By Jing Zhang      WRIC                                          09-23-2024

Editor’s note: Jing Zhang’s speech on the issue of some Chinese exiles becoming CCP agents at the “Future China Forum” in Washington DC on September 23, 2024

Democracy is a lofty ideal; the democratic movement is a series of actions to realize this ideal. We, the exiled democracy activists, are a group of activists from different families and educational backgrounds, with different motivations for participation, but who have reached a basic consensus and formed various groups. Every participant, especially the organizers, promotes the values ​​of democracy, freedom and human rights through speeches, articles and various self-media platforms. While seeking recognition from others, they also declare their own commitments and expectations. These are great motivations to encourage others to actively participate in overthrowing the CCP’s tyranny.

Jing Zhang gave a speech at the “Future China Forum” in Washington DC on September 23, 2024。

Recently, several leaders of Chinese dissident groups in exile have been prosecuted by judicial institutions in Europe and the U.S., accused of acting illegally as foreign agents or spies for the Chinese Communist Party. This has shocked and frustrated all involved in the democracy movement, causing significant harm and a credibility crisis for our overseas efforts.

New participants who have gone through untold hardships to pursue democracy and freedom suddenly discovered that the leader of their organization turned out to be a CCP informant and spy; old democracy activists also suddenly discovered that their old comrades who had experienced the same imprisonment and exile as them, and who had held protests and condemned tyranny together, had lost their integrity in their later years and became tools for the CCP to infiltrate. Once upon a time, we spent the Mid-Autumn Festival together to comfort each other’s homesickness; we went on outings with our families together. We were comrades-in-arms and friends. But it was these “friends” who, without our knowledge, secretly handed over all our information (as long as the CCP wanted it) to the CCP’s secret police in exchange for their own interests. Our political views, family situations, and personal likes and dislikes expressed in public events, private gatherings, or casual conversations may become the price they pay to the CCP’s national security to seek credit and reward. Tang Yuanjun, former chairman of the New York Democratic Party, Wang Shujun, founding secretary general of the “Hu Yaobang and Zhao Ziyang Memorial Foundation”, Guo Jian, former director of the German Democratic Front, and others are such a group of trash who harmed their comrades and friends and betrayed their conscience.

Let’s not talk about the distant past, let’s talk about the two prosecuted CCP agents in New York who we know.

We are not surprised that Wang Shujun was found to have worked for the Chinese Communist Party’s intelligence agencies for many years, because Wang Shujun has been actively participating in the activities and gatherings of top anti-communist democracy activists overseas for a long time, while freely traveling between China and the United States. His organization and activities are not affected at all. This has long been criticized in our democracy movement circle, and everyone knows it tacitly, but some people are embarrassed to say it, and some people cover it up for the sake of covering up.

In May 2017, Wang Shujun received the “World Chinese Outstanding Talent Award” awarded by the “World Chinese Investment Foundation” and the Chinese Communist Party’s official media “Wen Wei Po” in Hong Kong. It’s funny that almost no one in our circle knew what kind of special and outstanding talents Wang Shujun had among the Chinese people in the world. Even the pro-communist overseas Chinese groups and leaders in New York didn’t know who Wang Shujun was at the time. It wasn’t until Li Jinjin, the president of the “Memorial Hu Zhao Foundation”, was killed in 2022 that Wang Shujun was prosecuted as an illegal agent of the Chinese Communist Party. He became famous. We have also confirmed our suspicions. His ironclad criminal facts are disgusting.

What confuses new democracy activists is not that Wang Shujun was convicted of four crimes, but that some democracy activists said that the content of the report Wang Shujun passed to the Chinese Communist Party intelligence personnel was public and they did not feel hurt. Some people also defended Wang Shujun’s behavior. Perhaps they cannot distinguish the boundary of criminal behavior regulated by American law, or perhaps they are used to being hurt and have become a little numb. In other words, we, the democracy activists, do not have the ability to remove the blood-sucking leeches that have long been infiltrated by the Chinese Communist Party and tightly attached to our bodies. The US law enforcement agencies have helped us remove them, but some people actually say that they do not feel that the leeches attached to their bodies are harmful.

So far, the “harmlessness theory” in the democracy movement circle has become very popular, leaving supporters and new participants confused and unable to distinguish right from wrong. Wang Shujun violated many U.S. laws and disrupted the public order that the public must abide by. This is an offense to both Americans and Chinese living in the United States, not to mention that we ourselves are the direct offenders or victims. Injury is not necessarily just physical injury, but also mental injury and damage to rights. It is precisely because our basic rights such as personal privacy have been damaged that Wang Shujun and his ilk can travel between China and the United States and receive medals and bonuses issued by the CCP.

For many years, there has always been some confusion of principles within our democracy movement on major issues of right and wrong.

For example, when the Tiananmen Square massacre murderers did not apologize or pay compensation, student leaders who escaped from China early on took the lead in launching the “forgiveness theory” in the United States to forgive Deng Xiaoping, Li Peng and other murderers. Although they may not have ulterior motives to deliberately blur the focus of the essence, and they should not deliberately curry favor with the criminals, such cognition is enough to cause confusion in the thoughts and the bottom line of right and wrong among the democracy activists, making it easier and more unscrupulous for the CCP to infiltrate, alienate and disintegrate the democracy movement organizations.

