On April 19, 2005, Mark Palmer, the Vice Chairman of the Board of Freedom House and former U.S. Ambassador to Hungary, spoke at the Forum on “The Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party” at the National Press Club. Palmer believes that it is a turning point in history now. The Chinese Communist Regime is disintegrating. Once enough people come out against the regime, it will fall in 24 hours. Similar events have repeated in history. Palmer believes the Global Freedom and Democracy Grand Marches are of vital importance.

Mark Palmer is currently the Vice Chairman of the Board of Freedom House, and was a famous U.S. diplomat, working as U.S. Ambassador to Hungary and the Assistant Secretary of State.

Ambassadors of Democratic Countries Should Come Out

Palmer said, “...it would be good for the ambassadors of democratic countries in Beijing, Shanghai and elsewhere also to show by joining demonstrators and by other means. It would be important to show that the democratic nations of the world are on the side of the Chinese people. That they feel strongly that China deserves not only a modern economy but a modern political system.”

“So the center of the communist party at that time was ready to go. I think that all the people around know that the system is outdated, outmoded and wrong. I think that the security people and the army know that and the whole body politic knows that and that’s why these commentaries are so important. Because it provides documented details of what they know, and does it vividly and powerfully. I think it’s going to happen.”

Palmer said, “...it’s happening at the level of society and in China in my humble judgment. It happened years ago and it’s just waiting now for something to bring it all together; a banking collapse, something that will spark and there will be a Kyiv, a Chinese version. And people are going to go out and once you get enough people in the streets you can bring a regime down in 24 hours, we’ve seen it again, and again, and again.”

Palmer added, “So I am absolutely confident and certain that the Chinese people will not tolerate this much longer. And I think this weekend and other events coming up will be very important in providing the confidence to the Chinese people that they can do it. That they can actually go into the streets in tens of millions and say, ‘Enough is enough. We want freedom.’”

Current Elite Society Cannot Predict the Historical Change

Palmer said, “The one thing that’s been consistent about western analogy, academic, CIA, etc. is that it never, ever predicts political change ... The great intelligence failure of our times was not WMD. That’s minor. The great intelligence failure were the refusal to recognize in Indonesia the students were about to throw out the old Suharto regime. The same thing in the Philippines, the same thing in Chile, the same thing in Argentina, the same thing in Central America, the same thing in Central Europe. It’s absolutely consistent that analysts say it’s impossible before it happens. Who predicted the Ukraine for example, who predicted Turkistan, who predicted Serbia when it happened, who predicted Georgia and now all the great wisdom is predicting now that it won’t happen in Uzbekistan, it won’t happen in Saudi Arabia.”

Chinese Communist Regime is Disintegrating

Palmer said, “And I think that what we saw in 1989 was that there is an awareness of a great mass of Chinese people that this system is bankrupt. It’s a corrupt system. People know what I saw in Hungary that the Hungarians knew that system was no good, they knew that. They could look across the border at Austria, they knew that this is not a good system, they knew that this was something that was going to fall sooner or later. And I think that the Chinese people know that, even the Politburo in 1989 if Deng Xiaoping had not still been alive, the Politburo was perfectly prepared to work with the students on bringing about a new system.
So the center of the communist party at that time was ready to go. I think that all the people around know that the system is outdated, outmoded and wrong. I think that the security people and the army know that and the whole body politic knows that...”

People Cannot Tolerate Chinese Communist Regime

Palmer said, “I think the ‘Nine Commentaries,’ the fact that so many people are voluntarily leaving the communist party is the beginning of the end of communism and it’s always a surprise when this happens. It was a surprise recently in Kyrgyzstan, a surprise in Ukraine, a surprise in Georgia. It’s always a surprise. But it shouldn’t be because people everywhere want the same thing. They want the right to honest publications, independent media, courts where people can take their cases and receive fair treatment, not have the party tell the judge what the outcome is going to be...”

Palmer strongly believes that “the Chinese people will not tolerate this much longer. And I think this weekend and other events coming up will be very important in providing the confidence to the Chinese people that they can do it. That they can actually go into the streets in tens of millions and say, ‘Enough is enough. We want freedom.’”

Personal Experience of Collapse of the Hungarian Communist Regime

Palmer said, “In 1989 in Hungary and in many other communist countries in Europe there was a critical moment when people started to come out on the streets. They had the courage to begin to demonstrate much like in China today. And I was the American Ambassador and I thought it was important on behalf of the American people to march with those who were against communism. So with almost my entire embassy, I went out and joined the protesters against communism, and that was the first really large demonstration against the communists and it wasn’t very many more months before communism in Hungary fell.”

Deep Root in China

Mark Palmer thinks China is a remarkable country, which ought to enjoy a modern political system. Palmer’s grandfather worked as a captain for the Chinese government on the Yangtze River in 1960. His parents married in Shanghai, and her sister was born in Qindao. He himself felt partly Chinese.

Through the years of the Cold War and up to the present, he is one of the most respected foreign policy innovators inside and outside the U.S. Government. He served in policy positions in the State Department in the Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, and the first Bush administrations, including launching the National Endowment for Democracy.
During the Reagan administration, Palmer worked as the State Department's top "Kremlinologist" and expert of Soviet Union. He has been working with Clinton and the current Bush administration, advocating new democratic policy.