is going to be displaced as the economic power of the world, or increasingly lose its military edge. My concern is whether America continues to lead the world in freedom and democracy. We are increasingly condoning all of this and in danger of losing our standards without our realizing it. Not cognizant of their tactics, we are conceding to them rapidly on every front.
For those who have suffered and those who know the evilness of this oppressive regime, a momentum is building to stand up and denounce this most despicable regime and move towards a better future. A future where humanity is embraced and evil eliminated.
For the Chinese people who are against this movement, like those who celebrated the Communist flag raising at Boston City Hall Plaza last Saturday, Let me tell you my brothers and sisters, you are continually being duped. The CCP uses lies and nationalism to keep your loyalty, you are loyal to them and protecting their corrupt ways so that they can stay in power to oppress--perhaps not you, as they always needed and keep someone like you to support them and legitimize them, but those less fortunate than you will become their victims and scapegoats. But deep down they don't care about anyone except their own power. Everyone is disposable. Perhaps the tables will turn on you some day and you will taste what everyone else has tasted; then it will be too late.
The CCP is not China and cannot represent China; it has obliterated the real China that had belonged to you and me and replaced it with a false one that has no dignity and no soul. We urge you to reexamine China, its history and heritage so that you can come to truly see and choose a good future.
Michael Tsang has words of warning for both Americans and Chinese (and perhaps Australians and others). His speech follows--
The Chinese Communist regime has just celebrated its 60th anniversary. At the same time 60 million of its Chinese people have resigned their membership in the Chinese Communist Party and its affiliated organizations in a movement called "Quit the Chinese Communist Party," or "Quit the CCP." --That's the real thing deserving celebration, and a sign that the days of the CCP are numbered.
Why? There is no shortage of reasons why, let me just recount a few:
- Recently the news is that 70,000 Beijing taxis are now equipped with micro-monitors that can monitor conversations of passengers remotely controlled by the CCP. Coupled with a GPS system you are just so damn vulnerable in this Orwellian society.
- It's been a number of years now that the CCP employs fleets of death-mobiles – these are buses equipped to handle harvesting of organs from executed prisoners, or live Falun Gong practitioners. They travel from detention center to detention center; even homeless people today have been increasingly targeted. In the world of human organ trafficking, China is the only country known to operate it as a systemic practice and state-sanctioned though it is an underground operation.
- "United Front" is an operation by the United Front Work Department that sits below the CCP Central Committee. Its mission is to infiltrate Western society and its politicians, to have them curry favor and back Beijing policies at critical times. If a targeted politician could not be bribed by financial means, then entrapment or fabricated evidence are used to coerce them to submission. This works very well on Westerners, as they are terrified when they are set up – fearing for their future career.
- Recently, in a failed attempt to acquire a stake in an Australian mining giant--Rio Tinto--for $19 billion, the CCP arrested the company's executive on charges of stealing state secrets without providing details or evidence and waited 3 days to inform the Australian government. This is a slip up finally coming through on an international level. God knows how many innocent Chinese citizens have been treated this way arbitrarily, many are even tortured and incarcerated and not heard from again. What are State Secrets? They are basically things that cannot see the light of day and they are trying hard to cover up.
- This is just a sample of recent misconducts by this totalitarian regime. You all know about the hazardous products from China right? And the persecution of the Tibetans, Uighurs, Falun Gong, underground Christians, pro-democracy dissidents, taking land from poor farmers. Recent news also pointed to the disbarment of all human rights lawyers in China that defended the oppressed. Here is another item: the rampant rape of women and young girls by Chinese officials is a sign of status and prestige. Not to mention, the regime caused 80 million unnatural deaths in the history of Communist China; the supply of WMD and related technology to rogue countries; the tortured and murdered in Chinese prisons; the list goes on.
If this was an individual or organized crime in the U.S., they would have been stopped, apprehended and imprisoned, with the keys thrown away. But this is a legitimate government of 1.3 or 1.4 billion people, and the world kowtows to them for business. Nothing has been able to put an end to their despicable violence and countless crimes.
Do people know why? Not many have the time, or sufficient interest, to stop and think about it in the Western world. Many are too busy making money, busy buying cheap consumer goods - guess from where? But do stop and think about it, because this is not just a matter of whether the U.S. is going to be displaced as the economic power of the world, or increasingly lose its military edge. My concern is whether America continues to lead the world in freedom and democracy. We are increasingly condoning all of this and in danger of losing our standards without our realizing it. Not cognizant of their tactics, we are conceding to them rapidly on every front.
