Tuidang movement

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Tuidang Service Center in Flushing ( Queens ) in New York City .

The Tuidang movement (退黨 運動 / 退党 运动; Tuìdang yùndòng) is a Chinese dissident phenomenon that began in late 2004. The movement, whose name literally means "from the Communist Party of China leak" means, was in the Chinese-language newspaper "Commentaries on the Communist Party Nine" by the publication of the editorial series Epoch Times (Dajiyuan), headquartered in the US catalyzed (九评共产党; Jiuping Gongchandang). The series criticizes the Communist Party's rule in China, with a focus on the history of the party's political repression, its propaganda apparatus and its attacks on traditional culture and its value systems.

Soon after the Nine Commentaries was published, the Epoch Times began publishing letters from readers who symbolically resigned from Communist Party organizations, including the Communist Youth Association of China and the Young Pioneers. Participants in the movement included political dissidents , lawyers, scholars, diplomats, former police officers, 610 Office staff, and military personnel.

background

The Tuidang Movement, and particularly the publication of the Nine Commentaries, can be understood as part of Falun Gong practitioners' resistance to their persecution in China.

Falun Gong (also known as Falun Dafa ) is a qigong practice with roots in Buddhist and Daoist philosophy that has enjoyed great popularity since it was first published by Li Hongzhi in 1992 . Since 1999, Falun Gong has been severely persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). When allegations of organ harvesting from Falun Gong practitioners in China were made in March 2006 , they were picked up by several investigators, including Assistant Director of the Human Rights and Medicine Program at the University of Minnesota, Kirk Allison, Vice President of the European Parliament and nominee EU Rapporteur on Democracy and Human Rights Edward McMillan-Scott ; Former Canadian Secretary of State and Attorney General David Kilgour PC and Human Rights Attorney David Matas , who presented their investigation report to the United Nations; and China analyst and investigative journalist Ethan Gutmann . Gutmann interviewed more than 100 witnesses and published his investigation results in 2014 in book form. In it, he estimates that between 2000 and 2008, 65,000 Falun Gong practitioners were killed for their organs, and the persecution of Falun Gong resulted in between 450,000 and one million Falung Gong practitioners being imprisoned during that period.

In the early 2000s, US-based practitioners established news media outlets with the intent of challenging the Communist Party's supremacy over Chinese-language media and providing a voice for the opposition. Through these media, particularly the Epoch Times (Dajiyuan) and New Tang Dynasty Television , Falun Gong established a "de facto media alliance" with other Chinese dissident groups.

The Epoch Times, as part of its campaign against the CCP, published the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party in November 2004 and began giving readers the opportunity to quit the party. Hu Ping, in Human Rights in China, describes the advance in political commentary as a "logical path" against the party because Falun Gong was unable to end the persecution through other means. However, Hu points out that the practice itself is apolitical: “Originally, Falun Gong was its main criticism of Jiang Zemin , but after Jiang left his post and the new Hu Jintao regime refused to rehabilitate Falun Gong and even refused to persecute Falun Gong of Falun Gong , Falun Gong broadened its target to include the entire regime and the Communist Party ... This change, though not exactly natural, must certainly be considered appropriate. If some people insist on viewing Falun Gong as political, then it can only be viewed in the sense that Václav Havel describes it, namely, 'anti-political'. "

Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party

The Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party is a book-length collection of nine editorial pieces that present a critical history of Communist Party's rule, from the Yan'an Corrective Movement to the present day. They describe in detail topics and events that are subject to censorship in China , such as the Great Leap Forward and the resulting famines in China , the Cultural Revolution , the destruction and appropriation of religions, the 1989 Tian'anmen massacre, and the persecution of Falun Gong.

In addition to the historical accounts, the Nine Commentaries contain extensive explanations of the nature and character of the Communist Party, arguing that it is inherently violent, duplicitous and immoral and that its philosophy betrays the Tao and universal laws. Christian Science Monitor notes that the Tuidang movement - in contrast to some Chinese dissident movements that rely heavily on free democratic concepts - “explicitly [uses] the Chinese language and meaning. More Confucian than humanistic, they [the Nine Commentaries] often value Buddhist and Daoist spirituality. Leaving the party is therefore not just political activism, but takes on the spiritual meaning as a process to purify the conscience and to rejoin traditional ethics and the associated values. "

The Nine Commentaries do not make explicit recommendations for an alternative political system in China, nor do they see institutional changes to the country's grievances as a solution. It is like other Falun Gong writings which, in the words of historian Arthur Waldron, "advocate cures for the pathologies of communism in traditional Chinese values ​​of truthfulness and human kindness."

Distribution in China

Copies of the Nine Commentaries were sent to China from overseas by email, fax, or mail. In February 2006, Forbes magazine estimated that over 172 million copies had been brought into China through these means. A documentary of the series will be broadcast to the People's Republic of China by satellite on New Tang Dynasty Television. The Internet also played an important role in disseminating the Nine Commentaries and in circulating the resulting reactions.

