On Saturday, May 17, the Global Human Rights Torch Relay took place in Toronto, as part of a 40 country, 150-city tour to expose the human rights atrocities of the Chinese regime before the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.
With its motto 'The Olympics and Crimes Against Humanity Cannot Co-exist in China', the Torch relay rally attracted representatives from the Tibetan, Vietnamese, Sudanese, Burmese, Uighur communities, as well other human rights activists, including Canadian Olympic icon Elvis Stojko.
Christine Thanh Chi Dang, spokesperson of the Vietnam Reform Party was one of more than a dozen speakers at the event. In her speech (presented below), she discusses the nature of the Chinese communist Party (CCP) in an attempt to expose its persecution of various groups in China, especially practitioners of Falun Gong, a peaceful meditation practice based on Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance.
Ladies and gentlemen, distinguished guests, friends,
On behalf of the Vietnam Reform Party, VietTan, I'd like to thank the Organizing Committee who has given me the honour to take part in this important event.
Other speakers before me have given us clear, vivid, and unfortunately painful pictures of what Falun Gong practitioners and peoples of other nations have been suffering at the cruel hands of the Chinese authorities.
We, Vietnamese, have personal experiences of such cruelty and ill treatment from our own communist regime in Vietnam. Therefore, we can deeply relate and empathize with all the atrocities that victims of communism are going through.
If one understands what communism is, one will understand clearly why communism cannot co-exist with any other forms of beliefs, be it a religious belief, spiritual or political. There are many reasons why the communist authorities in China cannot and would not tolerate the practice of Falun Dafa.
Falun Gong, or Dafa, recognizes and calls for Truthfulness, Benevolence, and Forbearance. These are the characteristics of the universe that guide all Falun Gong practitioners. By such practice, you're advocating the extreme opposite of what communism stands for. Communism advocates hatred, intolerance, hence the class struggles and it condones the killing of people in the vilest manner. There isn't once ounce of compassion, tolerance, and truthfulness in communist ruling. Therefore, how can the authorities bring themselves to co-exist in harmony with Falun Gong practitioners who are always striving to become kinder, more honest and more patient people?
As we can see similarly in all dictators, the only love they know and have, is the love of power, and it is this hunger for power that makes them want to remain in power at all cost. And in order for dictators to have a tight control over their people, no freedom of thought, no freedom of assembly, no freedom of association, and no freedom of expression in any way, will be tolerated. Thus, no collective forces can be formed under communist ruling. And what did the Falun Dafa do? Regardless of restrictions, within just a mere 6 years, from 1992 to 1998, Master Li Hongzhi, was able to strike such a mass support for Falun Dafa, attracting at least 70 million people joining him in China alone. Which is clearly posing a threat to the communist rulers, who are so threatened by the Master's success and the Dafa phenomenon, that they had to clamp down on the peaceful movement with unbelievable violence, deploying its vast repressive machinery to arrest, torture and murder its practitioners across China.
However, evil can not win. As history has shown, cruelty has never formed the basis of political longevity. Fundamentally, people abhor cruelty and evil; and what people abhor is not likely to last. That has been well proven when Communism was overthrown in its birthplace, the Soviet Union, after lasting 74 years. With that same conviction, today, Dafa is practiced and cherished by over 100 million people in over 80 countries. The more oppression from the Chinese rulers, the more support Dafa receives worldwide. Evil will never win!
My dear friends,
I stand before you today to ask you to stand with forces that always seek to confront the oppressive system, to fight against injustice and intolerance.
I ask that by standing together, we shall rebuild a peaceful world that will see good-riddance of evil communism in China, in Vietnam, in North Korea, and a few other dark places where dictatorship still exists.
I ask that you keep pushing, keep protesting, keep pressuring the authorities and other governments to accept the changes that are needed, to produce a brighter human rights condition for all!!!
I ask that, we, the present generation of humankind, will not bow to any super-power or oppressor.
I ask that you stand with us, on the right side of history!!!
Thank you,
Chi Dang
Vietnam Reform Party's spokesperson
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