For those who have suffered and those who know the evilness of this oppressive regime, a momentum is building to stand up and denounce this most despicable regime and move towards a better future. A future where humanity is embraced and evil eliminated.
For the Chinese people who are against this movement, like those who celebrated the Communist flag raising at Boston City Hall Plaza last Saturday, Let me tell you my brothers and sisters, you are continually being duped. The CCP uses lies and nationalism to keep your loyalty, you are loyal to them and protecting their corrupt ways so that they can stay in power to oppress--perhaps not you, as they always needed and keep someone like you to support them and legitimize them, but those less fortunate than you will become their victims and scapegoats. But deep down they don't care about anyone except their own power. Everyone is disposable. Perhaps the tables will turn on you some day and you will taste what everyone else has tasted; then it will be too late.
The CCP is not China and cannot represent China; it has obliterated the real China that had belonged to you and me and replaced it with a false one that has no dignity and no soul. We urge you to reexamine China, its history and heritage so that you can come to truly see and choose a good future.
Delivered remarks of Oct. 4, 2009
Delivered remarks
for Tuidang rally at Boston Common, October 4, 2009
by John Kusumi, China Support Network Director emeritus
I want to thank the organizers for bringing me back to Boston, and of course for your own turnout - I know that soggy weather was forecast.
Well, regardless of rain or snow or sleet or hail, we are gathered here on the Boston Common and we know that China has just marked a grim milestone: It has been 60 years since Chairman Mao established the reign of thuggery that is today's Mainland Chinese government. That is why they gathered in Beijing this week, to have one of those military parades that seems just like North Korea. The military parade in Beijing makes it look like Communist Parties are all the same, and that they use large military parades to wow the gullible and distract the world from their deeper, systemic problems.
The deeper systemic problem is this: Nobody believes in communism anymore. In fact, why is there a Communist Party in charge of China? --All across Eastern Europe, and in the Soviet Union, the Communist Parties all collapsed between 1989 and 1991. I said that military parades make it look like Communist Parties are all the same. Hopefully, they ARE all the same. If so, then the collapse of China's Communist Party is inevitable.
It may be that when a system is completely rigged, and has no elections and no functioning justice system -- that this leads to social pressures, which cannot be reconciled because there is no recourse within the system. China has a building pressure of domestic discontent. The Communist Party has a debt of blood on its hands. Some Chinese people know the record of history, including how many of their countrymen have met with untimely and premature deaths at the hands of the CCP.
Today, we stand here with a solemn understanding that enormous suffering continues in China. That crackdowns are still in progress today. That families are split, and that loved ones are kept in the Laogai camps. The Western world is getting to know that word, Laogai: it represents an evil system known as "reform through labor." These are prison camps, where the prisoners are worked to produce manufactured goods. These are a dark and ugly secret behind the face of China's peaceful rise in the world economy. Incarceration and forced labor imply force; that is
the opposite of a peaceful rise. The peaceful rise is one big lie!
Any dictatorship is only maintained by hurting people. It is mistaken for the United States to make its peace with tyrants and to have an easy, breezy countenance for evil. And in the United States, while Barack Obama sounded like a promising candidate offering change -- well, I describe his administration as "Clinton Lite: Less peace, less prosperity, but the same Clintonian taste." Now, why would I say that at this time? --Well, Obama recently postponed a meeting with the Dalai Lama, so that he can visit Mainland China first. When Obama puts human rights in the back seat to business as usual with Communist China, well -- that *is* the Clintonian policy on human rights.
And yet today, we also stand here with more. We have more than suffering; we have more than lamenting. We have hope, and we have determination.
It's because we have another milestone that we mark here today. The bigwigs of the West -- such as Washington and its media -- don't really have this story. They don't know their Jiuping from their Tuidang. And yet, it is time for them to get this story, and to learn those vocabulary words. Due to a shamefully silent news media, the related news has gone unreported, so I'm sure that Washington is foggy over these matters. Here and now, let me work to dispel their fogginess.
In 2004, a book was produced, called the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party. That book is an expose about the actual history of the Chinese Communist Party. For Chinese people, it has been an eye-opener. The evil of that Party is laid bare in the pages of the Nine Commentaries. This is where we get the word Jiuping (pronounce "Joe-ping"). Jiuping means "nine commentaries." Jiuping, the book, made its way around China, being smuggled in and passed hand-to-hand. It is classic underground literature, with every story that might inconvenience the Communist Party.
