The Tuidang Movement and Falun Gong (fromfaluninfo.net, PDF)
Walking down the streets of Chinatown or witnessing a Falun Gong parade in recent years, one may have encountered signs referring to “X million people have quit the Chinese Communist Party.” What does this mean? What does it have to do with Falun Gong? Why has it not been more widely reported?
What is Tuidang?
Signs like the one mentioned above refer to Tuidang, an emerging
non-violent movement in China that encourages Chinese citizens to
renounce their ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Short
for Tuichu Gongchandang, Tuidang translates literally as “withdraw
from the Communist Party.” Participation in the movement means
that a person has made a public declaration that he or she wishes
to disavow any previous ties with the CCP or its affiliated
organizations, such as the Communist Youth League or Young
Pioneers. These statements are typically signed using aliases to
protect the identity of participants, and are often accompanied by
explanations from the individual about why he or she no longer
wishes to identify with the CCP. A majority of Chinese citizens
belong to or previously belonged to at least one of these
organizations. The term “quit the party” therefore refers to a
symbolic denunciation of the CCP or any of these affiliated
entities.
How did Tuidang begin?
The Tuidang movement began in late 2004 after the publication of
an editorial series in the overseas Chinese language newspaper
Dajiyuan (Epoch Times). The editorials, called the “Nine
Commentaries on the Communist Party,” detail the history of the
Communist Party in China, with a particular focus on its human
rights record and episodes like the Cultural Revolution, the Great
Leap Forward, the Tiananmen Square Massacre, and the crackdown on
Falun Gong. Beyond mere descriptions of historical events, the
series also passes judgment on the nature of the CCP itself as an
entity that is inherently inhumane, immoral, and whose philosophy
is irreconcilably at odds with traditional Chinese values
expressed in Confucianism, Buddhism, and Daoism. The series
presents not a political, but a moral vision of China’s future and
path to transformation, and exhorts readers to calmly and
courageously examine how their own conduct and complicity has
contributed to the current state of affairs.
Soon after the editorials’ publication, the Dajiyuan website began receiving letters from readers renouncing their affiliations to the CCP. Dajiyuan then began compiling the statements, which are available at http://tuidang.epochtimes.com/. Within a few months, millions of copies of Dajiyuan’s editorial series had been emailed, faxed or mailed to Mainland China. Inspired by their message, thousands soon began visiting the Dajiyuan website (with the help of anti-censorship technologies) to post their statements denouncing their ties to the Communist Party, Youth League, or Young Pioneers. Within a year, thousands grew to millions.
Tens of millions participate
Today, tens of millions of names have been posted to the Dajiyuan
website renouncing Communist Party organizations. The
declarations’ authors range from rural farmers to prominent
intellectuals, schoolteachers to retired military personnel, human
rights lawyers to plainclothes police. While some use their real
names, most sign their statements with aliases because of the risk
of retribution. The use of aliases makes independent corroboration
of some of the statements difficult. Nevertheless, a look through
the statements submitted to Dajiyuan clearly reveals a movement of
extraordinary size, diversity, and personal and spiritual
significance for its participants.
In their statements, many speak of suffering endured under
communism, or of being disillusioned by corruption. Some ask
forgiveness for past sins committed during the Cultural
Revolution, or more recent abuses like land grabs or the
persecution of Falun Gong adherents. In many statements, the
authors describe a feeling of relief, of being refreshed, or of
joy at being free to live their lives according to the dictates of
their own conscience.
Is Tuidang’s aim to overthrow the Communist
Party?
While the Nine Commentaries denounce the Communist Party, they do
not prescribe an alternative political system. Thus, while the
Tuidang movement implicitly supports regime change in China, it
does not advocate an overthrow of the CCP or a coup, nor does it
prescribe specific institutional reforms. Rather, the focus is on
a rejection of the culture of violence and duplicity propagated by
the CCP and on a revival of virtue to bring about a more just and
humane future China. The Tuidang movement is, in many ways, less
about political revolution or institutional change and more about
a spiritual and ethical revival.
What is the connection to Falun Gong?
The Dajiyuan newspaper that was originally responsible for
catalyzing the Tuidang movement is staffed largely by individuals
who practice Falun Gong. Many of the movement’s leading proponents
also practice Falun Gong, though Falun Gong practitioners comprise
only a small percentage of the total number of individuals who
have issued Tuidang statements. The Falun Gong activists involved
seek to promote the movement not to catalyze regime change per se,
but to offer Chinese citizens a chance to understand the CCP’s
history of violence, and take a principled stand by choosing to no
longer associate with it. In this process, Falun Gong
practitioners often say they feel they are offering people a
chance at moral redemption, healing, and inner peace.
For the first several years of the persecution,
Falun Gong practitioners pointed to individual leaders, rather
than the CCP as a whole, when citing the perpetrators of the
persecution. Yet, it eventually became clear that because of how
the CCP shapes the thoughts of Chinese people through education
and media control, many Chinese had difficulty believing the
reality of what was happening to Falun Gong. Therefore, to open
people’s eyes to the abuses faced by practitioners, activists felt
they first needed to free people from the CCP’s mind-control. This
was the intended, and indeed actual, impact of the Nine
Commentaries’ analysis.
Falun Gong practitioners’ intent in promoting Tuidang is therefore
to help people see clearly the scope and nature of the persecution
and to enable them to distance themselves from it. In this
process, the movement appears to have aided in curbing human
rights abuses. As more Chinese citizens have learned of the CCP’s
violent and deceptive tendencies by reading the Nine Commentaries,
many have vowed to no longer act on its behalf to violate fellow
citizens’ rights. Anecdotal evidence suggests that numerous labor
camp guards and other security agents have lost their will to
arbitrarily detain, torture, and threaten Falun Gong adherents.
Many now seek to quietly protect Falun Gong practitioners against
abuses ordered by higher levels. As a discipline whose aim is
spiritual fulfillment, Falun Gong as a group never has sought and
never will seek political power.
If this is such an important phenomenon, why
haven’t I heard of it before?
The Tuidang movement is not created for the consumption of Western
journalists or scholars. Unlike some better-known Chinese
dissident manifestos or calls for change, Tuidang does not have
high-profile Western proponents, it does not speak in the language
of liberal democracy, and it does not spark visible public
protests. Instead, Tuidang is a quiet phenomenon, rooted in
Chinese intellectual traditions, whose aim is to help individuals
find personal peace and liberation. Whatever the future governing
institutions of China may look like, the Tuidang movement will
have laid an essential foundation for greater openness and freedom
by reinforcing the commitment of tens of millions of Chinese to
honesty, fairness, and compassion in daily life.
Analyses and insights
New Tang Dynasty:
Tuidang series: