Hu Jintao, tear down your evil empire!

Commentary adapted from a rally speech, as delivered at Freedom Plaza in Washington DC, 4/11/2010

By John Kusumi


This week in Washington, President Barack Obama hosted President Hu Jintao on his visit here for the Nuclear Security Summit.

We are the rally of people who say, “Quit the Communist Party!” This is the group that has spent four or five years now informing Chinese people of the real history of the CCP, and making it possible for a growing wave of Chinese individuals to quit their association with the Chinese Communist Party.

Hu Jintao was in town and Barack Obama said to him, “Help us with addressing the issue of Iran.” And Barack Obama also said, “Please allow the value of your currency to float, so that you join the system of floating exchange rates.”

To me, these are good things in and of themselves — but perhaps misplaced priorities.

–Why isn’t Barack Obama telling Hu Jintao to end the system of Laogai slave labor camps?

–Why isn’t Barack Obama telling Hu Jintao to end the system of Laojiao that is administrative detention in China?

–Why isn’t Barack Obama insisting that Hu Jintao must immediately end the crackdown on Falun Gong?

–And Hu Jintao must immediately end the crackdown against Tibetans!

–And Hu Jintao must immediately end the crackdown against Uighur Muslims!

These are priorities that are a matter of life and death. It’s very easy for one man in the White House, who does not have to face the consequences, to ignore and to turn a blind eye to persecution, but in fact we are speaking of DEADLY persecution. These are matters of life and death!

And I believe it shows misplaced priorities on the part of Barack Obama to focus instead on–as he said–”Oh gee, help us to create some international action against Iran.”

In fact, why isn’t Barack Obama asking Hu Jintao to help on the matter of Darfur? We could use some more assistance from the international community in looking at the southern portion of Sudan, and saying to the Sundanese government–”Let’s be done with that genocide, and let’s make sure that we prosecute Omar Bashir.”

So I think that there are priorities that remain ahead of Barack Obama. He spent 2009 being very quiet on the human rights question. But now in 2010 we see a strengthening as he’s become a little bit tougher in his rhetoric with Communist China. He needs to become tougher still.

He needs to say to Hu Jintao the same things that we, in this rally, are saying to China and to Hu Jintao. We’re saying to quit from the Communist Party. In fact, perhaps the best thing that we could say to Hu Jintao is to TEAR DOWN YOUR EVIL EMPIRE!

This is a crowd that is aware of the persecution. We are awake to it. We know what is happening. We’re not fooled when there is news media that is sort of “La di da,” or that indicates, “Don’t worry, be happy.” –We don’t buy into that!

–We know that there’s killing, that there’s torture, there’s persecution, there’s administrative detention, there’s a violation of due process — the rule of law is nowhere to be found in mainland China! We know that they are off the page with their obligations to the international community — in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; and, there’s a covenant on civil and political rights; and China is a signatory; and China breaks that covenant every day. Shame on China!

It is good to have Hu Jintao visiting Washington DC. This is a city where we can speak out, and say those things. We say, “Shame on Hu Jintao, if he does not end the persecution of Falun Gong.”

And in fact, the bottom line point that we really ought to say to Hu Jintao is “TEAR DOWN YOUR EVIL EMPIRE!” We’re not fooled; we’re not buying it; we insist that China must have its reform; its respect for human rights; its future of freedom and democracy and the rule of law.

That is our point that we insist upon. Thank you for taking in my speech, and I hope that you will join us in the coming days.

Shifting U.S.-China Policy Via Vigorous Protest

The China Support Network recommends these three "events of the week" for anyone in the area of Washington, DC.

Sunday, 4/11

Freedom Rally Scolding China

A freedom rally will be held by the global coalition to Quit The CCP. Also known as the Tuidang movement, it began in 2005 to follow up on the publication of 'Nine Commentaries On The Communist Party,' a shocking book with the true history of China's Communist Party. From 2005 to the present, Chinese people have been urged to learn the truth and to separate themselves from the Communist Party by resigning from the CCP and from two related organs, the Communist Youth League and the Young Pioneers.

The movement maintains a website and database, and the counter has now recorded over 71 million resignations from Chinese Communism.

The rally "to recognize and show solidarity with the Chinese people that seek to embrace freedom" will be at Washington, DC's Freedom Plaza on Pennsylvania Avenue, between 13th Street and 14th Streets. It will run from 2 to 4 PM on Sunday, April 11.

The movement is a monument to the courage of Chinese people who have stood up against the most brutal and repressive regime in world history. This has been happening across all these years since 2005, when CNN refused to cover the first rally for one million Tuidang resignations. Hence, the movement is also a story that CNN can't handle; a testament to how CNN resists reality and clings to bogus synthetic narratives of its artificial reality.

Because CNN won't tell you these things, you can only get the story by attending events like Sunday's, and using your own eyeballs! --We would welcome you to join us.


Monday-Tuesday, 4/12-4/13

China's President Hu Jintao in Washington DC; Protestors in Washington DC!

U.S. President Barack Obama is hosting a Nuclear Security Summit in Washington, at which Hu Jintao will join 45 other world leaders in attendance. Here are four good reasons to protest: Tiananmen crackdown, Falun Gong crackdown, Tibetan crackdown, Uighur crackdown. Communist China also uses slave labor to manufacture sometimes-unsafe (quality challenged?) products, exports them to us, and competes unfairly against U.S. manufacturers who used to make American versions of such products. They take American jobs, enlarge the trade deficit, and use the profits against us for such purposes as building up their military, lending to the U.S. Treasury, and buying up U.S. assets.

This week, President Obama is saying, "stop the currency manipulation." Currency manipulation is economic dirty pool. It tilts the playing field (just like slave labor) and gives Chinese products an advantage over their American counterparts.

This week, we of the China Support Network are saying, "Stop the Tiananmen crackdown," "Stop the Falun Gong crackdown," "Stop the Tibetan crackdown," "Stop the Uighur crackdown," release prisoners such as Wang Bingzhang, Liu Xiaobo, and Zhou Yongjun, and abolish the systems of Laogai and Laojiao (those are systems of slave labor in Communist China).

Come out to protest, and help us deliver the message to Hu: Hu Jintao, tear down your evil empire!

Protesting will run from 9:00AM to 3:00PM. Free Tibet protestors will meetup at 8:30AM at Samuel Gompers Memorial Park [11th St NW, between L St NW & Mass Ave NW]
Summit venue: Walter E. Washington Convention Center
Address: 1207 9th Street NW (main entrance is Mt. Vernon b/w 7th & 9th Sts. NW)
Other tentative protest locations: Chinese Embassy & Mandarin Oriental Hotel where Hu will be staying


Thursday, 4/15

Human Rights Fair at George Mason University

On campus at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, the China Support Network will exhibit at their third annual International Human Rights Fair, organized with the campus chapter of Amnesty International.

It's an all-afternoon outdoor trade show of human rights groups. The event will be held on Thursday, April 15th from 12:00pm – 5:00pm. George Mason University is located at: 4400 University Drive, Fairfax, VA 22030 We will be holding the event at the North Plaza outside of the Johnson Center and parking is available at the Mason Pond Parking Deck.

The week begins with loud and noisy events, and by Thursday the campus event is expected to be more quiet and mellow. But, we look forward to meeting and raising awareness among the GMU students who are not as tuned in to the activities of the human rights community. Perhaps we will line up new recruits for the next noisy occasion! :)

One Cheer for Barack Obama

Protest season is starting early this year for the pro-Chinese democracy and anti-communist movement. Each year, April 15 memorializes the death of Hu Yaobang, the reformist Chinese leader who died in 1989 -- and whose death kicked off the Tiananmen Square pro-democracy movement. (Events proceed through April 17, when Chinese college students first marched into Tiananmen Square, up to June 4, the anniversary of the tragic Tiananmen Square massacre when the Chinese army finally used live ammunition to clear Beijing and Tiananmen Square of civilian protestors in that uprising.)

This year, April 12-13 will be the occasion of a visit to Washington DC by the Chinese Communist leader, Hu Jintao. (Hu will join Obama and 45 more national leaders for a Nuclear Security Summit.)

This means that it's time for protestors to head for Washington, or for the buses that will carry Free Tibet protestors from New York - Washington. The rumor mill says that Hu Jintao will stay at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, and will meet with Barack Obama on Monday morning. The summit venue is the Walter E. Washington Convention Center. Protestors may also appear at the Chinese embassy.

Meanwhile, our headline commenced to say "One Cheer for Barack Obama." In truth, we can offer multiple cheers for recent actions of the Obama administration:

- Raising its rhetoric for internet freedom in China (backing up Google on their side of a dispute with Communist China);
- Choosing to support Taiwan's defense with arms sales;
- Meeting with Tibet's leader, His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

Those are three steps, short of trade sanctions, that seem to get tough on China. At the end of day, many previous administrations have scolded China, sold arms to Taiwan, and met the Dalai Lama. At the end of day, these steps are not very new. We've seen these postures from America before. So, when our headline offers One Cheer for Barack Obama, that's about something more than the mentioned three steps.

It is accurate to observe that the Chinese Communist Party has multiple contending high level factions, and seemingly, there is always a power struggle behind the facade of Communist unity.

Recently, Obama has chosen to get tough about Chinese currency manipulation, and that earns him one cheer from the China Support Network. (Could he earn two or three cheers from us? Yes, easily. Read on...)

We have described China's currency manipulation as economic dirty pool. It tilts the playing field, making American exports more costly and Chinese exports less expensive. It swells the U.S. trade deficit, current accounts deficit, and balance of payments deficit with China. The consequences of a trade deficit (for normal Americans) mean lower employment, downward wage pressure, and upward inflation pressure. As businesses based in America become less competitive with their Chinese competition, this hollows out the American middle class.

So. The currency issue speaks directly to the "War on the Middle Class," as experienced in America (also known as neo-liberal trade policy). Barack Obama can certainly have one cheer for getting tough in this department. Recent history on this issue includes,

- 2008: Campaign rhetoric was tough talk, promising to address China's currency manipulation.
- 2009: Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner wimps out and fails to name China as a currency manipulator.
- 2010: Obama wants to get serious on this issue. The Treasury was set to release a report on April 15. That report might name China as a currency manipulator, if Geithner doesn't wimp out again.

Late word is that the administration is delaying the release of the April 15 report, even though it is Congressionally mandated to say whether China is a currency manipulator. The change of timing is likely due to ongoing negotiations that the administration hopes will result in China's floating its currency.

This ties back to the internal power struggle of the Chinese Communist Party, alluded to above. One faction in China is sympathetic to the West's interest in fair competition and a level playing field. Within China, preparations have been made as if to implement a decision to float China's currency. So, one faction wants to pull the trigger, make the Yuan float, and play ball with the U.S. administration.

The other faction in China is dead set against raising the value of the Yuan. They fear the political instability that may follow social instability that may follow rising unemployment that may follow revaluing China's currency. In other words, they are dictators who would care to cling to power. We might call this "the unfair faction" in China, and call the others "the reasonable faction" in China.

The Obama administration is negotiating, perhaps wondering, "Hey -- what if the reasonable faction came to the fore?" As a digression, we at the China Support Network have been wondering that about China for 21 years.

This negotiating strategy of Obama's hopes for the reasonable faction to turn China into a reasonable player in world affairs. As long as this idea is on the table, the China Support Network would like to point out how Obama could amplify this gambit, and thereby earn "three cheers from the China Support Network."

- Urge the end of currency manipulation. (one cheer)
- Urge the end of Laogai and Laojiao, the Chinese systems of slave labor. (one cheer)
- Urge the end of the Falun Gong crackdown. (one cheer)

In each case, China has an internal power struggle, in which one faction is already prepared for China to shift course.

To abolish Laogai and Laojiao is an idea that has supporters at high levels, who have studied the issue and bandied around the idea of abolition.

And, the Falun Gong crackdown is a crime against humanity initiated by the previous President, Jiang Zemin. Recently, Jiang and his henchmen have been indicted by high courts in Spain and Argentina, for the persecution of Falun Gong. And the rumor mill now suggests that Jiang Zemin has been losing out in his power struggle with the Hu Jintao faction.

For the Falun Gong, it is a ray of hope to be aware that Jiang Zemin is finally on the way out of power, behind the scenes in China.

That means that it is now more realistic to urge that Hu Jintao must end the crackdown, the persecution, and the campaign of genocide that has been carried out against Falun Gong from 1999 to the present.

If Obama "gets on the page" to make these three demands of China, then we at the China Support Network would be far more inclined to say:

-- Three cheers for Barack Obama --