As the book began to get around China, there also came to be a wave of revulsion at the history revealed within. The impulse was there for people to quit the Communist Party -- to resign their membership. In 2005, my group the China Support Network joined the Global Coalition for Quitting the CCP: a coalition with many other Chinese dissident and human rights groups. This coalition put into place the Tuidang campaign. Tuidang means "quit the party." If everyone quit from the Communist Party, then imagine what's next -- they could have a meeting and no one would go. That is the general idea of this campaign; to isolate the evil-doers and constrain their ability to continue their evil ways.
Quitting the party happens in every conceivable way -- by letter, phone, and fax -- but most commonly, it happens on the Web, where the Tuidang campaign has accumulated an enormous database of resignations from the Party. Resignations tend to be accompanied by personal stories, where the ex-Communist might inform the world about evil they have witnessed, or injustices or persecution which befell their family.
That database has continued to accumulate resignations. In 2005, I spoke at the rally to salute the first one million people to quit the Communist Party. Pretty soon, we were having rallies for 2 million, 3 million, 5 million, and 10 million resignations. It is true also, that my group encouraged a rock group, NoManZero, to release the song 'Bye Bye CCP.' That song, and its music video, are now featured at the website of the China Support Network.
To make a long story short, we are here today because we have collected 60 million resignations in the Tuidang database! --That means 60 million ex-Communists; people who formerly joined the party and have now renounced it. The ranks of the Communist Party are growing thinner and thinner. It is like the air is going out of their tires. This campaign is taking a substantial bite out of the Chinese Communist Party, and we're not done yet!
It is time to salute the former Communists. They are people who have looked at the situation. They have seen the error of Communist ways. They want something better for their country and for their fellow Chinese. And, they have gathered up their courage and registered their displeasure with the status quo. Washington DC needs to get the memo: The Communist Party is headed for a fall, and is on its way to the ash heap of history. If a U.S. administration was wise, instead of reinforcing business as usual, it would instead help China to transition away from Communism by adding pressure for human rights.
China must end the Tiananmen crackdown. China must end the Falun Gong crackdown. China must end the Tibetan crackdown. And, China must end the Uighur crackdown. That means they must release the prisoners whom they've taken in the course of those crackdowns. Right now, my group focuses on four high-profile prisoner cases. Zhou Yongjun, Liu Xiaobo, Wang Bingzhang, and Gao Zhisheng must be released. But really, our focus on them should not be taken to exclude all of the other prisoners of conscience who are today laboring in China's Laogai camps. For another note about human rights, China must abolish the systems of Laogai and Laojiao. They are hideously evil tools of state repression.
In conclusion, I congratulate you, the campaigners. This is a grand and historic movement, celebrating the milestone of 60 million responses. Chinese people are answering the call and distancing themselves from the Communist Party. That is why, in addition to suffering and lamenting, we also stand here with courage, with determination, and with hope that China will soon experience a bright future with freedom, democracy, and human rights. To everybody here, thank you once again!
for Tuidang rally at Boston Common, October 4, 2009
by John Kusumi, China Support Network Director emeritus
I want to thank the organizers for bringing me back to Boston, and of course for your own turnout - I know that soggy weather was forecast.
Well, regardless of rain or snow or sleet or hail, we are gathered here on the Boston Common and we know that China has just marked a grim milestone: It has been 60 years since Chairman Mao established the reign of thuggery that is today's Mainland Chinese government. That is why they gathered in Beijing this week, to have one of those military parades that seems just like North Korea. The military parade in Beijing makes it look like Communist Parties are all the same, and that they use large military parades to wow the gullible and distract the world from their deeper, systemic problems.
The deeper systemic problem is this: Nobody believes in communism anymore. In fact, why is there a Communist Party in charge of China? --All across Eastern Europe, and in the Soviet Union, the Communist Parties all collapsed between 1989 and 1991. I said that military parades make it look like Communist Parties are all the same. Hopefully, they ARE all the same. If so, then the collapse of China's Communist Party is inevitable.
It may be that when a system is completely rigged, and has no elections and no functioning justice system -- that this leads to social pressures, which cannot be reconciled because there is no recourse within the system. China has a building pressure of domestic discontent. The Communist Party has a debt of blood on its hands. Some Chinese people know the record of history, including how many of their countrymen have met with untimely and premature deaths at the hands of the CCP.
Today, we stand here with a solemn understanding that enormous suffering continues in China. That crackdowns are still in progress today. That families are split, and that loved ones are kept in the Laogai camps. The Western world is getting to know that word, Laogai: it represents an evil system known as "reform through labor." These are prison camps, where the prisoners are worked to produce manufactured goods. These are a dark and ugly secret behind the face of China's peaceful rise in the world economy. Incarceration and forced labor imply force; that is
the opposite of a peaceful rise. The peaceful rise is one big lie!
Any dictatorship is only maintained by hurting people. It is mistaken for the United States to make its peace with tyrants and to have an easy, breezy countenance for evil. And in the United States, while Barack Obama sounded like a promising candidate offering change -- well, I describe his administration as "Clinton Lite: Less peace, less prosperity, but the same Clintonian taste." Now, why would I say that at this time? --Well, Obama recently postponed a meeting with the Dalai Lama, so that he can visit Mainland China first. When Obama puts human rights in the back seat to business as usual with Communist China, well -- that *is* the Clintonian policy on human rights.
And yet today, we also stand here with more. We have more than suffering; we have more than lamenting. We have hope, and we have determination.
It's because we have another milestone that we mark here today. The bigwigs of the West -- such as Washington and its media -- don't really have this story. They don't know their Jiuping from their Tuidang. And yet, it is time for them to get this story, and to learn those vocabulary words. Due to a shamefully silent news media, the related news has gone unreported, so I'm sure that Washington is foggy over these matters. Here and now, let me work to dispel their fogginess.
In 2004, a book was produced, called the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party. That book is an expose about the actual history of the Chinese Communist Party. For Chinese people, it has been an eye-opener. The evil of that Party is laid bare in the pages of the Nine Commentaries. This is where we get the word Jiuping (pronounce "Joe-ping"). Jiuping means "nine commentaries." Jiuping, the book, made its way around China, being smuggled in and passed hand-to-hand. It is classic underground literature, with every story that might inconvenience the Communist Party.
As the book began to get around China, there also came to be a wave of revulsion at the history revealed within. The impulse was there for people to quit the Communist Party -- to resign their membership. In 2005, my group the China Support Network joined the Global Coalition for Quitting the CCP: a coalition with many other Chinese dissident and human rights groups. This coalition put into place the Tuidang campaign. Tuidang means "quit the party." If everyone quit from the Communist Party, then imagine what's next -- they could have a meeting and no one would go. That is the general idea of this campaign; to isolate the evil-doers and constrain their ability to continue their evil ways.
Quitting the party happens in every conceivable way -- by letter, phone, and fax -- but most commonly, it happens on the Web, where the Tuidang campaign has accumulated an enormous database of resignations from the Party. Resignations tend to be accompanied by personal stories, where the ex-Communist might inform the world about evil they have witnessed, or injustices or persecution which befell their family.
That database has continued to accumulate resignations. In 2005, I spoke at the rally to salute the first one million people to quit the Communist Party. Pretty soon, we were having rallies for 2 million, 3 million, 5 million, and 10 million resignations. It is true also, that my group encouraged a rock group, NoManZero, to release the song 'Bye Bye CCP.' That song, and its music video, are now featured at the website of the China Support Network.
To make a long story short, we are here today because we have collected 60 million resignations in the Tuidang database! --That means 60 million ex-Communists; people who formerly joined the party and have now renounced it. The ranks of the Communist Party are growing thinner and thinner. It is like the air is going out of their tires. This campaign is taking a substantial bite out of the Chinese Communist Party, and we're not done yet!
It is time to salute the former Communists. They are people who have looked at the situation. They have seen the error of Communist ways. They want something better for their country and for their fellow Chinese. And, they have gathered up their courage and registered their displeasure with the status quo. Washington DC needs to get the memo: The Communist Party is headed for a fall, and is on its way to the ash heap of history. If a U.S. administration was wise, instead of reinforcing business as usual, it would instead help China to transition away from Communism by adding pressure for human rights.
China must end the Tiananmen crackdown. China must end the Falun Gong crackdown. China must end the Tibetan crackdown. And, China must end the Uighur crackdown. That means they must release the prisoners whom they've taken in the course of those crackdowns. Right now, my group focuses on four high-profile prisoner cases. Zhou Yongjun, Liu Xiaobo, Wang Bingzhang, and Gao Zhisheng must be released. But really, our focus on them should not be taken to exclude all of the other prisoners of conscience who are today laboring in China's Laogai camps. For another note about human rights, China must abolish the systems of Laogai and Laojiao. They are hideously evil tools of state repression.
In conclusion, I congratulate you, the campaigners. This is a grand and historic movement, celebrating the milestone of 60 million responses. Chinese people are answering the call and distancing themselves from the Communist Party. That is why, in addition to suffering and lamenting, we also stand here with courage, with determination, and with hope that China will soon experience a bright future with freedom, democracy, and human rights. To everybody here, thank you once again!
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