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Washington and Hong Kong rallies cap off a busy week in China / freedom
issues
The stakes in China increased with news about a death camp; Here, we review
six statements from four leading American activists
March 13, 2006 (CSN) The past week has seen a high volume of news for the
Chinese democracy movement.
The week began with a session of the National People's Congress (NPC), a
captive assembly that must follow the party line of the CCP (Chinese
Communist Party), greeted by action of the Global Relay Hunger Strike for
Rights Protection (a fast). The NPC included a speech by Premier Wen Jiabao,
like an American 'State of the Union' address, but for China.
Mid-week, news surfaced that China has a secretive prison camp in the
Sujiatun district in Shenyang City of Liaoning Province. The camp is said
to be a death camp, not a labor camp. It houses 6,000 Falun Gong
practitioners with a one way ticket to the crematorium that is built in to
the facility. China thereby vaulted into a category with Nazi Germany,
running a genocidal death camp to exterminate its own citizens.
Late in the week, the reaction emerged, and on Sunday, rallies were held in
Hong Kong and in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC.
Because the China Support Network (CSN) originally represented the American
response against the Tiananmen Square massacre, today's review will focus on
what was said by four leading American voices, who commonly campaign in and
with the Chinese democracy movement: Stephen Gregory, John Kusumi, Timothy
Cooper, and D.J. McGuire. Gregory is the Chairman and Opinion Editor of the
Epoch Times; Kusumi is the founder and Director emeritus of CSN; Cooper is
the Executive Director of Worldrights; and McGuire is the President of CSN,
and founder of the China e-Lobby, now a unit of CSN. To review their
statements of the past week is to review the American input received this
week by the Chinese democracy movement.
Gregory had two statements. First on Friday outside the PRC (People's
Republic of China) Liaison Office in Hong Kong, saying "Sujiatun, like
Auschwitz, is a name that will forever live in infamy." He emphasized that
there is clearly "a choice between civilization and barbarism. After today,
the divide is clear. On the one side is our hope for civilization. On the
other side is the CCP. On the one side is our common humanity, on the other
is Sujiatun....There can be no compromise with Sujiatun." He described the
recent attack against Hong Kong offices of the Epoch Times, and concluded,
"In telling the truth about the CCP we stand with civilization and we oppose
barbarism. Our humanity makes our duty clear: Tell the world about
Sujiatun."
Gregory's second speech came at a Sunday rally in Hong Kong, originally
slated to celebrate 9 million withdrawals from the CCP, inspired by the
movement to quit the Communist Party, in which the Epoch Times has been the
prime mover. His remarks celebrated the awakening of China's conscience, and
said, "The struggle in China today affects all of humanity. That struggle is
between civilization and barbarism. Everyone throughout the world has a
stake in it. Everyone must take a side in it."
In addition to the movement to withdraw from the party, he observed the
rights protection movement that has arisen, spearheaded by the Beijing
attorney, Gao Zhisheng. He praised that movement as extraordinary, saying
that it "allows ordinary people throughout China and throughout the world
peacefully to take a stand against oppression....The rights protection
movement provides a way for each individual in China to connect his or her
own situation to the general need to defend human rights in China." He added
that tyranny requires isolation, and that the movement combats isolation by
allowing synchronized action. Hunger strikers "can begin to understand
better the connection between one's personal situation and the situation of
the Chinese people. Before the individual might have felt passive and
powerless. Now he or she has the means to act."
Gregory remained adamant that the CCP will not solve the problem; the CCP
*is* the problem. He noted that in leaving the CCP, that people recovered
their own conscience, often feeling quite proud of themselves for taking the
step of CCP resignation. He again mentioned the recent attack against the
Epoch Times and said, "The hope for the future of the people of Chinathe
hope for the future of the people of Hong Kongdepends on an independent
media that tells the truth about the CCP."
Kusumi had two statements. The first, on Tuesday, was prior to news of the
Sujiatun death camp. The Tuesday article was an analysis of the opening of
China's National People's Congress. Kusumi observed that the CCP was
pandering for much-needed support in China's rural areas, and yet playing
politics with a crucial issue in China: the safety of coal miners. He
recommended, "China should cancel its military buildup and spend that money
on fixing its mines." He also lamented that the CCP's spending priorities
were the opposite, saying, "in the values of the Communist Party, it is more
important to threaten Taiwan than to manage the Mainland rationally." His
article ranged into other issues of Chinese governance, noting that "China's
CCP government is a machine for killing its people," and noted that in the
CCP system, the "rule of arbitrary fiat" trumps the rule of law. He said
that he "would not place faith, pin hopes, or even believe promises" coming
from that government, as in the speech of Wen Jiabao. And he concluded by
praising Gao Zhisheng with his Global Relay Hunger Strike for Rights
Protection movement; and by invoking the memory of Sun Yat-sen, a
pre-communist Chinese leader who spoke of government "of the people, by the
people, and for the people."
