NEW YORK—The guest of honor at an urgent press conference in Manhattan on Wednesday spoke from Hong Kong—where he faces imminent deportation back to Mainland China. Four other panelists spoke in order to rally support for Mr. Jia Jia, a leading technology official from China’s Shanxi Province. If some nation does not grant him asylum on Nov. 2, or if Hong Kong does not extend his visa, then Jia may swiftly find himself in detention in China, facing torture or the death penalty.
Jia was the general secretary of the Shanxi Science and Technology Experts Association. His Mainland Chinese tour group left Thailand and arrived in Taipei on October 22, where Jia asked for political asylum.
Taiwan sent Jia to Hong Kong. In a press conference there on Oct. 27, Jia denounced the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), spoke of the large numbers of Chinese who have quit the CCP, and called for democracy, freedom of speech, and freedom of belief in China.
Having entered Hong Kong on a tourist visa, Jia is allowed to remain there for seven days. That week runs out on Nov. 2, pending efforts to extend his visa.
“We are here to call on the international community to offer humanitarian aid to Mr. Jia Jia and give him emergency asylum protection for his courageous step away from the Chinese Communist Party,” said Mr. Dayong Li, the Director of the Global Service Center for Quitting the CCP and one of the organizers of the press conference. “We hereby call on the United States government to offer humanitarian help to Mr. Jia, who has the courage (to) denounce the CCP’s brutal rule of China.”
The members of the panel were able to speak with Jia Jia, and the audience was able to hear him, via a Skype connection. Jia Jia first extended his deep appreciation to the people outside of China who are making an effort towards a more democratic China.
The fundamental needs of Chinese people are three-fold, he said. Chinese people need a base of support outside of China; they need a leader opposing the one-party government; and they need their own form of government—not a one-party dictatorship, but a multi-party government.
Jai went on to say that, in China, many people have a deep fear of the CCP. But the Party itself is actually afraid of public opinion and a free-thinking society. The movement to “Quit the CCP” in China is thus very significant, Jia Jia said. It can help people break out of the shell of fear that has encased their lives for decades.
Jia also spoke of his belief that very large numbers of Chinese have quit the CCP. The Global Service Center for Quitting the CCP has documented almost 15 million, but Jia says the number is in fact larger.
Joining Mr. Dayong Li in the press conference’s panel were Dr. Wenyi Wang, Mr. Sheng Yuan, and Mr. Guimin Guan. Each of the panelists approached the challenge Jia has made to the CCP, and the plight he now finds himself in, from a different perspective.
Dr. Wang is an Epoch Times staffer who worked intensively on the reporting of the organ harvesting from living Falun Gong practitioners taking place in China. For the past six months she has worked to raise awareness of this issue.
Mr. Yuan is a former senior pilot from China Eastern Airlines who defected in August in order to avoid arrest in China for having given an airplane mechanic at Shanghai Airport a copy of the Epoch Times special publication Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party and urged him to quit the CCP.
Mr. Guan, a very popular singer who is often referred to as “China’s Pavorotti,” is an old friend of Jia. Their friendship dates back to the 1970s when both lived in Shanxi. He congratulated his friend for taking this brave step. Guan believes heaven has already decided that the Chinese Communist Party will be destroyed. “If people no longer have compassion in their hearts,” he said, “they are no longer human.”
Mr. Guan also said that there would be no need to form an opposing party because the CCP would be destroyed on its own.
Mr. Jia responded that Chinese people are waiting for the collapse of the Communist regime, and if they can manage to focus their energy on China’s future well-being, to commit themselves to this movement, and to let go of their fears, then the change will come very soon.
Friends Read Free