Torch Relay Protests China's Crimes against Humanity

Human rights groups, in a laudable effort to rally opposition to the Chinese Communist Party’s crimes against humanity, have begun an inspiring, worldwide rival Olympic torch relay, named the Human Rights Torch World Tour. The rival torch was lit August 9, 2007, in Athens, a day after the one-year countdown to Beijing’s Olympic events.

The torch will now begin a journey around the world, passing from one runner to the next, traveling through Europe and Australia before reaching New Zealand in January 2008, having visited one hundred cities worldwide on five continents.

The originator of the international torch relay, the Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (CIPFG), says the relay will end in Asia right before the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Former athletes, Olympians, and celebrities will participate, and serve as torch bearers in this uplifting international venture.

In a recent interview, Mr. Kai Chen, a former player on the Chinese National Basketball Team and newly appointed Western U.S. ambassador for the Human Rights Torch World Tour, explained why this torch relay is needed:

"Under the atheistic theories of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), there is no concept of human rights as a birth right. All Chinese people should assume responsibility for joining this campaign. The Olympic Games should not be used by the CCP as an excuse to advance its dictatorship."

Chen says, "The goal of the Human Rights Torch Relay is to end the CCP's human rights abuses in China. The Chinese people are deceived by the dictatorship. They think that the rights to have enough food and pursue a good life are given by the government.

"Actually, as President Lincoln said, the government should be 'of the people, by the people, and for the people.' The government should serve the people. Yet under the CCP's rule, the opposite happened. The people became tools of the regime. The roles of the people and the government are reversed."

Chen continued, "Over the last 50 years, few of the political movements in China were about human rights and freedom. As a result, no human rights or freedom were gained. The Chinese people need to be freed from this regime. They need to escape the distorted society created by the regime in order to restore human dignity. Otherwise they remain slaves to the regime."
Lai Ching-Te, a deputy of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party, said there is great hope that “the human rights torch relay will expose the inside story of the bloody Olympics." At the news conference where Ching-Te commented, a banner saying, “No human rights, no Beijing 2008" was in full view.

The torch relay supporters say they are especially concerned with the treatment of Tibetans, after the Chinese government’s ominous vow to “tighten security” in Tibet in the upcoming year. What that means is anyone’s guess, but it certainly is good cause for alarm and anxiety among all Tibetans. Lai and others point to the persecution of Tibetans and adherents of Falun Gong, a spiritual movement banned by Beijing as a cult in 1999, as specific goals of the Chinese Communist regime.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry had no comment on these issues.

According to the International Herald Tribune:

Rights Watch said Beijing was more worried about political stability and tightening its grip on domestic human rights defenders, grass-roots activists and media to choke off any possible expressions of dissent ahead of the Games, the group said.

"Instead of a pre-Olympic 'Beijing spring' of greater freedom and tolerance of dissent, we are seeing the gagging of dissidents, a crackdown on activists, and attempts to block independent media coverage," said Brad Adams, Asia director of Human Rights Watch. "The government seems afraid that its own citizens will embarrass it by speaking out about political and social problems, but China's leaders apparently don't realize authoritarian crackdowns are even more embarrassing."

What is at issue here?

CIPFG charges that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) represents anything but the Olympic spirit and violates human rights on a regular basis and in many egregious ways. Surely one of the most repellant of the CCP practices is an actual ghoulish “harvesting” (removal) of live bodily organs for profit, while the persecuted “donor” is still alive. This is clearly an atrocity against humanity and is alleged to be conducted regularly by the CCP on their targets, particularly those who believe in the Falun Gong spiritual movement.

Further, as basketball star Kai Chen explained:

"Under the Communist regime's long-term brainwashing, the Chinese people have lost the ability to discern between good and bad, justice and injustice, and morality and immorality. All they know is whether someone is an 'insider' or 'outsider,' or an 'enemy' or 'friend.' When the September 11 terrorist attacks happened, a large number of Chinese people applauded. This reaction reflects a complete lack of humanity.

"The CCP has always said, 'As long as something is against the government, it has to be against the interests of the people.' Although some Chinese people don't favor the Communist Party, they are very protective of the Chinese government.

"These people have been deceived. Chinese people could only be awakened if moral values were re-established in China. Although the process to do so is slow and difficult, this power of justice is the only force that can touch the depth of people's souls and bring hope to China. This precludes the possibility of a new dictatorship taking over the country after the CCP is gone."

The focus of this global awakening to CCP’s dreadful practices is targeted to the Chinese Communist regime itself and not to the Chinese people. Its main purpose is to stop China’s persecution of human beings and to “save the Chinese people from living in an abyss of misery.” It will also ask that the CCP promote democracy, freedom, human rights and the rule of law.

China wants nothing more than an incident-free Olympics, stifling dissidents and blocking media coverage of dissidents’ righteous complaints. Let’s hope that this marvelous event, the Human Rights Torch World Tour, will shine a spotlight on a very dark element in our world – the Chinese Communist Party – and force the Communist dictatorship to understand that Chinese crimes against humanity and the Olympics cannot be allowed to co-exist.

By Editors of FamilySecurityMatters.org 10 August 2007