Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

The Tuidang Movement: 100 Million Chinese Hearts Changed
The Epoch Times ^ | 8/11/2011 | Mathew Robertson & Epoch Times Staff

Posted on 08/18/2011 6:12:28 PM PDT by ex-Texan

Movement to renounce the Chinese Communist Party reaches major milestone

When poorly constructed elementary school buildings collapsed in Wenchuan, China, after a massive earthquake in 2008, parents wanted answers. Rather than launching an investigation or tallying the student deaths, however, agents of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) infiltrated the parent groups, broke them up, arrested the recalcitrants, and jailed a man trying to help them.

A similar dynamic happened after the poisoned milk powder scandal broke in 2008. The man who lobbied on behalf of the parents, and whose child was also a victim, ended up in jail.

Meanwhile, millions of peaceful Chinese citizens are monitored, arrested, and tortured to death, because the CCP considers their religious beliefs to be a threat to its rule.

The Chinese regime also crushes all attempts by anyone organizing politically—hence hopes for a future China without these depredations seem bleak.

Xia Ming’s entry is recorded somewhere in the tidal wave of 55,000 new statements that appear on the website each day—every one of them stating a time, ID number, and number of people making a renunciation.

Enter “Tuidang,” meaning, “Renounce the Party.”

Yan Zhijun is the archetype of a Tuidang activist. A 62-year-old Chinese woman with a broad, disarming smile, she started promoting Tuidang in early 2005, on a trip from the United States back to China.

It began with a small circle of family members. She would remind them of the horrors of Communist Party rule, past and present, and simply ask, “Do you want to be part of that?”

After she got back from China, her Tuidang activities picked up momentum. From family members and friends she extended the circle to friends of friends, former school students and teachers, and then strangers (she now says everyone she meets is like a “brother or sister,” and if they’re Chinese, she talks about Tuidang.)

People who hadn’t heard from her for four decades were surprised to get a phone call, she in America, explaining why they needed to sever ties with the Chinese Communist Party. She’s helped 1,800 people resign, by her own calculations. Severing Ties

The idea of severing ties with an organization, which one might not be a formal member of may seem strange, except for the fact that the CCP is no normal organization. Since taking power in 1949 it has forced the populace to swear allegiance to it, dominated or attempted to control every aspect of life in China, and implicated a large swathe of the populace in its misdeeds.

In the words of the “Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party,” an editorial series published by The Epoch Times in the fall of 2004 that gave birth to the movement, under CCP rule: “Traditional faiths and principles have been violently destroyed. Original ethical concepts and social structures have been disintegrated by force. Empathy, love, and harmony among people have been twisted into struggle and hatred.”

The result has been predictable: “A total collapse of social, moral, and ecological systems, and a profound crisis for the Chinese people ... brought about through the deliberate planning, organization, and control of the CCP.”

Chinese people get it. An experience of the CCP is the common denominator for every person who grew up on the mainland, and as Tuidang activists see it, it is time for the Chinese people to determine their own fate.

The concern is not with severing one's ties physically or professionally with the CCP. One can use an alias to quit the Party, and even go back to work as a Party official as long as the psychological separation has been made. “Gods look at one’s heart,” Tuidang participants repeatedly say.

Participants explain that Tuidang peacefully dissolves the Party, one renunciation at a time. Tuidang also provides participants with the chance to separate themselves from the crimes and corruption of the CCP. Caylan Ford, a graduate of George Washington University, writes in her master’s thesis on Tuidang that it offers Chinese people a path to “solace, moral redemption, and freedom by severing their psychic and symbolic ties to the Communist Party.”

Peace of Mind

Given the extremes of violence the Party has wrought on the Chinese people over its decades in power, some of the renunciation statements are extreme. One is from a decommissioned soldier calling himself Chen Xiaoyu. He describes being forced, along with his company, to open fire on a village of the Hui ethnic group in China. “I will never forget that extreme cruelty and tragic scene, which cannot be described with words,” Chen wrote.

The next lines go to the heart of the Tuidang experience for Chinese people: “I was raised as an honest and kind person, and I could have passed a happy and peaceful, normal life, but the demon robbed me of this happiness I should have had. ... If gods hear my repentance, please grant me peace of mind so that I will no longer be terrified by this recurring nightmare. Today, I solemnly declare that I withdraw from the CCP and any of its affiliated organizations.”

