Shuffling through exotic souvenir shops and oriental restaurants in San Francisco's Chinatown, one can mingle with the largest Chinese community in the country and learn more about the changes currently taking place back in China.
For Wei Jing, a Chinese American, last Saturday was a very special day. As a student in Beijing's University of International Business and Economy in 1989, Wei Jing witnessed the Tiananmen Massacre. Two people perished before her eyes when the Chinese communist regime used guns and tanks against her classmates.
Wei Jing and about a hundred pro-democracy Chinese Americans and supporters gathered at Washington Square in the North Beach District of San Francisco to celebrate and announce to the world the latest progress of what is known in Chinese as the Tuidang movement, or quitting the [Chinese Communist] Party.
According to Wei Jing, the majority of mainland Chinese was forced in the past to become members of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) or its affiliated organizations and take an oath of loyalty. Now however, members are anonymously renouncing the Party through internet websites such as tuidang.epochtimes.com .
The movement began shortly after The Epoch Times published the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party in November of 2004. This series of editorials exposes the history and nature of the CCP, and as a result of publishing these articles, The Epoch Times was given an award in 2005 for outstanding coverage of Asian American issues by the Asian American Journalists Association.
After its publication the editorial has inspired more than 11 million Chinese to quit the CCP. Mr. Youzhi Ma, the rally host and representative of the Northern California Service Center for Quitting the CCP, said, "More and more people have recognized the evil nature of the CCP, as its crimes are being exposed."
During the rally and subsequent parade many people received truth-clarifying materials about the persecution of the Falun Gong spiritual practice including the ongoing crimes of organ harvesting against these practitioners.
Susan, a local resident, commented, "I have heard of Falun Gong and the CCP's persecution. It is my first time to hear of live organ removal from Falun Gong practitioners. If it is true, it is too horrible. I think that more people should know about such atrocities."
Dr. Fan, who was an obstetrician for 30 years in China, said that she shudders when she thinks about the latest discoveries such as live organ removal from non-consenting prisoners of conscience and Falun Gong practitioners within China. The harvested organs are being sold to foreigners for profit. She clarified that such horrors are unimaginable in democratic countries, and these barbarities must be stopped immediately.
Nineteen-year-old Nicole, a Christian from Sacramento, learned of the persecution of Falun Gong from the event. She said she would not want to lose the freedom of religion which is a cherished right in America. "Some [people in China] become martyrs because communism doesn't allow them to choose the religion they want."
A few Eastern European Americans who shared their plight living under communism also supported the event. Steve Ispas from Romania shared that in the eighties he lived under the control of the communist party and knew of its brutality.
"In 1989, the collapse of communist parties in Eastern Europe was so fast that people could not believe it. For example, in Romania, it was only four days from the start of the people's marches to the collapse of the communist party. Thus we congratulate those brave people quitting the CCP and hope that more Chinese people will do the same," he said.
After the rally, the attendees held a parade through Chinatown, carrying signs with the slogans: "The Party Dies, China Flies" and "Communism is Collapsing."
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