Quit the CCP Tour Kicks Off in Chicago

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CHICAGO—A rally to kick off a “Quit the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)” truck tour drew crowds in Chicago’s South Chinatown on May 2, 2009. The tour will last for a week and the 24-foot truck with its “Quit the Chinese Communist Party” sign will cross 14 cities in 9 states, including Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Indiana, Ohio, and Michigan.

The purpose of the tour is to spread the message and encourage more Chinese to withdraw from the CCP and its affiliated organizations, and also to let mainstream Western media understand the biggest spiritual awakening movement in history, which is currently taking place in China, said the initiator of the tour, Dr. Tommy Xu.

Dr. Xu is a professor at a university in Michigan. He is using his vacation for this event. He said, “The tour will cross 14 major cities in the U.S. Midwest and travel over 2,500 miles.”

“I hope we can complete the trip within a week, which means that every day we have to spend at least five hours driving on the road. We will also host press conferences whenever we arrive at a new city. We therefore will have a pretty tight schedule,” added Dr. Xu.

The rally attracted much attention in Chicago’s South Chinatown, and many Chinese watched quietly from a distance.

At the rally, Ms. Wen, a representative of the Global Service Center for Quitting the CCP, said that Chinese who quit the CCP through the Global Service Center will receive a certificate, which is now recognized by the U.S. immigration offices and immigration lawyers. The certificate is a very helpful document when applying for immigration, asylum, or citizenship, as well as for an employee background check.

The Quit the CCP certificate caught the attention of three Chinese who inquired about the specifics of how to quit the CCP. One Chinese person said, “The CCP is so corrupt. We therefore have no choice but to leave it.”

Another onlooker said that since he had stopped paying his Party member fees for several months; he therefore had quit the CCP. Ms. Wen responed that the CCP keeps track of statistics of Party members and members of its affiliated organizations, and would most likely use the statistics [including his name] to its advantage at critical moments.

Ms. Yang, recently arrived in America, was arrested three times and brutally tortured in China for practicing Falun Gong. She recalled the ordeals she endured in a brainwashing class, “Even the head of the ‘610 Office’ gloated, 'Illegal detention is exactly what we have here, and this is exactly a Fascist concentration camp.'”

She also said that one of the officials from the “610 Office” even received the State’s May 1 Labor Day Medal for developing physical and mental torture techniques for persecuteing Falun Gong practitioners.

One of the participants was Mr. Zheng, who was imprisoned five years for practicing Falun Gong. He thought he had been set free after his release from prison; however, he was constantly harassed by the police because he was blacklisted by the authorities.

He commented, “The nature of the CCP and the way it treats its people indicated to me that I no longer had freedom, and that the CCP just used another way to imprison me, that’s all.”

“The constant harassment continued after I left prison. Neighbors and friends would not dare visit me for fear of being implicated. I lived in fear under this kind of prison-style monitoring,” said Mr. Zheng.

Mr. Zheng said that only those who have vested interests closely tied to the CCP still cling dearly to the CCP. Chinese at the bottom of the social ladder do not see any hope or future at all under the CCP’s rule.