On Saturday there was a parade through the city centre to raise awareness about social injustices happening thousands of miles away, but which inspired our local residents into action.
The Cambridge parade was coordinated by local Chinese residents to celebrate the fifteen million people who have renounced the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
The parade was followed by speeches given outside the Guildhall. Those speaking included Lord Thurlow a forty year veteran of politics, Dr William Liu, Chief Editor of The Epoch Times (UK), Mrs Fengling Zhou Cambridge resident and asylum seeker from China, Dr Guihua Li, Cambridge resident and director of the UK CCP Renunciation Centre and Mr Xu Bei Fang, a Chinese human rights lawyer.
Lord Thurlow said, “The FCO reports that in every field of human rights there are continuous and severe abuses, torture is widespread, there is no independent administration of justice, the Communist Party directs and overrides the judges. Obstacles to fair trials include arbitrary use of administrative detention.
“For fifty years, its ceaseless propaganda in the controlled media painted a totally false historical picture of the party’s record, covering up terrible facts with blatant lies, including the murder by Mao Tse Tung of eighty million of his fellow citizens in successive planned genocidal massacres to force the population into submission. In 2004, the publication of the ‘Nine Commentaries’ punctured the balloon of deceit for the first time. The Chinese people had access for the first time to the unvarnished truth.”
Rosie Wilson, Cambridge resident said: “It’s really, really good and it’s long overdue that we know what has happened in China. The Bush and Blair governments sweep human rights under the carpet.”
Another Cambridge resident, Andrew, said: “People don’t really know what goes on in China. There’s a lot of concern about what is happening, but we seem to take a ‘softly softly’ approach.”
Dr Liu said in his speech, “The CCP is the greatest disaster to humanity. The number of deaths the CCP created is greater than all deaths of all world wars combined. It is an immoral society based on a struggle between classes and nature. The CCP tells people to give up all beliefs and forces you to struggle. They only care for their own power and not human nature. They destroy human nature.
“The spotlight of the world is focusing on China and we need to evaluate what China’s impact will be on the world. This movement to quit the CCP is not just a concern for Chinese people but for everyone.”
In her speech Cambridge resident Mrs Zhou recounted her childhood where her family was starving and persecuted by the CCP. Her parents were hard workers in the countryside of China. But even so, they could not get enough food. Her Mum would cry a lot and so would she and her brother because they were always hungry. During the Cultural Revolution, her father was often brought before thousands of people in their village and criticised and beaten. The CCP took all the land in the village and anyone speaking out against it would be beaten and criticised. She could not understand why all the hard working people were beaten and criticised while the lazy people were honoured as heroes for doing the criticising. She grew up starving and in constant fear that her father would be killed. She survived by eating leaves and any plants she could. She said “We didn’t want to be slaves of the CCP but we didn’t have any choice. We were brainwashed by lies and had to follow the CCP or we could not survive.” Mrs Zhou’s speech brought tears to the eyes of a number of people in the audience.
Another Cambridge resident, Pierre from France, said: “It’s good to organise this rally because I did not really know about what is happening in China.
Chinese Human Rights Lawyer, Mr Xu, explained how he was a lawyer for the people in China. He helped workers when they were mistreated or to get fair wages. For this he was sentenced to four years of hard labour and imprisonment (alongside prisoners on death row). He described the imprisonment as “suffering inhuman treatment. The methods they used for torture were sleep deprivation and beating people or putting them in small cages, like dog houses. There are so many people who are so scared of them.
“I hope all the people who have a conscience can come together and end the brutal dictatorship of the CCP. Let’s regain democracy and civil freedom, freedom of religion and freedom of speech.”
Cambridge resident, Dr Li, said in her speech, “People in the West cannot imagine what quitting the CCP really means. The CCP deceives, persecutes and kills in order to force everyone to bow to it and not dare question its authority. Many Chinese people have lost any sense of justice and their dignity as human beings.
“Quitting the CCP means your life and that of your relatives is put in danger of retaliation. So we can understand how brave and great one would be if he or she renounce the CCP. It means the person is determined to stand up and regain their humanity once again.”
A message from Martin Horwood MP was read aloud, it said: “I am very concerned at the continuing human rights abuses by the Chinese Communist Party and look forward to a day when all parts of China and Tibet enjoy freedom, democracy and self-determination.”
Other voices of support came from Fabian Hamilton MP, David Laws MP, Mike Hancock MP, Hazel Blears MP and John Bercow MP.
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