Beijing (AsiaNews) A million members of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) have decided not to renew their membership to protest against corruption, tyranny and repression of human and religious rights, this according to The Epoch Times, a paper created by the Falun Gong spiritual movement.
In an recent editorial entitled the "Nine Commentaries on the Chinese Communist Party", the paper commented on the nature and origin of the CCP, its tyranny, how the Party persecutes Falun Gong and destroys traditional Chinese culture and religions. It goes so far as to accuse it of numerous genocides.
Among the officials to have resigned, there are Meng Weizai, former director of Division of Art and Literature under CCP's Propaganda Department and former deputy Party chief at the China Federation of Art and Literature; Guo Jidong, the Deputy Mayor of Hejian city in Hebei province, and Ding Ke, a former reporter for the Guangming Daily and former special agent of the CCP Security Department.
On February 28, 46 senior officials in China's military nuclear industry withdrew from the CCP; they were senior staff and elite Party members with 30 years and more in the Party.
More than 150 Chinese groups from around the globe came together on a "March for Democracy and Freedom" in New York City on April 23 to publicly demonstrate their support for the one million Chinese who withdrew from the CCP.
Falun Gong, founded and led by Li Hongzhi, is a spiritual movement that promotes salvation and harmony through meditation, physical exercises and diets.
In has been banned in China since 1999 and its members have been persecuted.
Some of its leaders have found refuge abroad, especially in the United States and Australia, whilst others have gone underground in China.
For years, Falun Gong has demanded official recognition as a religious group, but the government has instead called it a "wicked cult" that is dangerous to "both people and the state".