Skip to content

The Impact of the Nine Commentaries on China’s Army

An Interview with Mr. Lin Zhenyang, a Veteran of the East China Sea Fleet and Chairman of the Overseas Chinese Veterans Association

Mr. Lin Zhenyang, currently residing in Seattle, served in the East China Sea Fleet of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) for five years. He was discharged from military service in 1989 and came to the United States soon thereafter. In 1992, he founded the “Overseas Chinese Veterans Association,” and chaired the “Frontier for People’s Rights in China.” Mr. Lin has been actively promoting soldiers’ rights to those who are in military service in China, including veterans’ benefits and the rights and responsibilities of soldiers in democratic countries. He has been striving hard to educate soldiers in China that the military in a modernized nation serves only as the supporting machinery for a nation’s constitution, not as the servant of a certain political party. To make China a truly democratic, liberal, and prosperous nation, China’s military must avoid the fate of becoming the servant of any political party.

The Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party published by The Epoch Times has recorded in depth the history of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), including the CCP’s history of controlling the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) to massacre its own innocent citizens. Having learned that Mr. Lin has been actively observing the impact of the Nine Commentaries and the resulting wave of people renouncing their CCP membership, the author interviewed Mr. Lin.


Q: Hi, Mr. Lin. Recently the Nine Commentaries has been rapidly circulating in China. With your military background, can you comment on the impact of the Nine Commentaries on the Chinese army?

Mr. Lin: Speaking of the PLA, one may relate it to the army that once sacrificed for the “liberation of Chinese people” and regards highly its “tremendous” history. Under so much brainwashing by the CCP, most Chinese people, particularly the soldiers, can hardly revisit China’s history subjectively. However, when Taiwan’s Air China Radio broadcasted in 1989 the genuine history of how the nationalist army fought against the Japanese invasion, it sent a shock wave through the PLA. For the first time, the PLA soldiers learned that the CCP version of its military history totally deceived them. The anti-Japanese war led by the nationalist army strongly contrasted with the CCP’s New Fourth Army and Eight Route Army’s attempted blocking of such battles. The truth of history shocked many soldiers in China and of course, frightened the CCP, who then confiscated at least 2,700 personal radios.

This really had a tremendous impact on the Chinese military, which explains why since 1991 one can hardly find any comments, even from the military academia, on the former Kuomingtang (Nationalist Party) leader Chiang Kai-Shek or on the history of the nationalist army’s anti-Japanese battles. In particular, the movie Bloody Battle in Taierzhuang was censored and blocked from being shown in China because it depicts the anti-Japanese war led by Li Zongren and his troops. For the first time, the 1989 broadcast shook the faith that the Chinese soldiers had in the CCP version of the CCP’s military history.

Q: Then what was the second shock wave to the CCP’s military?

Mr. Lin: The even bigger shock wave to the CCP’s army comes from the Nine Commentaries from The Epoch Times. The commentaries exposed the true history of the CCP, which was also a military history, and a history of using violence to take over power. The CCP’s history of so-called “revolutionary struggles” was actually the history of using its military to commit violence. For the second time, its notorious history was exposed. The Nine Commentaries described the heroic deeds of the nationalist army in fighting against the Japanese invasion and exposed how the CCP distorted history, especially the history of its army. As history shows, the CCP’s military shamelessly took as enemy the nationalist army who fought ferociously against the Japanese.

Q: Do the soldiers in China’s military have access to the Nine Commentaries?

Mr. Lin: Sure. Most troops have an Internet Café. In addition, the military officers at the level of company commander and above have personal computers. In fact, all of the officers have email accounts. While back in the eighties only the political advisers in the military had radios as they were afraid of “enemy radio stations,” today computers are the even more formidable “enemy radios,” as soldiers can frequently receive emails from abroad. Once a soldier receives the Nine Commentaries, he will pass them around and proactively initiate a discussion of China’s military history. This explains why the CCP now requires the military to re-study the “CCP’s military history.” By promoting its own version of the history of the anti-Japanese War, the CCP is simply trying to create new lies to cover old ones. In my recent communication with a lieutenant colonel in China, he said, “I’ve been very busy recently because I have to study military history. Our shames are too broad to cover with a small piece of cloth. The more they try to cover it up, the more loopholes are exposed. Our soldiers are just so puzzled. For example, they want to know how the PLA was founded and grew.” Even this colonel himself has a big question mark in his mind: “Why are we suddenly required to study military history?” Some sensitive soldiers naturally try to relate the study requirement to the Nine Commentaries: “Why do you ask us to study military history? Even during the previous political study waves, we were not required to do so. As we have already studied CCP history and military history as freshmen at the military school or as new soldiers, why do we have to study it again?” By and large, the soldiers are quite suspicious of the purpose of this new movement.

At the end of the interview, Mr. Lin also calls on Chinese soldiers to face the challenge of this critical moment and say goodbye to the CCP.

Source: http://www.dajiyuan.com/gb/5/3/30/n871555.htm