‘The CCP Deceived Me’: Former Chinese Propagandist Shares Her Journey Awakening to CCP’s Abuses

by EditorT

Lin Yudan in 2021. (Courtesy of Lin Yudan)

By Mary Hong

Lin Yudan, a former Chinese state propaganda media reporter, shared her journey from being misled by Beijing’s disinformation about Falun Gong to admiring the courage of adherents of the spiritual practice. Through this, she went from tolerating the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to renouncing the Party.

She regretted how her naive behaviors had made her an accomplice of an evil-doer. “My affection and upright characteristics have been manipulated by the CCP,” she said.

In an interview with the Chinese-language edition of The Epoch Times on Jan. 26, she expressed her apology to Falun Gong for falling for the propaganda of the regime and revealed her journey of awakening and withdrawal from the CCP.

Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is an ancient Chinese spiritual practice consisting of simple, slow-moving meditation exercises and teachings based on the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance. It grew in popularity during the 1990s, with 70 million to 100 million adherents in China by the end of the decade, according to official estimates at the time.

Feeling threatened by its popularity, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) launched a systematic elimination campaign in July 1999. Since then, millions have been detained inside prisons, labor camps, and other facilities, with hundreds of thousands tortured while incarcerated, according to the Falun Dafa Information Center.

The Enraged ‘Monkey King’

Lin immigrated to the United States in 2012 and before that, CCP publications and propaganda were her only sources of information.

She used to be a journalist for Shanghai Law Journal, the main political and legal propaganda front designated by the municipal Party Committee.

She admitted that she fell for the CCP’s political propaganda that labeled Falun Gong as superstitious. The CCP’s 2001 state TV report that smeared Falun Gong adherents with a staged self-immolation incident in Tiananmen Square shocked her. The film aired bloody images of self-immolation that caused her to malign Falun Gong.

In 2001, the International Educational Development, Inc. presented a video to the United Nations that confirmed the self-immolation to be a staged event arranged by CCP state media with the purpose of discrediting Falun Gong to justify its violent suppression of Falun Gong.

In 2003, the World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (WOIPFG) also began its own investigation. As the investigation found, the incident “could be the biggest known conspiracy undertaken by the Chinese leadership since the Communist Party came to power,” said WOIPFG President John Jaw.

Not until Lin came to the United States did she gradually learn the lies and brutality that the CCP has exploited throughout its history, including how the CCP treated the prisoners of war, the so-called three-year natural disaster were actually man-made disasters that caused the great famine in China, on top of the devastating Cultural Revolution, the 1989 Tiananmen Massacre, and persecution of Falun Gong.

In 2021, she adopted “Monkey King” as her username on Twitter, as the Monkey King is famous for “wreaking havoc in Heaven,” and started her campaign to fight against the CCP.

Epoch Times Photo

Falun Gong practitioners take part in the Chinese New Year Parade in Flushing, New York, on Jan. 21, 2023 (Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times)

An Ignorant ‘Accomplice of Evil’

She was aware of CCP’s dictatorship and political movements, “I was very disgusted with the CCP, but not to the point of hating it,” she said, referring to before she came to the West.

“I was too naive … with my affection and righteousness, the CCP deceived me and I became an accomplice of evil instead,” she said.

Her ignorance has caused her great pain and regret about how she’s been nasty toward the Falun Gong adherents for a very long time.

She said, “It’s a humiliation to myself, and I hate CCP for that, because it hurt me badly, and it’s very personal.”

She stressed that she can’t tolerate any accomplice to evil.

She particularly appreciated The Epoch Times for helping her learn more about the truth, especially for the effort The Epoch Times has put into covering and reporting Hong Kong’s 2019 anti-extradition movement.

Understanding Forced Organ Harvesting

She mentioned her medical background had her misunderstand the exposure of live organ harvesting.

She said “live organ harvest” means literally to harvest the organs “alive … I thought, ‘the organs would lose their vitality during the live harvest because of the excruciating pain of the victim during the process.’ Therefore, I found it hard to believe.” She also highly doubted that the CCP would be as evil.

