The China Research Association held the second in a series of conferences on “the imminent collapse of communism in China” on August 5. Featured speakers were invited to discuss “The Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party,” a series of remarks on the internal and external activities of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which was originally published in The Epoch Times, a worldwide newspaper network largely distributed in mainland China.
“Mao understood that culture is inexplicably linked to both language and religion,” Sheila Copps, former Deputy Prime Minister of Canada, told the audience at the Bahen Centre for Information Technology. She argued that the suppression of fundamental freedoms of expression and religion is used as an instrument to both maintain uniformity and further entrench the legitimacy of the CCP. Examples were the “replacement of traditional music with homage to the communist party” and “Chinese history with party history.”
“There is a deep importance to cultural diversity,” Ms. Copps told the listeners, outlining the necessity of pluralism and democracy. “Nuclear shields will not save us; building a wall around our sameness will not save us, but diversity will.”
Multiple speakers cited the persecution of the Falun Gong spiritual movement as an example of the current intolerance of the Chinese government. Professor Frank Xie of Drexel University referred to the suppression as “internal bleeding.”
“We have a government, a small group of people who are denying the people of China many fundamental freedoms … and yet the world is running at breakneck speed to China to do business,” Senator Di Nino told the audience. The economic relationship between China and other nations is one dictated by “which of [these] countries are soft on human rights violations,” Mr. Erping Zhang, a Harvard Mason Fellow and the Executive Director of the Association for Asian Research told the listeners.
A former Chinese security official, who was speaking for the first time since his defection, described the labor camps and the methods of brainwashing used on the Falun Gong, such as sleep deprivation and electric shocks, which he had seen administered to a 15-year-old girl. Many of the products exported by China–among them Christmas ornaments–are produced in these camps.
The Nine Commentaries “exposed the nature of the CCP,” the former security official told listeners through a translator. “The opposing principles that govern human nature and the universe,” leave the “tottering regime … bound to self-destruct.”
Prof. Xie described emerging evidence that suggests that “government reported GDP [in China] is fabricated.” According to Xie, the enthusiasm of foreign investors concerning China is founded in the GDP’s “supercharged” growth.
“China is not strong in the sense that the people of china are behind them,” Senator Di Nino told listeners. “Eventually, it is my strong belief that the Chinese people will solve the problem.”