Kusumi's second statement, on Friday, was upon news of the Sujiatun death
camp. He expressed his horror at the news, saying, "A death camp...is no
small news item. This represents Falun Gong practitioners in Communist China
being exterminated by the fiat of Jiang Zemin. It places Communist China
into a class with Nazi Germany." He said that, "the Western world is
challenged by its conscience to remember history, and to keep its vow
'Never again!'" Accordingly, he called for international inspection of that
facility, and for sanctions to be placed against China while we await its
compliance. 'Cancel, cancel, cancel' is a summary of his suggested package
of sanctions, that would cancel tourism, cancel the Olympics (that are
slated to be held in Beijing in 2008), and cancel PNTR (favorable trade
treatment extended by the U.S. Congress in 2000). He also said that it would
require "an end to persecution of Falun Gong and other prisoners of
conscience, before any return of tourism, Olympics, or PNTR is indicated."
Cooper's statement came at the Lincoln Memorial's Sunday rally, that was
originally slated to celebrate 9 million withdrawals from the CCP. Cooper
described these as "the best of times and the worst of times for our global
movement to bring democracyand nothing but democracyto the dispossessed
people of China." He also segued between celebrating an awakening of Chinese
conscience, and the nine million withdrawals, on one hand, with responding
to news of Sujiatun, on the other hand. Cooper indicated his belief in "a
power for change inside the CCP," saying, "It comes from human conscience,
from the changing hearts and shifting minds of CCP members..." And, he cited
the Russian dissident Natan Sharansky, for his idea that "double-thinkers"
exist within authoritarian societies. They are like latecomers compared to
innovators and early adopters, which means that other people go first with
dissent, and they will be with us shortly.
On the news of Sujiatun, Cooper applied the term genocide, and said, "This
is a whole new level of depravity practiced by the CCP." He said, "America
must not fail to act. [America must] use the full measure of its political
and diplomatic power to put a stop to it before it goes on a single day
more." He called upon the U.S. government to investigate these allegations
and to "release satellite photographs of the concentration camp in Shenyang
for the world to see. And we call on the US Congress to hold hearings and
investigate. And finally, we call on the UN High Commissioner for Human
Rights, Ms. Louise Arbour, and her agents to make immediate inquiries of the
Chinese government and for the International Red Cross to seek immediate
access to the camp." He concluded, "If the Chinese government resists, the
US, the European Union, and the world community at large, including the UN
Security Council, must take all necessary steps to put an end to the
genocide before 6,000 Falun Gong victims turn into 60,000 Falun Gong
victims, turn into 600,000 Falun Gong victims, turn into 6 million Falun
Gong victimslike all those Jews who died in the Nazi Germany genocide."
This was a heated speech of full battle cry against the CCP.
McGuire's statement for the Sunday rally at the Lincoln Memorial was read in
absentia by CSN's Simon Thomas. Expressing outrage at Sujiatun, McGuire
said, "the same combination of evil, contempt for human life, and
assembly-line efficiency that fueled the death camps of the Nazis and the
Soviets is there in Sujiatun. For this, the Chinese Communist Party must be
treated for the pariah and enemy of humanity that it truly is." He said,
"Yet, despite, all of this blood, despite this collection of horror and
outrage, we gather here not in despair, or anger, but with hope; for we know
that these grotesque actions are not signs of strength, but of desperation.
They are not the actions of a secure regime, but of a regime well aware it
is in race against time, and that it is losing." He stated ominously, "The
Communists know they must destroy the democratic world before the truth
destroys them. It is the only card they have left to play....the democratic
world must recognize this, and act accordingly. In order to defeat the
Chinese Communist Party, we must isolate it, contain it, and undermine it."
About isolating Communist China, he said, "That means an end to Permanent
Normal Trade Relations. Normal Trade implies a normal government. The
Chinese Communist Party, with organ harvesting killing camps, hidden
epidemic victims left to die, and an unrivaled record of support for
terrorists and other anti-American regimes, is many things; normal is not
one of them."
He also spoke against the Olympic games going to Beijing, and was clear and
explicit to say, "This three-part strategy: isolation, containment, and
undermining, can lead to a free China." With democratic solidarity and
vigilence, "China will take its rightful place in the democratic
world....let us take these outrages for what they are: the dangerous but
desperate flailings of a dying regime." With killing underway, he concluded,
"Thus let us add not anger, but urgency to our mission; let us not despair,
but double our efforts to bring freedom to China, security to America, and
peace to the globe. Thank you, God Bless you, and may God Bless the American
and Chinese peoples."
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Published March 13, 2006 by the China Support Network (CSN). Begun as the
American response group in 1989, CSN represents Americans who are "on the
side" of the students in Tiananmen Square standing for democratic reform,
human rights, and freedom in China. For dissident news to support a stronger
China policy or get more information, see http://www.chinasupport.net.
_________________________________________________________________
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