In Nov. 2004, a series of articles called "Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party" was published by an independent, international newspaper called The Epoch Times. These articles exposed for the first time, in great detail, the history, ideology and terrible practices of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The series also explained how the CCP has maintained its monopoly on Chinese people's minds through its rule-by-terror and by conflating the concepts of China and its people with the Communist Party.

Finally learning these details has inspired nearly 2 million people to resign their memberships in the Communist Party. As of May 24, 2005, 1,799,784 people have publicly resigned on a website created by The Epoch Times and about 20,000 more leave each day. The Epoch Times has also set up dozens of “resignation service centers“ in North America, Europe, and Asia. For those who cannot get on the website safely (the Internet in China is monitored by some 400,000 police), it is possible to resign via telephone, fax, email and cell phone message, which is recorded and filed.

Sources inside the CCP say the sense of crisis is growing daily as the number of resignations of high-ranking cadres and the public continues to snowball. Officials and public from other Communist and former Communist nations including Vietnam, Yugoslavia, and the former Soviet Union have also publicly resigned.

This is an unprecedented event in the 150-year history of the Communist Party.

In response, the CCP has sought desperately to stop the "Nine Commentaries" from reaching the mainland, trying to control all media within its borders, by any means necessary.

• In May, 2005, the Hong Kong edition of The Epoch Times faced closure after pressure from the CCP was exerted on its printer; subsequently other printers in Hong Kong refused to print the paper. Sources at The Epoch Times attribute this to the paper’s publication of the "Nine Commentaries". Over 1 million copies of the Commentaries have been distributed to Hong Kong natives and visitors alike. Hong Kong remains one of the few available sources of uncensored information in the region and this has proved to be an thorn in the side for the Party as Mainland Chinese flock to the island. The paper has won a reprieve for one month, until end of June, 2005. Full story
• A recent Harvard study on China’s Internet censorship expressed deep concern about the sophistication, effectiveness and granularity of the filtering. The study found that the "Nine Commentaries" is one of the top two most restricted topics singled out for Internet suppression. It reported that 90 percent of tested Chinese-language sites on the “Nine Commentaries” were blocked. Read the Epoch times' coverage. Read study director John Palfrey's testimony.
• The CCP has also been applying pressure to the only source of uncensored Chinese-language TV broadcast news into China, provided by New Tang Dynasty Television (NTDTV). The CCP has applied both “the carrot and the stick” to French satellite provider Eutelsat, aiming to prevent further broadcast of NTDTV’s programming, including its recordings of “The Nine Commentaries.” The issue has garnered worldwide attention as US and EU officials and advocates of free media rallied around the station. As a result NTDTV has received several extensions and remained on air past threatened deadlines to “go dark”, but as of the end of May, 2005, no viable contract to continue with uncensored broadcasting has yet been provided, and Eutelsat now threatens to pull the plug on June 6. Read the Epoch Times' coverage. Read NTDTV's statement.

We at FoFG call your attention to the CCP’s coordinated campaign of suppression to try to stem the inexorable tide of resignations, and to the engine behind those resignations, the "Nine Commentaries" themselves. We do this not because of any political motivation, but because the CCP is the vehicle through which the persecution targeting Falun Gong and many other groups was planned and implemented. We encourage people to learn the facts about this regime as we pass the next major milestone in China's, and indeed the world's, history – the inevitable collapse of the Chinese Communist Party.

To read the "Nine Commentaries" in English:

http://english.epochtimes.com/jiuping.asp