Twin speeches move the China issue

Lian Shengde is Executive Director of the Free China Movement, former Tiananmen Square student leader, former political prisoner, and subject of the documentary, Freedom Fighter. This speech was given in Washington DC, July 3, 2004.

John Kusumi is Executive Director of the China Support Network, former teenage candidate for U.S. President (Ind., '84), Ronald Reagan's youngest opponent, and the first GenX politician. This speech was given in Washington DC, July 3, 2004.

The Case For
Revolution In China

The shooting of a Falun Gong practitioner in South Africa in front of the world shocked the whole of humanity into realizing that the state terrorism of the Chinese communist regime is real, and is extending outside the borders of the PRC.

This regime in Beijing calls itself a republic but has acted in every way against the principle known as "of the people, by the people, and for the people". In order to maintain its totalitarian rule of mainland China, the regime will use state terrorism and its army, armed police, labor camps, torture chambers, and various execution tactics to try to crush any dissent -- political, religious, or non-religious.

The United States has made a big mistake, since 1972, in recognizing this rogue nation in Beijing as the legitimate government of China, while people in Mainland China and Taiwan do not think so.

Today the United States regards the PRC as a partner in the war against terrorism, but in fact it is working with the largest terrorist organization in the world to permit, indirectly, the various terrorist attacks against many peaceful Chinese, inside China and outside China.

Now that people are clear about the essence of this terrorist regime in Beijing, what should we do if our consciences are not willing, or don't allow us to "sit back as long as the terror is not striking us today?"

We need to unite and join the third republic revolution in China to end the totalitarian regime in Beijing.

Chinese people have a lot to be proud of. In 1912, the Chinese people stood up and worked together to end the Manchuria imperial dictatorship in China, and established the first republic in Asia: the Republic of China.

But various military warlords tried to set back history by restoring the imperial dictatorship. They all failed when general Jiang Jieshi [a.k.a. Chiang Kai-Shek] united Mainland China by crushing all the warlords with the north expedition army and established the national government in Nanjing in 1920s for the respect and protection of people's rights. Thus we have the success of the second republic revolution in China.

The invasion by Japan against the second republic gave the Chinese communists a chance to grow and defeat the national army in 1949 and thus establish the worst totalitarian regime in modern human history. More than 80 million Chinese have perished under this regime in the last 55 years and thousands are being tortured to death every year. Billions in assets have been stolen from the national economy by the Chinese communists, and the banking system has been in bankruptcy status, while the national debt for each Chinese is more than 36,000 YUAN even after all of their dedicated hard work over the past 50 years.

Now it's time for the people in China and in the world to work together to establish the third true republic by ending the totalitarian regime in Beijing -- or, we will have to see more killing of innocent citizens by the terrorist regime in Beijing; and holding our family members as hostages in order to silence us from speaking out about the truth, and find our consciences lost in the silence. Or, we may see more of us like Dr. Wang Bingzhang and Pen Min being kidnapped into China.....

Let's act together, starting today, for the noble cause to end the inhuman system of torture and establish a true republic in China!

Lian Shengde is Executive Director of the Free China Movement, former Tiananmen Square student leader, former political prisoner, and subject of the documentary, Freedom Fighter. This speech was given in Washington DC, July 3, 2004.

The Case Against
Beijing Olympics '08

By John Kusumi

I want to thank and acknowledge my audience; thank you to the people who turned out today. We are working to overcome evil, and we will do so. I want to thank especially the reporters, the media representatives who've gathered to take in today's speeches and to get the story. We are working to spread the word and to get the message out, and we will. I also have best wishes for the home audience and for my fellow Americans who may be taking in this speech remotely. You at home are important, and you are the reason we come out here. At the distant reaches of my audience -- even more remote -- are the leaders of China, and the leaders of the International Olympic Committee.

From their words, one might believe that the leaders of China live on an island, where they can believe their own propaganda, and not worry about what I call "facts on the ground."

Propaganda is a regrettable thing. It confuses or misleads people, and it clouds the issues, as well as the decisions of people who misperceive a matter. Propaganda would have you believe that China has stability and is fully civilized, ready for the world, open for business, and enjoying market economics and the rule of law. That propaganda misses the point, as it skips over what I call "facts on the ground." The facts on the ground are that China is brutally despotic. China is not democratic, and at Tiananmen Square, we saw the face of evil -- we learned that China is run by triggerhappy old men, willing to shoot even the college students -- the best and the brightest of China's Generation X.

To this day, China is unreformed, run by the same Communist Party that we know to be godless, atheist, and evil. My organization, the China Support Network, was formed in a humanitarian emergency following Tiananmen Square's ugly massacre, where we know that students died as they stood for freedom and democracy.

Facts on the ground support my assertion that China remains totalitarian, brutally despotic, and dangerous both domestically and overseas. I must report to you that China continues to have a humanitarian emergency, and that improvement did not follow the Tiananmen Square massacre.

I have said that the bloodbath never stopped, it just went indoors. Too many Americans have not followed this story, of 'What is China's Falun Gong crackdown?'. I'll give you the Cliff Notes introduction. Falun Gong grew popular as a health and spirit practice. It is based on traditional Chinese exercises; it takes as its motto "Truthfulness, Compassion, and Tolerance;" and it grew to 100 million people in the 1990s. Like the students in Tiananmen Square, these practitioners are peaceful and non-violent.

And so, what is China's Falun Gong crackdown? It is the Communists' persecution of these people. It is the indoor continuation of Tiananmen Square's bloodbath. They are killing these people. A distinctive feature of the crackdown is pre-meditated mass murder. The point of the Chinese Communists is to eradicate this group.

History has a new, ugly chapter of genocide led by a dictator, in this case one Jiang Zemin, the former President of China's god awful regime.

I think my crowd here will agree that after Saddam Hussein is brought to justice, we nominate Jiang Zemin to be the next dictator who is put on trial. I actually value the spectacle of Saddam Hussein going on trial. That is an object lesson. It says "there is no future in being a dictator!"

Back in the lazy hazy days of 2001, the 2008 summer Olympics were awarded to Beijing, China. It was a mistake to pin high hopes and high standards upon the Communist regime -- at the IOC, it was a risky move to trust the Communist Party.

How do we feel about rewarding communists, dictators, tyrants, and thugs? Is that a good idea? Not!

How do we feel about awarding Olympics to that regime in the first place?

It was a sell out of Olympic proportions; that's how I see it.

In the past five years, the Falun Gong crackdown, far from abating, grew to monstrous proportions. There is a death toll, and it doesn't get better, it gets worse. This crackdown of Communist China has come to be known as genocide. A world wide movement continues to raise awareness, that religious believers in China now face a holocaust of persecution.

That means suffering, torture, incarceration, and death NOW -- this is not a matter from history books or 60 year old newsreels.

The true extent, and the historic proportions of today's ugly chapter in China was less evident up front; the horrors unfolding may have taken the IOC by surprise. Did the IOC really mean to dignify, and to punch the ticket, of a genocidal holocaust? We would expect not.

The only right thing to do is to yank the Olympics out of Communist China.

In 2002, a smoking gun document was found, uncovered from the Chinese government. The directive said that to better welcome the Olympics, that they were ordering a crackdown against Falun Gong, with specific measures that violate their human rights.

This was the secret Chinese Communist order for an Olympic crackdown against Falun Gong. At the IOC office, they are aware of this and more. In fact, ever since they awarded the Olympics to Beijing, bad news out of China has been mounting and piling up, and with each atrocity in the sequence, Beijing makes the IOC look like an ass, simply by comparing Olympic ideals to what I call "facts on the ground."

The only right thing to do is to yank the Olympics out of Communist China.

Let's be clear about the charge: China ordered an Olympic preparatory crackdown. That same crackdown has now led to charges of torture, genocide, and crimes against humanity. In the Olympics' name!

Imagine if you will, a T-shirt that says, "I survived the Cultural Revolution, Tiananmen Square, and the Olympic Crackdown!"

There should be no 'Olympic crackdown.' Not a crackdown to begin with, and then not in the Olympics' name!

You know, at the IOC headquarters, the President there is named Jacques Rogge. I tell you, it has got to sting deeply to hear your name misused in such a way. What will they think of next? What if they called it the Jacques Rogge Memorial Holocaust? How quickly would there be a move to get that name off of that holocaust? Quickly, I hope, and no personal offense is intended in my remarks.

What should be more offensive to one and all is the crackdown, the genocide, and the holocaust itself. As we speak, people are dying today from the unrelenting Communist Chinese persecution.

What is before the world today is also an opportunity. What would it mean if the Olympics were moved out of China? Here is the world's opportunity to send a message. That we have high standards, and higher hopes for the future. That business as usual doesn't apply during a genocidal holocaust. That humans can expect and insist upon more rights than -- none at all.

The only right thing to do is to yank the Olympics out of Communist China. We should tell China that we see that genocidal holocaust, and a genocidal holocaust is an inconvenient time to dignify and honor your government.

The Chinese government is itself conflicted and subject to paralysis during a power struggle. The world must, in time, send this message to China. The longer we postpone this decision, the more that the IOC may find itself embarrassed in the future.

A coalition of groups that are pro-freedom for China stands ready to boycott the Olympics and / or its advertisers, if those Olympics proceed in Beijing, China. Our coalition, of groups such as Olympic Watch, China Support Network, and the Free China Movement, stands firmly opposed to these Olympics occurring in Communist-run Beijing.

I want to call upon my fellow Americans, the President, the Congress, and the USOC to do what you can to urge, nudge, and prompt the IOC to move in the right direction. Let's press on this now, and know that in moving the games, and sending that message to China -- that our success will win one for human decency. Human decency is like "the team that really needs a victory" to carry the day in these dark times.

Win one for human decency! Thank you! Thank you for taking in my speech!

John Kusumi is Executive Director of the China Support Network, former teenage candidate for U.S. President (Ind., '84), Ronald Reagan's youngest opponent, and the first GenX politician. This speech was given in Washington DC, July 3, 2004.