Editor’s Note: The Beijing Massacre, when Chinese soldiers killed thousands of innocent civilians, many of them student protesters, happened 20 years ago (on June 4, 1989).

Guest Comments by Jianyue Su

On paper, China holds an impressive record. Twenty-one years ago, it ratified a convention against torture and other cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment. Then 17 years ago, it accepted the International Convention on the Rights of the Child. In March 2004, it added a constitutional provision pledging to respect and guarantee human rights.

In reality, the situation looks much different. Despite China’s agreement to these measures, the true circumstances grow more and more alarming. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has left a trail of victims.

Since 1949, many millions of Chinese victims have died needlessly thanks to the CCP. One of Communism’s founding principles, “class struggle”, led to “genocides” for some classes, like the rich, intellectuals and critics of the CCP.

During land reforms, landowners and wealthy farmers were labeled “reactionaries” or “bad elements” and then slaughtered. By 1950, the CCP had persecuted or executed three million religious believers and members of clandestine groups.

The “Great Leap Forward” highlighted goals like “grain production of 7.5 tons per hectare”, “doubling steel production” and “surpassing Britain within a decade and the US within 15 years”. These policies led to a national famine and cost millions of lives.

Even by the most conservative figures, the number of unnatural deaths in China’s Cultural Revolution totals 7.7 million. That’s many more than died in Europe’s Holocaust.

On June 4, 1989, thousands of students, intellectuals and Chinese workers were massacred in Beijing. Their “crime” was asking the CCP to reform. The Communist regime responded to peaceful demonstrations with machine guns and tanks.

In 1999, Jiang Zemin, then the Communist Party leader, mobilized the military, police, secret agents and foreign-affairs offices to persecute Falun Gong practitioners. He ordered all radio or TV stations, newspapers and other media to incite public hatred by defaming the Falun Gong. The practitioners faced torture, forced-brainwashing, denial of employment, extortion and forced relocation or homelessness. Severe abuse led to countless deaths (thousands documented) and many torture-inflicted disabilities.

Like the fallen Nazi and Soviet regimes, the Chinese Communists label many “dissident” groups as fair-game for persecution. The victims include democrats, pro-independence Taiwanese, Tibetan monks, Falun Gong practitioners and anyone objecting to land confiscation or daring to tell truths the CCP wishes to hide.

After arrest raids, the condemned are jailed to forced labor in the laogai (re-education centers). There, they encounter torture intended to punish them, force them to renounce their beliefs or practices and submit only to the CCP.

In March 2006, the wife of a Chinese surgeon revealed that Chinese hospitals have held prisoners, mostly Falun Gong practitioners, to harvest their organs for profit. Then the victims’ remains are incinerated to erase all traces. An independent investigation by a former Canadian parliamentarian and a renowned human-rights lawyer confirmed these allegations.

Considering how the CCP massacres its own citizens, many people no longer wish to support this regime. More Party members should resign and encourage others to do the same.

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