Mr. Wang Dan recently made a direct clarification on Ms. Dai Qing’s remarks that confused right and wrong and portrayed Deng Xiaoping as a leader with democratic ideas, so that the younger generation can understand the truth, distinguish right from wrong, and not be misled. Wang Dan’s timely restoration of historical right and wrong is a responsible act and is worth promoting.

Unlike Wang Shujun, Tang Yuanjun was once our fellow traveler, comrade-in-arms and friend. From the moment he jumped into the cold waters of the Taiwan Strait, he knew that he was on a road of no return. He knew that his parents would grow old and his brother would have difficulty walking. He had already made a well-thought-out choice between pursuing his own ideals and fulfilling his family responsibilities. In New York, Tang Yuanjun became a leader of the democracy movement. He promised to uphold his ideals, resist the tyranny of the Chinese Communist Party, and encourage and call on the party members they organized to overthrow the authoritarian regime of the Chinese Communist Party.

Around 2014, Tang Yuanjun changed from agreeing with violent revolution to overthrow the CCP to an extreme advocate of “peaceful, rational and non-violent”. In his view, the democracy movement must reflect every day, and adhering to “peaceful, rational and non-violent” is the only way out for China. He never forgets to remind people at every democracy movement meeting, even at friends’ gatherings, that we must reflect and “be peaceful, rational and non-violent”. It has become his motto, and he speaks it casually. For this reason, I have repeatedly asked Tang Yuanjun: When should we reflect? When has the democracy movement ever been violent? Why don’t you say “peaceful, rational and non-violent” to the CCP?

In the end, the fact we see is that Tang Yuanjun not only betrayed his ideals and promises, deceived many party members, betrayed his comrades and friends, but also betrayed his wife (divorced this year). It is unclear whether Tang’s wife, who was then a staff member of the US Congressional and Executive Committee on China (CECC), also became the price tag for Tang to obtain benefits from the CCP.) Tang Yuanjun’s disorderly life is believed to have made him an easy target for the CCP. This cannot be covered up by just the word “homesickness”.

From a tolerant perspective, even if he cannot discipline himself, breaks his promise, has no spirit of responsibility, and chooses to withdraw from the democratic movement, we can still consider him to have some basic conscience as a human being. However, this is not the case.

Over the past few decades, many exiled democracy activists have been allowed to return to China for various reasons, such as homesickness or mourning. Some have been invited to tea or forced to kneel briefly after writing a letter of guarantee not to speak out against CCP.

After returning to the United States, some of them have withdrawn from the democracy movement circle on their own; some have been vague but eventually disappeared. These are still considered to be people with conscience. At least they no longer harm their fellow activists. We can understand and forgive them. Of course, there are also those who use personal social platforms and the media to sing praises for the CCP in various ways.

However, when their phased tasks are completed, they generally leave the democracy movement. The few long-term latent professional agents are another matter. If Tang Yuanjun took the risk only because he was homesick, at least after returning to the United States, he should not continue to accept the instructions of the Chinese National Security Bureau to do things that go against his conscience, and should not use his identity as a leader of the democracy movement as a cover, and continue to use the public or private personal information of his colleagues and hundreds of party members before and after as bargaining chips with the Chinese National Security Bureau. There are not many cases like Tang Yuanjun who shamelessly used his identity as a leader of the democracy movement to do things for the CCP until he was exposed by the FBI.

More importantly, Tang Yuanjun committed a crime of conscience and morality that is unforgivable. In the case of Tang Yuanjun, regardless of whether he is convicted or sentenced to a long or short sentence in the future, his moral responsibility is much greater than the legal responsibility, and it is difficult to forgive him easily.

Some people say that murderers can be forgiven, so why can’t Tang be forgiven?

Even from God’s perspective, anyone and anything in the world can be forgiven conditionally, not to mention that we are mortals and can only judge whether a person’s behavior can be forgiven according to the laws and morals in real society.

Legally, there are juries to judge and judges to sentence; while the moral court is in everyone’s heart, making decisions according to the socially agreed value judgments and moral bottom line. Tang Yuanjun cheated and betrayed again and again, and cheated and betrayed again. If he hadn’t been caught, it is unknown how many times and for how many years he would have continued. Tang Yuanjun betrayed his promise and conscience, and affected and hurt multiple organizations and an entire group. This is of course different from a murderer. In addition to violating the law, Tang Yuanjun has a greater moral responsibility. He owes a debt of conscience and must be judged by the moral court.

As a participant in the Chinese democracy movement who has been in exile abroad for decades, I believe that many of you here, like me, have experienced the pain of wanting to return to China to visit your elderly parents or to see your loved ones for the last time before they leave.

However, faced with the unreasonable demand that you must shut up if you want to go back, we all made the right choice: where there is freedom, there is home. I would rather suffer than be a dog with a broken spine. We have regrets and owe our families, but in the end we kept our conscience, resisted the deception of the evil Chinese Communist regime, and fulfilled our promises and expectations. After experiencing the hardships of life, we still sail freely in the ocean of our hearts, trying our best to fulfill our promises and never losing our way. The reward for decades is a life of peace of mind, and our glory lies in the ordinary.