Twenty Years After its Publication, the “Nine Commentaries” Inspires Grassroots Dissent and Draws CCP Censorship

Dear Reader,

Have you ever read a book that changed your life? What about a book that changed an entire nation?

Twenty years ago today, the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party was published, sparking a profound awakening among millions in China and beyond. This series of essays fearlessly exposed the true nature of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)—its history of deception, violence, and betrayal of traditional Chinese values.

Though receiving little notice in the West, for many Chinese, the Nine Commentaries became more than just a book; it was a mirror revealing the moral and spiritual costs of Communist rule. It inspired the Tuidang Movement, a peaceful grassroots initiative that has seen hundreds of millions renounce their ties to the CCP and affiliated organizations like the Communist Youth League (often with aliases to avoid retribution). The effort represents not a political revolution, but rather a spiritual and ethical revival aimed at setting China on a path towards a less violent and repressive future.

The journey sparked by the Nine Commentaries hasn’t been without challenges. Local websites of CCP security agencies continue to call for the arrest of those caught disseminating it. They face surveillance, imprisonment, and unimaginable hardships. Yet they persist.

As we mark this 20th anniversary, we share our latest research on the regime’s efforts to censor the publication, a tragic case of a couple torn apart for being found with copies of it, and one of the most thorough research papers on the book and the Tuidang movement it sparked. We invite you to review these and open your eyes to this underreported yet significant dimension of today’s China. Thank you for joining us in commemorating this milestone.

ANNIVERSARY

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.

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.

Read more for an explanation of the Nine Commentaries, Tuidang Movement, and their implications in China today.

PERSECUTION IN CHINA

(Ms. Wang Mingyun died in custody at Shandong Province Women’s Prison. She was 52 years old.)

United by faith, separated by the Chinese Communist Party—a married couple’s home in Shandong Province was raided by police in 2005, who found copies of the banned book series, Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party.

For merely possessing copies of the book, Mr. Zhang Aiquan was sentenced to 8 years in prison, and his wife Wang Mingyuan received 7.5 years. Ms. Wang died in 2012, just three months after her release from Shandong Province Women’s Prison due to abuses she experienced there. She was only 52 years old. A year ago—in November 2023—her husband was arrested again for practicing Falun Gong and sentenced to 3.5 years in prison.

In this master’s thesis, written for the Elliott School of International Affairs of George Washington University, scholar Caylan Ford examines the Tuidang movement. Drawing on Chinese government documents, interviews with overseas activists, and a review of Tuidang statements by people in China, Ford’s groundbreaking 2011 study maps the movement’s spread and places it within broader traditions of dissent in China, concluding: 

“The Tuidang movement, driven by the efforts of Falun Gong adherents, has become a formidable challenge to both the Communist Party’s legitimacy and what remains of its official ideology. The party appears to agree with this conclusion, describing the struggle to suppress the movement as a matter of its very survival and responding accordingly. The war now being waged between Falun Gong practitioners and the Communist Party is a battle to control the critical symbols of morality, tradition, and nationalism. It is a struggle for the very heart of China.”

Aunty Yue | 4 min

After surviving 60 years under communist rule, including being imprisoned for practicing Falun Gong, Aunty Yue began her life anew in Australia. But she was not only there to enjoy an early retirement. She spends her free time speaking to Chinese tourists and others, trying to help them see through the CCP’s propaganda, open their eyes to the regime’s brutality, and choose a path that rejects violence.