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The result of the publication was an open call to the Chinese public and those concerned with China’s future to “renounce” the CCP, a peaceful campaign that has been led by Falun Gong practitioners, one of the most severely persecuted groups in modern China.
The grassroots movement that resulted soon formed the Global Service Center, which collects (and encourages) renunciations via phone, fax, or Internet. The total number of renunciations are tallied online, and now number over 81 million.
Renunciations are counted for any individual who has ever been a member of the Young Pioneers of China, the Communist Youth League of China, or the Chinese Communist Party proper; the former two mass organizations are used by the CCP to indoctrinate China’s young people, and cover the ages 6-14 and 14-28 respectively.
Though formal membership may have expired, renunciations are still collected from former members of these organizations—which includes a large proportion of China’s population.
On the surface the CCP appears not to have responded to the tuidang movement, Li Dayong says, but the response inside Party has been a frenzy of activity: those who distribute the book in China are punished severely, and political cleansing movements the likes of which had not been seen since the 1950s—complete with forced confessions, focused lessons in groupthink, renewal of the oath to join the CCP, and re-education meant to maintain the “advanced nature” of the Party cadres at all levels—sprang up.
“Tuidang” statements are related partly to disaffection with the cross-strata strife of Chinese society—such as entrenched corruption, environmental damage, the decay of behavioral standards, the absence of basic social trust, the capricious violence of the Party elite, their expropriations of land and property, the deprival of basic human rights, etc.—but overall, according to Li, are about the Chinese people’s repugnance at the CCP’s immorality.
“I wish to point out that instead of being a political movement aimed at bringing down the CCP, the essence of renouncing the CCP lies in the spiritual revolution in each individual,” Li stated.
Nevertheless, the impact of the tuidang campaign may bring that about anyway. Li concluded with a Chinese saying: “Not only can water float a boat, but also sink it”—meaning that while the CCP has thus far ridden successfully on the backs of the masses, the renunciation campaign may mean things turn out differently.
Dissidents are hopeful. “I hope that the great mass of Chinese who have suffered injustice will take tuidang further; I hope it catches on like a prairie fire,” said Ge Defang, director of the League of Chinese Victims.
