Splendid day for anti-communism

Opinion: Today is a "splendid day"
to confront Chinese Communism

by John Kusumi

It is a splendid day on which to confront the regime of the Chinese Communist Party. Today, the Dalai Lama is being honored at the U.S. Congress with a Congressional Gold Medal. He is a man with a cause. As the leader of Tibetan Buddhism, he is supposed to be both the spiritual and temporal leader of Tibet. That's also a head of state, to you and me, and a God-King in the old days of theocratic Tibet. He is certainly a holy man; a preacher of non-violence; and recipient of the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize -- a stark contrast to the profane, godless, and violent atheists of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which has the nation of Tibet under brutal occupation as a colony annexed to China.

To end the brutal occupation of Tibet is a valid foreign policy objective for the United States, and it is an objective of two organizations for which I am responsible: the China Support Network, and the Freedom First, Olympics Second Coalition (FFOSC). [FFOSC is a joint project with the Free China Movement, the China Support Network, the China Shadow Government, and many more human rights groups.] At my groups, more generally the objective is freedom from the Communist Party, no matter who is doing the suffering. Directly or indirectly, suffering attributable to the CCP extends to Sudan, Burma, North Korea, Vietnam, Laos, Mainland China, Tibet, and East Turkestan, with further inconvenience for Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau. And that's not to mention the inconvenience of recalled and toxic products in the United States and many other nations.

The CCP is a scourge upon humanity. It is not a fitting candidate to host the 2008 Summer Olympics. I am heartened by reports that 59% of Americans agree, when polled, that these 2008 Olympic Games are an opportune time to pressure China about cleaning up its act. Does America include a namby-pamby element in its elite, that believes life is a dinner party? Yes. Driven by their inane attention to minutiae, they worry about today's tensions in U.S.-China relations. Is our reception of the Dalai Lama ruffling the feathers of Beijing? Well, Beijing's playbook of standard operating procedure instructs them to squawk at this point.

But if we ask me, I think that there is not enough heat on Beijing today. I think that Beijing has it too easy. We know that I represent the Freedom First, Olympics Second Coalition; but, even that is not enough heat for Beijing. Therefore, let me recall to mind another capacity of my organization. A few years back, there began the Boycott Made In China Coalition. The China Support Network joined that coalition, and remains a member to this day.

To boycott Chinese products is to boycott the Chinese economy, not just the Olympics. This is a more fitting level of escalation, for the human rights concerns that we have -- given that in the human rights issue alone, it is a matter of life-and-death for people who are incarcerated, tortured, or under attack today. The human rights issue, by one alternate name, is the murder issue. I believe that civilization was invented to curtail arbitrary murders and brutal savagery. And in civilized lands, murderers belong in prisons, not in national leadership.

The CCP is a party of murderers, and when history corrects this injustice, as it inevitably will, they will be brought to justice to answer for their crimes against humanity. To step up the pressure, I recommend that we redouble our efforts, supporting not just the Freedom First, Olympics Second Coalition (see NoOlympics.org), but also the Boycott Made In China Coalition, and one more coalition that my group has joined: The Coalition for the International Criminal Court (ICC). Ultimately, the ICC may try the Chinese Communist murderers. We will remain in these coalitions until justice is achieved -- for China, for Tibet, and for all of East Asia. Thank you.