vip in the city

Nine Commentaries parade

In November 2004, the Chinese-language version of The Epoch Times published an editorial series entitled, “Nine Commentaries On The Communist Party,” offering a detailed account of Communist Party misrule in China. The Nine Commentaries has since been credited with sparking a wave of withdrawals from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The Nine Commentaries is banned in China.

Just nine months after the publication, there was a parade in Flushing to celebrate and support the withdrawal of 4 million people from the CCP, out of approximately 60 million members the party has garnered since coming into rule in 1949.

Two years after the publication, the number of party withdrawals reached 15 million. To celebrate the milestone, another parade in Queens’s Chinatown this sunny afternoon.

I emerged from the subway station to find Main Street blocked off to vehicular traffic from the Flushing Public Library to the Flushing Mall. Dancing lions led the charge, followed by marching musicians and Falun Dafa practitioners dressed in blue and white outfits. Participants in the parade held banners with the words “Supporting 15 million brave people who have quit the CCP,” “Only without the CCP can there be a new China,” and “Quit the Party to be safe.”

The party’s loss is further highlighted when one considers the challenges to freedom of expression in China, where strict controls censor websites promoting pro-democracy and anti-Communist sentiments.

See this related Frontline piece on the legacy of the 1989 Tiananmen Square uprising, which explores how the Chinese government has controlled and manipulated information about this historical event. Watch the entire piece here, including the disturbing clip where Frontline producer Antony Thomas showed the iconic “Tank Man” photograph to a group of undergraduates at Beijing University, one of the most prestigious universities in China. None of the students recognized what it portrayed. Comments included, “It might be a parade, or something” and “Is this a piece of artwork?”

There's 1 comment so far ... Nine Commentaries parade

Qsoz
November 11, 2006

I wonder if that could ever happen here.

Go for it ...