(Minghui.org) To mark the 20th anniversary of the publication of the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party, elected officials, experts, media personnel, and survivors of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) persecution participated in a forum held on Capitol Hill on November 22, 2024, to celebrate the nearly 440 million Chinese who have withdrawn from the CCP and its affiliated organizations. Experts and media personnel expressed their support for those seeking to escape the CCP’s tyranny, and said that the awakening of more than 400 million Chinese people is encouraging.

Founder of the Institute of World Politics Stands with People Who Quit the CCP

John Lenczowski, founder, President Emeritus, and Chancellor of the Institute of World Politics, and former Director of European and Soviet Affairs, National Security Council, said at the forum that the CCP creates fear and makes people lose trust in order to completely control their speech, thoughts, and behavior. He said that the CCP firmly controls the entire society by monopolizing information and communications, combined with the indoctrination of the CCP’s ideology.

John Lenczowski, founder, President Emeritus, and Chancellor of the Institute of World Politics and former Director of European and Soviet Affairs, National Security Council, spoke at a seminar on November 22.

Mr. Lenczowski said, “What we can do to help the courageous people who are trying to resist the Party and who are leaving the Party or declaring that they will not join it? We must communicate with them. We must connect with them. We must make them feel as though they are not alone, that there are those of us here, elsewhere in the world who stand with them in solidarity.”

Nury Turkel, former chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USIRF), said that the withdrawal of 440 million people from the CCP organizations is a very significant and remarkable achievement. These Chinese people have shown extraordinary courage in leaving this evil regime.

Nury Turkel, former chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, spoke at the forum.

Piero Tozzi, staff director of the U.S. Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC), said at the forum, “If the Party falls, let it fall. Just as it meets the depression, naturally there will be a reversion. If we allow the Party to fall and we allow the Chinese people to spring back, then and only then, without the Chinese Communist Party, we will see a true rejuvenation of the Chinese people.”

Piero Tozzi, staff director of the U.S. Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC), spoke at the forum.

President of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation: Salute to the Chinese People Quitting the CCP

Eric Patterson, President of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation (VOC), made a statement on the day of the forum, saying, “Communism’s grisly crimes are vast and well-documented, and there is no single country with more victims of communism, past and present, than communist China.”

Eric Patterson, President of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation (VOC), spoke at the forum.

Mr. Patterson said, “The Tuidang Movement is inspired by the truth-telling of the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party published by The Epoch Times. Those powerful essays detail the evil of communism in China.” “The commentaries call for the Chinese people to purge the poison of communism from their spirits, extract their minds from its evil content, and free themselves from the shackles of terror.” “We salute their courage to no longer live by lies. They set an example for all of us to take a moral stand for truth, reality, justice, and freedom.

“The day of a free China will come when the CCP is relegated to the ash bin of history,” said Mr. Patterson.

Faith McDonnell, Director of Advocacy, Katartismos Global, showed an English version of the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party which she treasured for many years, and said that she learned a lot from the book.

Faith McDonnell (third from left), Director of Advocacy, Katartismos Global

Dean Baxendale, publisher of Optimum Publishing, said in the forum that the CCP is the world’s largest transnational organized crime operator. “The evil CCP’s hybrid warfare operations globally have affected our way of life, our freedom of religion, our freedom of belief, our freedom of speech, and our freedom of assembly.”

Dean Baxendale, publisher of Optimum Publishing, spoke at the forum.

Mr. Baxendale wants to tell the people who quit the CCP organizations, “We need to let them know that the spirit in this room is here to support all of them in their quest to be free from tyranny.”

Xi Van Fleet, a Chinese American and a survivor of China’s Cultural Revolution, said at the forum, “What surprised me was that Americans know very little about communism, about Chinese communism, and about the Chinese Cultural Revolution, and that’s a big problem.”

Chinese American Xi Van Fleet (first from right) spoke at the forum.

She said that the CCP has infiltrated the American education system and has always wanted to control the minds of young Americans.

She called for November to be designated as Anti-Communism Month. “Let us educate Americans, especially young Americans, about the dangers and evils of communism.”

Journalist: Spread the Truth

Se Hoon Kim, a Korean-American media reporter in Washington DC, shared his personal experience at the forum about how he went from believing the CCP’s fake propaganda to understanding the truth and recognizing the true nature of the CCP.

Se Hoon Kim (first from left), journalist, spoke in the forum.

Mr. Kim said when he was in high school, he believed the CCP’s fake propaganda and opposed Falun Gong.

He said, “One winter, I met a Falun Gong practitioner on the streets of Flushing, New York. She didn’t know me, but she told me about the situation with her sister and the plight her family was going through. That’s when something clicked inside me. At that moment, my heart was touched.”

Mr. Kim said the brief conversation changed a person like him, whose mind was distorted. He called on everyone present to speak out and spread the truth.

Deputy Director of Falun Dafa Information Center: The CCP’s Persecution Extends to America

Larry Liu, Deputy Director of the Falun Dafa Information Center, said, “There is a chapter in the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party about the persecution of Falun Gong, which is one of the largest, longest-lasting, and most brutal human rights atrocities in modern Chinese history. The worst part of this persecution is the forced organ harvesting.”

Larry Liu (first from right), Deputy Director of Falun Dafa Information Center, addressed the forum.

He thanked Robert Destro, the former assistant secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, for rescuing Cheng Peiming, a survivor of the CCP’s organ harvesting, to the United States. After Mr. Cheng recently spoke publicly for the first time about his experience of torture and organ harvesting by the CCP, his home in New York was recently broken into by some CCP agents, and he is now facing death threats.

Mr. Liu said that the CCP’s persecution of Falun Gong not only occurs in China, but also extends to the United States. He gave a detailed account of the CCP’s transnational persecution of Falun Gong during the forum.

Mr. Liu thanked the U.S. House of Representatives for unanimously passing the Stop Forced Organ Harvesting Act and the Falun Gong Protection Act, and hoped that these two bills would also be passed by the Senate this year.

He said at the forum that in China, many Falun Gong practitioners have been arrested and imprisoned for spreading the Nine Commentaries to help people learn the truth. He introduced five Falun Gong practitioners present who were unlawfully sentenced by the CCP for insisting on practicing Falun Dafa or mailing the Nine Commentaries.

Group photo of the five Falun Gong practitioners who were persecuted by the CCP. They live in New York and Washington DC and attended the forum on November 22. They were sentenced by the CCP for persisting in practicing Falun Dafa or mailing the Nine Commentaries.