Activists in China adopt their own methods of dissemination, including handing out door-to-door copies or posting slogans in public. In rural areas and northern cities such as Beijing, Falun Gong practitioners print keywords on RMB bills that refer to Tuidang. The Financial Times reported that typical news was, “The Chinese Communist Party is destined to be destroyed by heaven. The lives of those who quit the Communist Party will be saved quickly! "

Resignations from the party

Following the publication of the Nine Commentaries, the Epoch Times website began publishing letters from readers expressing a desire to end their membership of the Communist Party, Communist Youth Association and Young Pioneers. The newspaper created a website devoted to this matter and provided an online submission form for the withdrawal declarations. For reasons of personal security, many participants sign with a pseudonym.

The process of establishing the exit declarations is referred to in Chinese as “Tuìdang” (退党), which can be translated as “to leave the party” or “to leave the party”. The term is somewhat misleading as average citizens are unable to officially quit the party and risk imprisonment for raising their voice.

In March 2015, the Epoch Times published over 195 million names and aliases of Tuidang attendees. Due to the anonymity of the declarations, these numbers are difficult to verify. Still, Ethan Gutmann says: “The meaning is very real. [The Tuidang Statements] are gestures of rejection from Chinese citizens of all walks of life and beliefs. And while the numbers are as shaky as any internet based survey, I think we can say with confidence that they run into the millions. "

As of February 25, 2019, the Tuidang Movement website reported 326,994,055 withdrawals.

Respected participants

A number of well-known Chinese dissidents are among the participants in the Tuidang movement. For example, Wei Jingsheng , leader of the Beijing Spring Democracy Movement in 1978; Human rights lawyers including Gao Zhisheng , Guo Guoting , and Zheng Enchong ; and defectors Chen Yonglin , Hao Fengjun (former 610 Office staff ), and Li Fengzhi.

Gao Zhisheng resigned from the Communist Party in December 2005. His rationale was, “This [Chinese Communist] Party has used the most primitive, immoral, and illegal means to torture our mothers, torture our women, torture our children, and torture our brothers and sisters ... Today I am kicking, Gao Zhisheng , formally out of this inhumane, unjust and evil party. This is the proudest day of my life. "

Other participants whose stories caught media attention include Masha Ma , a student at the University of Toronto who quit the Communist Party after seeing a documentary about the Tian'anmen massacre and reading the Nine Commentaries. Zhejiang Province Communist Party veteran, 74-year-old Ding Weikun , resigned after being imprisoned in his village for protesting land grabbing by the local government.

Reactions

The series itself received mixed reviews in the western world. Historian David Ownby writes of the series: "While there are undoubtedly some truths in the commentaries, they lack balance and nuance and they read like the anti-communist propaganda written in Taiwan in the 1950s." The Epoch Times' 2005 Asian-American Journalists' Association received an Award for Excellent Reporting for the series' publication .

Chen Yonglin, former first secretary of the Chinese Consulate in Sydney, and Hao Fengjun, former officer of the Tianjin City State Security Bureau and 610 Office staff who sought political asylum in Australia in the spring of 2005, said at a press conference in October 2005 the International Society for Human Rights (ISHR) that overall the governments of Europe had still not paid adequate attention to the more than 5 million withdrawals from the Communist Party of China, although these "high-risk exit applications" were a "unique protest by Chinese for more." Democracy in their country ”.

But not all countries took a passive stance on the Tuidang movement: The first independent Ukraine president Leonid Kravchuk told the Epoch Times that all Ukrainians should read the book "Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party" because that book has one leave a deep impression on him. Kravchuk pointed out that the facts described did not have too many comments and that it was aimed at China, but one could see the roots from Russia. "In China, they added such a perverse kind, both ideologically and politically, that it just doesn't fit into the human mind," said Kravchuk. “It is beyond understanding how people can come under such influence and create things that even an animal cannot do.” Leonid Kravchuk is said to have publicly recommended journalists and politicians to read the “Nine Commentaries” several times, so that he Received a thank you letter from The Epoch Times, which was presented to him by Olena Balakina, a journalist for the Ukrainian Epoch Times.

Former Polish President Lech Walęsa , who liberated his country from communism, said in a letter to the Tuidang Center in Kiev, Ukraine that he supported the Tuidang movement for an end to communism in China. In an interview with The Epoch Times he said about communism: “Communism as a system has deprived itself of human values, it is incompatible with the progress of civilization and from the beginning it has been under a bad star, sooner or later Had to lead to bankruptcy. ”Walesa mentioned that nothing could stop a people's desire for freedom, democracy and respect for human rights. When asked about the Tuidang movement, he said: “Nothing can stop this movement, this historic tsunami, of that I am firmly convinced. Nobody can stop the spirit of freedom and truth. "

On June 8, 2018, Dana Rohrabacher , a member of the US House of Representatives , introduced a resolution (H. RES. 932) to the United States House Committee on Foreign Affairs , showing solidarity with the Tuidang movement and an immediate end to the campaign to persecute Falun Gong practitioners calling.

Communist Party reaction

Communist Party authorities and public security agencies responded to the Tuidang movement with censorship, book censorship and coercive measures, including the arrest of dozens of participants. A study in 2005, jointly conducted by researchers from Harvard University , the University of Cambridge, and the University of Toronto , found that words related to the Tuidang movement were the most intensely censored terms on the Chinese internet were. In March 2011, the People's Liberation Army magazine published a series of leading articles intended to refute the demands of reformers. These demanded a neutral, non-political military that on the one hand is subordinate to the state and not the party and, on the other hand, trains itself in the military, instead of being subject to political indoctrination. Jakarta Globe wrote, "It is interesting that the CCP, for the first time, inadvertently admitted that Falun Gong's call to 'quit the CCP' had an impact on the ranks of the military and their grassroots."

See also

Bibliography

Web links

Individual evidence

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  2. ↑ a b c d e f Caylan Ford, An underground challenge to China's status quo , The Christian Science Monitor, October 21, 2009, accessed November 14, 2016
  3. ↑ a b Bill Gertz, Chinese spy who defects tells all , The Washington Times, March 19, 2009, accessed November 14, 2016
  4. ^ Renee Schoff, Growing group poses a dilemma for China, Associated Press, April 26, 1999
  5. ↑ People's Republic of China: The crackdown on Falun Gong and other so-called "heretical organizations" ( July 11, 2003 memento in the Internet Archive ), Amnesty International, March 23, 2000, accessed November 14, 2016
  6. ↑ Annual Report 2009 , Congressional Executive Commission on China, October 10, 2009, accessed November 14, 2016
  7. ↑ Kirk C. Allison, Falun Gong, Organ Harvesting in China, and the Human Rights Case for an Independent Congressional Investigation - testimony submitted by Kirk C. Allison (PDF) , Open Hearing of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, University of Minnesota, September 29, 2006, webarchive, accessed July 7, 2017
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  9. ↑ Jay Nordlinger, Face The Slaughter: The Slaughter: Mass Killings, Organ Harvesting, and China's Secret Solution to Its Dissident Problem , by Ethan Gutmann, National Review, August 25, 2014, accessed November 14, 2016
  10. ↑ Viv Young, The Slaughter: Mass Killings, Organ Harvesting, and China's Secret Solution to Its Dissident Problem , New York Journal of Books, August 11, 2014, accessed November 14, 2016
  11. ↑ Ethan Gutmann, The Slaughter: Mass Killings, Organ Harvesting and China's Secret Solution to Its Dissident Problem, Aug. 12, 2014. “Average number of Falun Gong in the Laogai system, at any given point in time: Low estimate 450,000, high estimate 1,000. 000 ", p. 320." Best estimate of Falun Gong withdrawals between 2000 and 2008, 65,000. ", P. 322.
  12. ↑ Barbara Turnbull, Q&A: Author and analyst Ethan Gutmann discusses China's illegal organ trade , The Toronto Star, October 21, 2014, accessed November 14, 2016
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  17. ↑ Richard C. Morais, Cracks in the Wall , Forbes, February 27, 2006, accessed November 14, 2016
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  21. ↑ Matthew Robertson, Gao Zhisheng To Serve Three Year Prison Sentence , The Epoch Times Newspaper, December 16, 2011, accessed November 14, 2016
  22. ↑ Tuidang movement homepage , accessed on November 14, 2016
  23. ↑ Withdrawals from the Chinese Communist Party and its affiliated organizations , tuidang.dajiyuan.com, accessed February 25, 2019
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  25. ↑ David Ownby, Falun Gong and the Future of China , Oxford University Press, 2008, p. 221, accessed November 14, 2016
  26. ^ 'Nine Commentaries' Wins National Journalism Award in US , The Epoch Times, August 19, 2005, accessed November 14, 2016
  27. ^ Asian American Journalists Association Recognizes Excellence in News Coverage , The Free Library, August 23, 2005, accessed November 14, 2016
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  29. ↑ a b Olena Balakina, Ex-President of Ukraine, recommends: “Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party,” Epoch Times, March 31, 2014, accessed June 29, 2017
  30. ↑ Joshua Phillip, Lech Walesa on "Tuidang": Nothing Can Stop the Wave of Leaving the CPC , Epoch Times, June 22, 2015, accessed June 29, 2017
  31. ↑ House Resolution 932 , US Congress, June 8, 2016, accessed June 18, 2018
  32. ^ House Resolution 932 , US Congress, June 8, 2016, PDF, accessed June 18, 2018
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