NEW YORK – The critical situation of Mr. Jia Jia, a high-ranking official in the Chinese Communist Party who defected from China just over one week ago, triggered an urgent press conference in Manhattan today. Four panelists spoke from different angles on Mr. Jia Jia’s situation, all expressing the urgent need to mobilize international support and bring attention to his cause.
Jia Jia left China and arrived in Taipei on October 22, 2006, where he openly announced that he was quitting the Party, and called for democracy, freedom of speech, and freedom of belief in China. He applied for political asylum but was denied.
“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 Dayong Li, the founder of the Future China Forum and one of the organizers of the press conference. “We hereby call that the United States government 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, 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.
He said that, in China, many people have a deep fear of the Chinese Communist Party. 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 Jia originally wanted to leave China to see whether the 15 million people who were “rumored” to have quit the CCP were actually true, since Chinese government officials have continuously denied these numbers. Once abroad, Jia Jia came to believe that the number of people who have quit the CCP is even more than 15 million.
An old friend of Mr. Jia, Guimin Guan, also spoke on the panel. Mr. Guan had known Jia Jia in Shanxi province during the 1970s. He expressed his congratulations to his friend for making a brave step. He believes the gods have 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 Chinese Communist Party would be destroyed on its own. But 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.
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