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The first-ever Nine Commentaries international forum in Poland was successfully held at the Sejm, the Polish Parliament in Warsaw, on March 21. The event, entitled "China and a World without Communism," was co-sponsored by The Epoch Times and Polish Member of the European Parliament Mr. Bogdan Klich. Guests included members of the Polish government, as well as representatives from several embassies, non-governmental organizations, media outlets, educational institutions, and think tanks. Forum participants packed the conference room, with the organizers receiving many more requests for participation than the conference room could accommodate. In total, approximately 100 people took part in the event.
There were five speakers in the discussion panel, led by the keynote—China scholar Harvard Mason Fellow Mr. Erping Zhang. Also in the panel sat Polish parliamentarian and Taiwan-Poland trade association head Bronislaw Dutka, independent journalist, publicist and human rights defender Mr. Christopher Lozinski, journalist and Tibet rights activist Mr. Michael Orzechowski, and The Epoch Times Germany Editor Mrs. Monika Weiss.
"Something characteristic of communism, as opposed to other totalitarian systems, is that the chains that enslave you exist most strongly in your own mind."
Mr. Zhang provided an in-depth look at China today. He painted a picture of an expanding but shockingly unstable economy, of social instability fuelled by a quickly increasing wealth gap between the rich and the poor, of an ever more conscious civil society beginning to stand up for its rights, and of an ideologically vacant failing regime stopping at nothing to try to maintain its ironclad grip on power.
"At this historic moment, the responsibility of any democratic country is clear and significant: to stand by the people of China, not by the Communist dictators, to support the cause of freedom, not the survival of a Communist regime, to engage with the people of China, not with the CCP [Chinese Communist Party] or with the murderers of 80 million innocent lives. Now more than ever, we need to be clear—the CCP is a menace to its people and to the world," said Zhang.
Chinese human rights lawyer Guo Guoting, who once defended Shi Tao, the Chinese journalist who was betrayed to Chinese censors by Yahoo, Inc., sent a letter in support of the forum. He stressed how significant Poland had been in the fall of communism in Europe, particularly the role of independent unions, which are not allowed by the CCP.
"The disaster of China is that everything exists from the Chinese Communist Party," he wrote.
In his powerful speech, Mr. Lozinski explored the specious nature of communism. Initially in China, he said, the disciplined communist armies were welcomed by local people as an alternative to the pillaging Kuomintang and Japanese soldiers that had come before them. Then, as the CCP seized power and land was redistributed to the poor, they were again seen as a friend of the people. Finally, however, came the entire communist infrastructure that took all of the land and wealth for itself, and regularly created social movements to "purge" (a euphemism for "exterminate") different groups from society—becoming the most effective agent of death the world has ever seen, said Lozinski.
Countless citizens were forced to participate in purging others, or face being purged themselves. This way, most people knew they were at least partially guilty, and any pretense at holding a moral high-ground was eliminated.
"Something characteristic of communism, as opposed to other totalitarian systems, is that the chains that enslave you exist most strongly in your own mind," said Lozinski.
Loud applause was heard repeatedly in the conference room during the forum.
Forum sponsor Mr. Klich was himself unable to attend the event due to his pressing duties assessing the results of the recent Belarus election. He expressed the reasons for his sponsorship in a letter to the forum participants:
"It is hard to impress upon you just how significant a role the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party , which has exposed the crimes committed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), has played and continues to play. It unmasked the actual realities of Chinese communism, and in this way it has increased the level of consciousness of the Chinese nation. In this context, the mass resignations from the CCP allow us hope for a quick end to this criminal system, and the creation of a "China without communism."
Perhaps the most moving moment that afternoon was when an elderly man, who had earlier identified himself as a dedicated communist, approached an organizer at the forum's end. "Is it really all true," he asked, with tears in his eyes. Clearly, he had been moved; the strength of the truth of the Nine Commentaries had broken through his conditioning.
The proceedings of the forum will be available soon.
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