Author: Zhao Yantao · Editor: Lu Cong
In the long river of history, justice may arrive late, but it will never be absent. Today, we gather here to raise our voices, not only so that the international community may hear the great surging sound of Chinese people at home and abroad in pursuit of freedom, but also in order to deliver, on behalf of our countless compatriots who have been deprived of their right to speak amid heavy suffering, the most severe condemnation and protest against dictatorial rule.
For decades, the harm and the crimes that the machinery of power under the rule of the Chinese Communist Party has inflicted upon the Chinese people are too numerous to record in full. From the trampling and destruction of human nature in the various political movements of the early period, to the brutal deprivation of citizens’ basic freedoms and human rights; from the harsh suppression of dissidents, rights-defense lawyers, and religious groups, to the unlawful imprisonment and persecution of countless innocent people. For a long time this regime has maintained its rule by relying on authoritarian power and violence, placing the private interests of power above the nation’s rule of law and the people’s well-being, and wantonly depriving every ordinary Chinese person of his dignity, rights, and future.
Faced with historical and present-day crimes so grave, and still continuing, the international community can no longer go on choosing silence, and still less can it sit idly by in the face of the dictator’s atrocities. Long-term appeasement and verbal expressions of concern cannot stop the spread of despotism; only resolute action can defend the bottom line of universal values.
To this end, we issue a clear and firm appeal to the international community:
1. The international community should fulfill its responsibility and hold the dictator to account in accordance with the law
The United Nations and the governments of rule-of-law countries such as the United States should earnestly fulfill their legal and moral responsibilities to uphold international justice and basic human rights, and take direct and effective legal action against Xi Jinping and the CCP dictatorial regime behind him. They should take advantage of the occasion of his visits to the international community to investigate, arrest, and try him in accordance with the law for his crimes of violating human rights and contravening international law, and resolutely demand that he step down and cease his unlawful rule. Dictatorial rule possesses no legitimacy whatsoever, either in law or in morality, and every perpetrator who tramples on human rights must accept the severe punishment of justice and of law.
2. Stop military intimidation, and voluntarily relinquish nuclear weapons
We strongly call upon the CCP ruling clique to abandon all futile resistance and struggle, to relinquish its nuclear weapons of its own initiative, and to stop treating national security and nuclear intimidation as a wager with which to hold world peace hostage and consolidate its own perilous situation. The lessons of history have repeatedly proven that every scheme that attempts to maintain authoritarian rule by force and to confront the tide of civilization with violence will in the end be utterly torn apart by the torrent of the development of the times.
3. Carry out a trial of history, redress grievances, and hold the guilty to account
A comprehensive, open, and fair historical trial and investigation must be carried out into all of the crimes that the CCP has committed against the Chinese people over the decades. History’s bill will be settled in the end; the grievance of every victim needs to be redressed, and every perpetrator who abused power and trampled on human rights must pay the historical and legal price that his actions deserve.
Compatriots, freedom never descends out of thin air; justice requires every force that cares about civilization and the future to strive for it together. In the face of despotism and oppression, spreading the truth is our weapon, and holding fast to principle is our strength. Let us join hands, reveal the truth to the world, and exert sustained pressure on the dictatorship.
Dictatorship will surely be defeated, and justice will surely prevail! Restore to the Chinese people the freedom, dignity, and bright future that are rightfully theirs!
