On the afternoon of November 20, 2005, The Epoch Times for Eastern Canada, the Research Center for Problems in China of the University of Toronto, the Canadian Chinese Service Center, and the Chinese Community Centre of Metro Toronto co-sponsored a forum for the one-year anniversary of the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party in Toronto City Hall. At the forum, the renowned current affairs commentator Ms. Sheng Xue gave a speech entitled China returns from the Brink of Death.
The following are excerpts from Ms. Sheng Xue’s speech:
Yesterday I was browsing online at home. First I went to the Boxun website. The headline news, with a picture, was about old Mr. An who was hacked to death after suffering two hours of torture, which was witnessed by over 100 farmers from the same village. During this period of time, his wife kneeled down crying for help from all the onlookers to rescue her husband. She also asked for help from the family members of the killer. However, those relatives of the killer said they themselves dared not stop the killer; instead, they promised to “take good care” of her after the death of her husband. She then turned for help to the head of the village that was on the scene. The village leader responded that it would be better for her to organize her own family members to rescue him.
From news like this, what we see is a Chinese society suffering from such a serious illness that it is beyond care. Nobody, including the killer, the victim, the onlookers, the head of the village, and the family members, is a normal human being. This was the first news I read. After I finished reading this, what came to me was: Today’s China is indeed a dying country.
In today’s China, you don’t need to fight against anything political, you don’t need to give any fierce speeches anywhere, and you don’t even need to express any dissatisfaction anywhere. You don’t need to stand against anything in the society, you don’t need to do anything; even so, you will still be shadowed by a threat of death. Such a death could occur everywhere, at all times. Every day in the news we see people committing suicide by taking poison, jumping out of buildings, self-immolating; we see the pig-flu that occurred in Sichuan Province not long ago, as well as the bird flu epidemic that is happening now. All of these point to one thing: today’s China is indeed a dying country.
If many of our friends are still amazed by China’s booming economy, by the fact that space shuttles could be launched into space successively, by the fact that China could be the host for the 2008 Olympic Games, well, we should come back and take a look at what truly matters to everyone —life and death. What kind of environment are the Chinese people living in nowadays? What kind of environment are they dying in? A popular saying in China these days is: Chinese people are not even afraid of being alive, let alone of being dead. This insightful saying reflects the living status of today’s Chinese people, which is extremely desperate and miserable. How have Falun Gong practitioners been suffering in today’s China? We know that as of today more than 2000 Falun Gong practitioners have been brutally beaten to death.
Let’s take a look at today’s Chinese society. No matter who you are, a Falun Gong practitioner, a Protestant, a Catholic, a democracy advocate, a writer with different opinions, or you could simply be an ordinary person, an average farmer or a laid-off worker, around you all kinds of various, strange deaths are occurring. All these deaths are tightly connected with our society, with every one of us, as well as with our overall cultural environment. Therefore, living in this environment, must we simply watch things happen while having no rights to even feel the violence and misery of the deaths?
I’ve been telling Chinese immigrants in Canada that under the rule of the Chinese Communist Party, over 80 million Chinese died unnaturally. However, the response I received was: China has too many people, 80 million deaths make no difference. Therefore, under such a circumstance that Chinese people know, most people are suffering from a kind of disease: ignorance of life. This kind of ignorance has two causes. Some people think it has nothing to do with them since they did not know those people who had died, they were someone else, someone unknown, someone poor in China. Others were forced to become numb. They believe: “I am nobody. If I had known such things, I still had no power to stop anything even if I wanted to. Therefore, I don’t need to do anything. Before I could say or do anything, I would already be punished, right?”
What I would like to talk about today is this. China is indeed a country that is coming back from dying.
The night before I had a chat with a friend. My friend is not a democracy advocate, nor a Falun Gong practitioner, but he said emotionally: “Falun Gong has rescued so many people”. I agree with him. As a matter of fact, what we meant was not to rescue someone’s physical life, but instead, to rescue someone’s inner spirit and moral life.
Next, I would like to talk about the three media. In my mind, The Epoch Times , New Tang Dynasty TV, and Sound of Hope radio have created a miracle in news and media history. In the history of news media, there has never been media that could grow so quickly on such a large scale in such a short time. At present, only a few years after establishment, The Epoch Times is currently being published in 12 languages in 30 countries. The success of The Epoch Times is not only a media success, most importantly, its success has been a catalyst, breaking down the control and isolation China has been subjected to in the world.
Only when one sees the truth, will one have the opportunity to adjust his way of thinking, his view of the world and, furthermore, his behavior. If you know nothing about the truth, nothing about the facts, you cannot adopt the way you act to suit the actual world. Just think about the time, when we were in China 20 years ago. The process of growing for most of us was the process of reading big-character posters. When you could only read one kind of information, you could not make the correct judgment of the world. As a result, you were unable to obtain a true standard for ethics.
What The Epoch Times , New Tang Dynasty TV and Sound of Hope radio had accomplished is that they have opened our eyes, bringing a true world, a true China to us so that we could make our own judgments, our own decisions about how to conduct ourselves.
The spread of The Nine Commentaries started exactly one year ago. The nature of the Chinese communist regime is one of terrorist one, because it is completely built on lies and violence. Now The Nine Commentaries has revealed the whole history of the development of the Communist Party, as well as the true facts of the events while it has been in power. All these facts were exposed and analyzed. Once one knows these facts, if he or she could still advocate for the Communist Party, I would say, this could happen only in two cases. One case is that this person is a beneficiary of the regime. Because this person values the benefits he has received, he feels shameless and doesn’t think it is a crime. He is willing to form an alliance with the regime in order to gain a little bit of personal benefit. The second case is that this person is sick, and he doesn’t even realize he is sick.
Not long ago, a survey was conducted in China asking whether or not you would agree to kill women and children in a war. As high as 80 percent of people who responded, answered yes. Therefore, I am saying that this society is seriously ill. Today’s China is like a big boat, an old broken boat that is shakily going down into a deep whirlpool. Once people wake up, they will jump out of the boat for survival. Today, when we spread the editorial series of The Nine Commentaries , when we hand out one DVD, one book to a person, it is the same as giving a life preserver or a lifeboat to a person in a sinking boat.
When we don’t know the truth, many of things we had done, were done in ignorance. Once we understand the truth, most of us will wake up; those who refuse to wake up are only a small number. It is like the example I gave earlier, death is surrounding us, it is in every corner of our life, and at every stage of our life. Also most of the deaths are silent tragedies.
People like us—especially the overseas people—every one of us has such a responsibility: when you are facing a life, a life that is dying in misery, your deeds are acts of gracious kindness if you can say a word, reach out a hand, say a word or shout for help for him.
As of today, over 5.7 million Chinese have withdrawn from the Chinese Communist Party, Youth League and Young Pioneers. This trend will accelerate, I believe, as more and more people know the truth. The speed of this promulgating will become faster and faster. More and more people will understand, and more and more people will choose to renounce this evil regime. In fact, many people today cannot find a channel or opportunity to express such a wish fast enough. The current isolation and control will be gradually broken down. As more people make an effort, their conscious efforts will eventually become so great that it will slowly open the iron door of closure. At that time, we will see the number of liberated people increasing by multiples.
I believe that sooner or later the Communist party will fall apart because of the withdrawals. And this day will arrive very soon.
Thank you everyone.
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