China: Voices of Dissent Amidst CCP’s Anniversary Parade

This was the front page of the Jinzhou Evening News in Liaoning province on Sunday. The sea of red flags was meant to show the local celebrations for China’s October 1st celebrations that mark the 60th anniversary of the Communist Party’s takeover of China.

What many readers saw, however, were the 8 small characters inscribed on a pillar that’s in the bottom left-hand corner of the photo. It’s a slogan that urges people to withdraw from the Communist Party.

Unnerved by this, Jinzhou authorities rushed to pull the paper off shelves.

It’s a major embarrassment to the CCP that—as it celebrates its 60 years of rule—more than 60 million people have publicly renounced the Party. It’s part of a movement that started five years ago and encourages current and former members to symbolically renounce their current or former membership in Party-affiliated organizations.

One of these people is a former officer of China’s State Security Bureau, Li Fengzhi, who has defected to the United States. Li believes Beijing’s show of military force is a sign of impending crisis.

[Li Fengzhi, Former Officer, State Security Bureau]:
“Looking at other failed communist regimes, history shows that when a regime tries to desperately show off its military power, or has to resort to military force to ensure the smooth running of certain events, then in fact it’s very near the time of its end. So what the regime is guarding against is actually Chinese people from all walks of life. This shows the crisis that the regime is facing.”

China commentator and chief editor of Beijing Spring magazine Hu Ping told us the communist regime is founded on the oppression of the Chinese people.

[Hu Ping, China Commentator]:
“The CCP, in order to celebrate its 60 years of governance, has spared no cost to achieve an elaborate and grand event. At the same time, its oppression of the public has reached unprecedented levels. I think this shows clearly that the current regime is completely in opposition to the public.”

During the ceremony, only 3,000 invited guests were allowed to watch the military parade in person. Fearing possible unrest, authorities told Beijing residents not to come see the parade—and instead to stay home and watch it on TV.

[Ms. Wu, Beijing Resident]:
“All of these preparations, who are they celebrating with? Just themselves? They have treated the people as criminals, guarding against them like criminals.”

Thus, one of the biggest parades in modern Chinese history made its way through nearly empty streets.

(NTDTV)