However, the large number of Chinese transplants drew her attention and she reexamined the facts after she came to the United States.

After so many online videos about missing Chinese were made available overseas, such as people grabbing victims right on the street into vans, and many college students going missing, on top of what’s revealed about doctors operating inside prisons on illegally imprisoned Falun Gong adherents: “Then I realized the live organ harvest was real, and what The Epoch Times reported was real.”

Previously, the Chinese language edition of The Epoch Times received a list of missing youth on Feb. 17, 2022, from a Chinese parent whose son went missing in 2015. According to the list, there were at least 372 Chinese families looking for their missing children. Many parents also signed a commitment of 100,000 yuan ($14,840) reward to people who help to find the children.

Gratitude and Trust

She indicated that many of the programs and reports by The Epoch Times and its sister media NTD have become her favorites. She said many of the programs are not just exposing the CCP, but also being responsible for American society, exposing the dark side of the leftist extremists in America.

She expressed her deepest concern about the leftist extremists pushing the United States toward the evil abyss of socialism.

She said: “I have finally escaped China, and landed the paradise of my dream, the United States of America. It would be the most terrible nightmare if the United States would become another China.”

Among the many programs, she particularly enjoys the channel Fang Wei Time, a regular contributor to NTD. She said the show has provided some direction to herself as a Chinese American. She said, “He helped me to walk through the fog of confusion. Now I know what to do for my second hometown and defend for the next generations of America.”

Epoch Times Photo

Lin Yudan renounces the Young Pioneers of China through the Global Service Center for Quitting the Chinese Communist Party on Jan. 24, 2023. (Screenshot/The Epoch Times)

Anti-Communism Isn’t Enough

On Jan. 24, Lin announced her withdrawal from the CCP. She explained her joy of awakening.

“I renounced the CCP with my real name. I threw away the only red rag left in me by the CCP! This red rag is communism, and it is dirty. I feel much cleaner, refreshed, and joyful,” she said.

In her statement to withdraw from the Young Pioneers, she wrote: “I was born in a Christian family. I have loved the country and hated the party since I was a child. I had refused the application to the Young Pioneers. I was well-known for being a bad student. In order to transfer to another school, I was forced to wear the red scarf. I was young, and I didn’t reject the red scarf because I thought it was pretty. But I was wrong, I regretted it. Now I renounce the Young Pioneer with my real name, to cut off the remaining relationship with the red rag of the CCP!”

Under the CCP’s rule, elementary school students who join the Young Pioneers will wear a red scarf as a symbol.

She took joining the Young Pioneer as a stain on her life. She believes it’s her responsibility to take the initiative to remove the stain. “To recognize the mistake you made in life, to correct it, and to make up for the mistake, that’s the meaning of renouncing the Young Pioneers to me,” she said.

She once thought that being anti-communist was good enough. But finally, she realized the true purpose is to cut clean from the CCP.

She said that now her soul can freely and boldly accept the final judgment. There’s a difference after renouncing the CCP, she said, “It’s both physically and spiritually refreshing.”

She now has the courage to face Jesus in the final judgment. She said: “I can now say to my Lord Jesus: I used to have a red scarf, but I erased it. I have declared to withdraw from the Young Pioneers. I do not have this sin anymore. I have sinned, but I have repented.”

She hoped to call on the Chinese to reflect on the true meaning of renouncing the CCP. “What’s the meaning to you as a person, and the meaning to you after life,” she said.

According to the record of the Global Service Center for Quitting the CCP, from Dec. 3, 2004, to Feb. 5, 2023, more than 408 million people have declared their withdrawal from the CCP and its affiliated organizations.

Luo Ya, Haizhong Ning, and Xiao Lusheng contributed to this report.

 

Mary Hong

Mary Hong has contributed to The Epoch Times since 2020. She has reported on Chinese human rights issues and politics.

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