A policeman, using a pseudonym (since getting caught could lead to punishment from dismissal to torture), wrote that he was full of remorse after years of “suppressing the common people.”

“Because I have lost hope with everything the CCP has done and have been an accessory to its crimes for the past 30 years, my conscience can no longer take the huge pressure. With the help of Falun Gong practitioners, I am publishing my withdrawal from the CCP and its affiliated organizations,” he wrote.

China has persisted for thousands of years, but no dynasty has ever tried to brainwash people out of being a good person. Chinese have always emphasized the truth, but do you have that feeling today?

— Yan Zhijun, Tuidang activist

References to gods or higher forces that watch over man are a common feature of the longer statements. Such beliefs were a fundamental part of Chinese culture until 1949, when the Communist Party forcefully suppressed all religions as “superstitions.” And the reference to Falun Gong is fitting, since most of the people on the front lines pushing the movement forward are practitioners of Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted since 1999 in China. A New China

Tuidang not only enjoins Chinese to face the moral issues presented by the CCP’s dictatorship, but it also presents a compelling vision of another China that is grounded in authentic Chinese traditions, rather than the theories of Marx and Lenin.

“When I meet people I ask them if they had heard about the ‘santui,’” Yan Zhijun says. Santui means the “Three Withdrawals,” referring to the Young Pioneers, the Communist Youth League, and the Party proper.

“I talk to them about it simply: ‘Why do you want to fight with heaven and earth?’” as is espoused by CCP communist theory. “This isn’t what the Yellow Emperor taught us,” she would say, referring to the mythical founder of Chinese civilization.

Yan peppers her speech with ancient Chinese phraseology and historical references. “China has persisted for thousands of years, but no dynasty has ever tried to brainwash its people out of being a good person. Chinese have always emphasized the truth, but do you have that feeling today?” Few do, she notes.

Tuidang presents itself as the alternative to the culture that has been created by the Communist Party: it is the old China, the China long before the communists arrived; it’s about understanding the law of karma, embracing simple virtues, and honest living. And it is finding a receptive ear.

On a recent sunny weekend, Yan obtained one renunciation within 30 seconds. A man approached seeking some of the materials she and her colleague were handing out. She asked him if he had joined the Communist Party. He said no. Had he joined the Youth League? Nope. But what about when he was young, didn’t he wear a “red kerchief”? Like most Chinese, he had. When he was just a tot he also made an oath to “resolutely obey the Chinese Communist Party.” Now that he realized the CCP was bad news, shouldn’t he make a clean break? She gave him a pseudonym of Xia Ming (a play on words of “It’s summer; I understand the truth”) and he agreed. She would later enter that name for him onto the dajiyuan.tuidang.com website.

Xia Ming’s entry is recorded somewhere in the tidal wave of 55,000 new statements that appear on the website each day—every one of them stating a time, ID number, and number of people making a renunciation. As of the evening of Aug. 9, the numbers had reached 100,141,700; by Aug. 10 they will be over 100,200,000.

Related Articles

* A Chinese Sea Captain’s Account of Persuading Others to Quit the CCP

Around the world, wherever there are Chinese, and particularly in China, people like Yan Zhijun are talking to friends, relatives, former school friends, and tourists, reminding them of the dark horrors of Communist Party rule, and informing them that they do have a choice—something the Party has resolutely tried to take away from its citizens. “Shouldn’t you make a clean break?” activists ask. Over 100 million have said, “Yes,” they should.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Foreign Affairs
KEYWORDS: anticommunist; china
The Tuidang Movement is making amazing progress in China -- But I fear the government may soon swoop down on them like a hungry hawk after cautious little squirrels
1 posted on 08/18/2011 6:12:34 PM PDT by ex-Texan
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: Oldeconomybuyer; KeyLargo; Oldpuppymax; Quix; blueyon; stephenjohnbanker; dep; Pelham; ...

* Ping* !


2 posted on 08/18/2011 6:15:09 PM PDT by ex-Texan (Ecclesiastes 5:10 - 20)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ex-Texan

Very interesting, thank you !


