In a statement released December 30, Chairman of the National Press Club in Washington, John Donnelly exposed an attempt by the Chinese Embassy to “squelch” an Epoch Times press conference on the Jiuping (Joe-Ping), the series of commentaries on the Chinese Communist Party that has shaken the CCP and inspired over 2400 Chinese Communists to renounce their Party membership.

Embassy spokesperson Weide Sun wrote to Donnelly attacking the Epoch Times and asking that the December 21 press event be cancelled. It was the first time for the embassy, which had protested verbally about the NPC’s speaking invitation to the President of Taiwan in the past, to press for an NPC event cancellation in writing.

Donnelly replied in written form too, in an email to Sun saying that speech freedom is among the core principles of the NPC. “We would never bow to a request to silence anyone. We practice and defend freedom of speech,” Donnelly said.

Freedom Scholar Michael Ledeen

The Jiuping forum at the NPC was held as scheduled. The forum drew attendees from governmental departments, think tanks, public organizations, and media. Among the speakers were Ethan Gutmann, author of Losing the New China, and Michael Ledeen, a Freedom Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and former advisor to the U.S. National Security Council, as well as State and Defense Departments.

The Jiuping have shaken the Chinese community worldwide. In Hong Kong 600,000 copies of the commentaries were distributed within two weeks, with each print run disappearing within a few hours. Millions have accessed the Epoch Times Jiuping web site (www.9ping.com), established specifically to handle the interest in the editorial series.

Though the site is blocked inside China, grassroots efforts to break the blockade and share the Jiuping have emerged and a growing number inside China has been able to access the commentaries. As of December 30, 2448 CCP members have renounced their Communist Party membership on the www.9ping.com site, among them an Olympic medalist and a retired official in China's Propaganda Department.

The commentaries discuss- in substantial, detailed essays- the beginnings of the Chinese Communist Party, its history of fabrication and deception, its history of killing, its destruction of traditional Chinese culture, and its continuous persecution of Chinese people, among other topics.

The Jiuping were made available for the first time in English this week, on the Epoch Times web site. Print versions of the series are soon to follow.