20 Years After its Publication, the “Nine Commentaries” Instills Fear in the Chinese Communist Party

On November 19, 2004, a group of anonymous analysts published an editorial series, the Nine Commentaries on the Chinese Communist Party, in an overseas Chinese news outlet, spurring a grassroots movement of moral awakening and dissent in China driven forward by millions of Falun Gong practitioners.

Twenty years after its publication, the series remains a potent critique of the brutality of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) rule and a trigger for Chinese people to distance themselves from the party and its history of violence. Though the commentaries have received little attention in the West, they continue to circulate in China. Moreover, local CCP agencies in multiple provinces called in 2024 for the public to be aware and to report those disseminating it, according to Chinese government websites, signaling the regime’s continued pre-occupation with censoring the editorials.

What are the Nine Commentaries on the Chinese Communist Party?

The Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party were first published by the overseas Dajiyuan newspaper. They detail the history of the Communist Party in China, with a particular focus on its human rights record and episodes like the Cultural Revolution, the Great Leap Forward, the Tiananmen Square Massacre, and the crackdown on Falun Gong.

Beyond mere descriptions of historical events, the series also passes judgment on the nature of the CCP itself as an entity that is inherently inhumane, immoral, and whose philosophy is irreconcilably at odds with traditional Chinese values expressed in Confucianism, Buddhism, and Daoism. The series presents not a political, but a moral vision of China’s future and path to transformation, and exhorts readers to calmly and courageously examine how their own conduct and complicity has contributed to the current state of affairs.

The series presents not a political, but a moral vision of China’s future and path to transformation.

What is the Tuidang movement they inspired?

Soon after the editorials’ publication, the Dajiyuan website began receiving letters from readers renouncing their affiliations to the CCP. They then began compiling the statements, which are available at https://global.tuidang.org/. Within a few months, millions of copies of the editorial series had been emailed, faxed or mailed to Mainland China. Inspired by their message, thousands soon began visiting the website (with the help of anti-censorship technologies) to post their statements denouncing their ties to the Communist Party, Communist Youth League, or Young Pioneers. Within a year, thousands grew to millions. 

Today, over 430 million names have been posted to the Tuidang website renouncing the CCP and its affiliated organizations. The declarations’ authors range from rural farmers to prominent intellectuals, schoolteachers to retired military personnel, human rights lawyers to plainclothes police. While some use their real names, most sign their statements with aliases because of the risk of retribution. The use of aliases makes independent corroboration of some of the statements difficult.

Nevertheless, a look through the statements submitted clearly reveals a movement of extraordinary size, diversity, and personal and spiritual significance for its participants. Moreover, several high-profile Chinese human rights, democracy activists, and CCP defectors have published their own Tuidang statements over the years, including Gao Zhisheng, Hu Jia, Wei Jingsheng, Yang Jianli, Guo Guoting, Zheng Enchong, Chen Yonglin, Hao Fengjun and Li Fengzhi.

Why are Falun Gong practitioners sharing the Nine Commentaries? 

Since 2004, the Nine Commentaries have joined information about Falun Gong and the persecution as a centerpiece of content disseminated by Falun Gong practitioners, both within China or among the diaspora. While at first glance, this would appear to be a form of political activism, a 2011 academic study of the phenomenon found that the goal of those involved is not to overthrow the CCP. Rather, as noted by Freedom House, “the campaign stems from the belief that the CCP is on its last legs, but that in order to ensure a peaceful transition to a less repressive form of government, the Chinese people must undertake a process of moral awakening and a commitment to nonviolence.”

The Tuidang movement is, in many ways, less about political revolution or institutional change and more about a spiritual and ethical revival. As a discipline whose aim is spiritual fulfillment, Falun Gong as a group never has sought and never will seek political power.

How do Chinese people find the Nine Commentaries amid tight CCP censorship?

As one might expect of its authoritarian regime, the CCP has gone to great lengths to censor the Nine Commentaries and prevent Chinese people from learning about or accessing them. Studies of internet censorship in China have consistently found terms like “Nine Commentaries” and “tuidang” to be blacklisted and those found sharing the commentaries risk arrest and imprisonment.

Yet Falun Gong practitioners and other proponents of the Tuidang movement have found creative ways of sharing information about it. These include sharing videos, sending messages over social media, making phone calls to police and ordinary citizens, or writing the number of the phone hotline for the Tuidang center on renminbi bills. Indeed, anecdotal accounts by those manning these hotlines report regularly receiving calls from people in China who had received such a bill and called out of curiosity; by the end of the conversation, many had understood the goal of the Tuidang movement and expressed a wish to issue a renunciation statement.

The CCP’s security apparatus is well aware of these efforts. One article published by Uzumqin County Committee of the PLAC in Inner Mongolia in March 2024 acknowledged that Falun Gong practitioners’ tactics for disseminating the Nine Commentaries (as well as messages like “Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance are Good”) included “offshore websites, microblogging or QQ groups, and secretly posting and placing materials [in public].”

In 2024, is the CCP still worried about the Nine Commentaries?

The Falun Dafa Information Center found multiple mentions of the Nine Commentaries published on local Chinese government websites over the past year. Reports from public security and legal agencies across provinces, ranging from Shandong to Sichuan to Inner Mongolia, reflect the Party’s view of this grassroots movement as an ongoing challenge to its ideological dominance.

These government mentions, while disparaging the Nine Commentaries, suggest concern over the Tuidang movement’s ability to break through the CCP’s censorship of its history, unravel its political indoctrination of the Chinese people, and encourage ideological dissent. In several cases, articles published by the CCP’s Political and Legal Affairs Committee (PLAC) spread disinformation about the Nine Commentaries and Falun Gong practitioners. In one case, a local procuratorate published a directive calling for ordinary citizens to report Falun Gong practitioners that shared the Nine Commentaries to the authorities.

On April 12, 2024, the Ansai Yan’an Procuratorate in Shaanxi urged citizens to report Falun Gong practitioners involved in dissemination of the Nine Commentaries:

If someone promotes “Falun Gong,” “Three Withdrawals,” “Nine Commentaries,” etc. to you, or passes to you … materials …  (CDs, books, printed materials, etc.), you must call the police immediately and assist the public security organs in stopping their behavior.

Enduring Influence on China’s Future

The Chinese government’s continued efforts to suppress discussion of the Nine Commentaries point to its significance. The Nine Commentaries and Tuidang movement serve as persistent reminders of an alternative vision for Chinese society, distinct from the official CCP narrative, and resonate especially with those seeking greater transparency and freedom.

As we mark the 20th anniversary since its publication, the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party remain a catalyst for change in China. By igniting a grassroots movement that encourages citizens to reject the CCP, the Commentaries have contributed to a broader cultural and ideological shift, one that aspires toward personal autonomy and nonviolence. The anniversary not only marks two decades of impact but also highlights the ongoing relevance of the Nine Commentaries as a beacon for those envisioning a free and open future for China.