Overseas Chinese Democracy Coalition News and Article Release Issue Number: A1641-O382

中国民主运动海外联席会议新闻与文章发布号：A1641-O382

Release Date: March 7, 2024

发布日：2024年3月7日

Topic: Opening Speech at the First Congress on China’s Directions -- Wei Jingsheng

标题：第一届“国是会议”开幕辞 -- 魏京生

Original Language Version: Chinese (Chinese version at the end)

此号以中文为准（英文在前，中文在后）

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Opening Speech at the First Congress on China’s Directions

-- Wei Jingsheng

March 2, 2024

There is a saying that our Congress is modeled after the Continental Congress before, during, and after the American Revolutionary War that founded the United States to formulate a program for the founding of the country. This statement is not accurate enough.

When the United States was founded, the thirteen states had a basic system of local self-government. The local self-government system in Chinese society has long been completely destroyed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The Continental Congress of the United States was held on its own soil. However, now the land and people of China are completely under the control of the CCP. There is no opportunity for free discussion.

Therefore, we can only formulate an ideal outline for China's future democratic reform in a foreign environment. The real constitution must be done through representative institutions after legal elections. Therefore, the democratic reform in China is fundamentally different from that of the United States. The first tasks are to overthrow the tyranny of the Chinese Communist Party, establish freedom of speech, an independent judiciary, and nationalize the military before the process of democratic reform can begin.

Without these prerequisites, so-called elections cannot represent the people's wishes and interests. Only after the threat of military dictatorship is eliminated, an environment for freedom of speech is established, and is guaranteed by the rule of law, can elections be legal and fair.

We are now taking advantage of being overseas with the free speech environment to propose an outline to guide the democratization process that is about to begin in China, and to give a reference to the people with breadth vision and others inside of China. I hope everyone can speak freely with this purpose in mind and make your own contribution to democratization in China.

http://www.weijingsheng.org/pic/newsletters/newsletters2024/newsletters2024-1/CCD1st240302conference-c-4.jpg