Former associate professor of Nanjing Normal University Guo Quan continually published open letters promoting democratic reform in China. As a result, he was expelled from the China Democratic League – one of eight decorative political parties. Soon afterwards, on Decemhber 17, 2007, he was invited to be the acting chairman of the newly established Chinese New People’s Party (CNPP). The CNPP, which is composed mainly of petitioners who have been marginalized in the current Communicst society, claims to have 10 million members. “The purpose of the CNPP is to unite people’s minds, gather the forces of all those who oppose dictatorship, and build a truly democratic China, where people are the masters of their own country,” Guo stated.
The following are excerpts from articles published in overseas Chinese language media, although the official Chinese media has no coverage of this development.
From Voice of America, December 28, 2007 [1]:
"The Chairman of the party and Nanjing scholar Guo Quan claimed that the new party is not a mere decorative party, nor is it a loyal vassal for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). He said that all of China’s problems originate from the political system. People should have the right to choose the ruling party and to form their own party.
"The new party is called the ‘Chinese New People’s Party (CNPP).’ Guo added that the party was established on December 17. Nanjing Normal University (NNU) punished him and deprived him of his professorship for advocating a multi-party political system in China.
"Guo said, ‘When I told my misfortune to my petitioner friends, they were very angry and said, ‘We should bring together all the petitioner organizations and form our own organization.’ The initial name was the ‘Chinese Petitioners Party,’ or ‘Min Sheng Party’ (A party for people’s livelihood). I said, ‘Those names do not sound like a party with a political agenda. Let’s call it the Chinese New People’s Party (CNPP).’"
"According to the recently publicized constitution of CCNP, the party currently has 10 million members. Guo said, the main body of the party is petitioners. Presently there are 40 million petitioners in total across the country. More than 10 million of them have contacts with him. Those people are considered the first batch of members. He said, ‘By a rough calculation, among the ten million members, 1/5 of them were CCP members. I suggested to them to renounce their CCP memberships before joining the CNPP. Thus the formal membership should be eight million at the moment. As for the remaiining two million CCP members, they will certainly renounce their CCP membership. Actually they already regard themselves as CNPP members.’
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"Guo stated that there would be a cruel crackdown on this kind of party if they sought registration in mainland China or any form of official recognition. Therefore, the CNPP will not seek registration in China, nor require its members to register their membership inside the country. The CNPP will not conduct any political campaigns in any form of a normal political party. However, the party will establish branches in other countries. He added that there will be legally registered CNPP branches in the USA and New Zealand."
From Radio Free Asia, December 28, 2007 [2]:
"After Guo Quan, 39 years old, finished his postdoctoral research at NNU in 2001, he stayed at the university to teach. He is an associate professor of literature, and a supervisor for graduate students in the Masters program. In June 2001, he joined the China Democratic League (CDL), one of the eight parties that collaborated with the CCP during the civil war before 1949. After the CCP seized power, Mao Zedong asked not to dismiss these parties and asked them to monitor the CCP as participating political parties. However, in their constitutions, all eight parties declared that they accept the CCP’s leadership. Thus they are regarded as the ‘democratic vassals of the CCP.’"
"After he published multiple open letters to state leaders, NNU’s CCP committee deprived Guo Quan of his teaching duties and demoted him to the position of librarian. Local authorities raided his home and detained him for 12 hours. Last Friday, he received an official letter from NNU’s CDL committee, expelling him from the league for ‘advocating a multi-party political system, severely violating China’s constitution and CDL charters, and creating a bad political influence domestically and internationally.’ In response, Guo said that he does not regret being expelled from CDL, which showed its nature throughout the incident. He believed that it was another round of the authorities persecuting him. He said, ‘The actions of the CDL prove that it is not a democratic party; the authorities’ persecution of me just proves that there is no democracy in China, and my perspective of democratic reform is correct.’"
Part of CNPP’s constitution published in Boxun, on December 24 [3]:
"The CNPP aims to adopt a welfare-for-all economic policy, in which society’s wealth, except for the parts used for national security and public construction, should be distributed to the people according to their work. The CNPP aims to adopt a multi-party electoral political policy, in which people have their endowed right to choose the ruling party. The CNPP will do its best to help them to achieve this right.
"The CNPP is willing to accept the people’s choice, and will stand by the Chinese people to guard this universal value and social ideology of freedom and democracy. The CNPP will strive to construct a China that has a multi-party democratic political system with welfare for all.
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"The short-term goal is to spread the democratic ideology and urge the current government to abandon media censorship and the one-party system.
"The ultimate goal is to achieve democratic politics in which people can freely form their own parties and elect the ruling party.
From the Epoch Times, December 18, 2007 [4]:
"After the 17th National Congress of the CCP, Chinese intellectuals started a wave of writing open letters to state leaders. Following the letters by Wang Zhaojun, a member of the standing committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference of Anhui Province, and entrepreneur Zheng Cunzhu, on November 14, Guo Quan publicized his open letter to Hu Jingtao and Wu Bangguo, urging the construction of a multi-party democratic political system under the principle of "welfare for all."
"Immediately afterwards, Guo wrote a second open letter to Wen Jiabao regarding the rights of the 590,000 workers that PetroChina and Sinopec fired, and the issue of China’s ‘labor through reeducation system.’ In a third letter, he wrote on behalf of the 138,000 employees of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China. On December 15, he wrote his fourth letter to the state leaders concerning the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) veterans across the country and the issue of nationalization of the armed forces.
"He stated that CNPP is a fully open democratic party. Any person can claim him or herself to be a member of the CNPP as long as he or she is for democracy, regardless of religion and social class, or whether they are members of other democratic parties. However, Guo emphasized that CCP members can join CNPP only after they renounce their CCP membership. ‘Many CCP members owe people a blood debt. They are doomed to be tried by the people and by history. They can not be members of CNPP.’"
Endnotes:
[1] Voice of America, December 28, 2007
http://voanews.com/chinese/w2007-12-28-voa28.cfm
[2]Radio Free Asia, December 28, 2007
http://www.rfa.org/cantonese/xinwen/2007/12/18/China-Professor/
[3]Boxun, December 24
http://www.peacehall.com/news/gb/party/2007/12/200712241223.shtml
[4] Epoch Times, December 18, 2007
http://www.epochtimes.com/gb/7/12/18/n1946000.htm