3 posted on 08/18/2011 6:20:35 PM PDT by tomkat (1775)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ex-Texan
Since taking power in 1949 it has forced the populace to swear allegiance to it, dominated or attempted to control every aspect of life in China, and implicated a large swathe of the populace in its misdeeds.

Change the year to 2008 and "China" to "America" and we could just as easily be talking about the Obama Administration here folks .........

4 posted on 08/18/2011 6:24:15 PM PDT by usconservative (When The Ballot Box No Longer Counts, The Ammunition Box Does. (What's In Your Ammo Box?))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ex-Texan

***But I fear the government may soon swoop down on them like a hungry hawk after cautious little squirrels ****

The Hundred flowers Revolution! Redux.


5 posted on 08/18/2011 6:31:01 PM PDT by Ruy Dias de Bivar (Click my name. See my home page, if you dare! NEW PHOTOS & PAINTINGS)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: tomkat

Click on the primary link above to view fascinating images. Chinese people are carrying signs protesting their own government written in English.


6 posted on 08/18/2011 6:32:17 PM PDT by ex-Texan (Ecclesiastes 5:10 - 20)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: ex-Texan

Communism is passive aggressive fascism/nazism. It is about denial of evil being done, it is a death warrant on anyone claiming contrary to the political self acclaim of the narcissists, it is about forgeting it and forgetting them and threatening the contrarians of “the View”.

Zero fits the bill of such self serving opinion makers to a T.


7 posted on 08/18/2011 6:33:39 PM PDT by JudgemAll (Democrats Fed. job-security Whorocracy & hate:hypocrites must be gay like us or be tested/crucified)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: usconservative

The cowards ignore that they are more afraid to contradict Zero than they are really worshipers of him. There is a strange connotation of emotion between fear and admiration. It’s not merely admiration and worship that motivate them, but cowardice, and the fabians will not admit it.


8 posted on 08/18/2011 6:36:57 PM PDT by JudgemAll (Democrats Fed. job-security Whorocracy & hate:hypocrites must be gay like us or be tested/crucified)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: ex-Texan

God bless these Chinese people and people everywhere suffering under the heel of Communism. Please help them with this effort to free themselves of this terrible curse. And while you’re at it Father God, please continue to bless America and free us from Obama and those who would place us under that same plague. Thank you Father God.


9 posted on 08/18/2011 6:43:39 PM PDT by holyscroller ( Without God, America is one nation under)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: JudgemAll

I REPUDIATE OBAMA AND THE AMERICAN COMMUNIST PARTY! (Formerly known as the Democrats;) SAY IT LOUD: I’M CAPITALIST AND PROUD!:)


10 posted on 08/18/2011 6:44:03 PM PDT by Frank_2001
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: ex-Texan
Is the Tuidang Movement similar to the USA Tea Party?
11 posted on 08/18/2011 6:44:29 PM PDT by sarasmom ( A Fine is a Tax for doing wrong. A Tax is a Fine for doing well.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ex-Texan

Some parallels to what Allen West is trying to do for blacks, with similar dangers.


12 posted on 08/18/2011 6:46:51 PM PDT by Balding_Eagle
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ex-Texan

Yet the CCP would have no problem wiping out 100 million people. No big deal. For all their “modernity” and tolerating “capitalism”, nothing has changed, the CCP still has the same callousness toward human life as during the “Great Leap Backwards” and the “Cultural Devolution”.


13 posted on 08/18/2011 7:01:16 PM PDT by Fred Hayek (FUBO, the No Talent Pop Star pResident.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ex-Texan
“China has persisted for thousands of years, but no dynasty has ever tried to brainwash its people out of being a good person."

Change is going to come to China, probably sooner than we think.

14 posted on 08/18/2011 7:33:44 PM PDT by Oratam
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ex-Texan

Interesting....thanks for the ping!


15 posted on 08/18/2011 7:40:56 PM PDT by stephenjohnbanker (God, family, country, mom, apple pie, the girl next door and a Ford F250 to pull my boat.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: ex-Texan

That’s because the protest was in Washington DC.


16 posted on 08/18/2011 7:54:16 PM PDT by DB
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: Finny

ping for later ... Tuidang


17 posted on 08/19/2011 12:15:33 AM PDT by Finny ("Raise hell. Vote smart." -- Ted Nugent)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson