武装自己，赢得新冷战的胜利
—第十四届族群青年领袖研习营开幕词
杨建利 （中译稿：Anna Yunpeng Chen）
（2019年10月21日，华盛顿国会山）
尊敬的来自世界各地的朋友们，同仁们：
欢迎参加第十四届族群青年领袖研习营。很荣幸能主持本次会议，我们珍视各位的莅临，在此深表感谢。
在我们举办领袖研习营的这么多年里，我们面临的挑战从来没有如此紧迫，中国共产党的非人道和反民主政策强加给世界的道德和政治选择，也从来没有像今天这么严峻和影响深远。
本届研习营的主题是：“武装自己，引领变革”。
尽管世界各地很多人不愿意承认，自由世界正面临着一场与中国共产党统治下的中国的新冷战，这是事实。北京政权正试图掩盖其与自由世界的冷战，这是一场向自由、民主、人权和法治挑战的价值和理念之战，这些理念比任何经济和军事力量更让北京政权恐惧。
事实上，这场冷战并不是什么新鲜事，而是在过去的40年自由世界对中共的“接触和绥靖”时期中共单方面发动的。中共始于毛泽东时代的第一个冷战时期的反民主政策，从来没有削弱过，相反，它们不时伪装和调整，以达成中共务实的战术目的。
自由世界通过将中国纳入以规则为基础的国际秩序，来帮助中国实现自由化的善意努力，并没有使该政权实现自由化，却使中共得以腐化国际体系，它把许多小国至于其掌控之下，甚至用不自由的思想污染像美利坚合众国这样的伟大民主国家——胁迫美国人放弃诸如言论自由等他们最珍视的价值理念。
到习近平统治时期，中共脱下了面具，其在中国的统治，对待香港人、维吾尔人、藏人、台湾人、法轮功练习者、甚至是所有在中国的异见人士时所展现的嘴脸，越来越清晰地暴露出其本质：中国特色的法西斯主义。
历史清楚地表明，这种政权不仅对本国人民摧残，而且也是对其他国家人民的威胁。内部镇压的意愿和能力与外部扩张的野心和能力是成正比的。中国共产党不尊重人民的独立和主权，把反人类的怒火发泄到邻国和其他国家身上，公然威胁世界和平。有证据表明，中共政权已成为自由世界最大的威胁。
我们能做些什么呢? 作为个人，我们在这个决定性的历史时刻能做些什么?我们怎样才能共同努力，汇聚我们的思想和力量，发起一场超越单独行动总和的、争取自由和正义的运动?
出席这次会议的各民族、宗教和地区的团体，都是站在新冷战的前线，在中共政权统治的现实中生活着人们。与会者是来自这些群体的青年领袖。我可以开诚布公地讲:你们需要并理应得到美国和其它民主国家的道义和物质支持。我们希望帮助开发新的国际战略和技能，以助大家实现这一目标，并加强和保持你们的领导地位。这正是本次会议的目的所在。
会议会结束，但我们不会停止。我们依旧将和你们并肩战斗，因为我们是一体的。让我们武装起来引领时代革命！我们不是指用枪支和其他武器武装起来，而是用思想、原则、方法、团结和勇气武装起来。
希望我们刚刚获得2019年“公民权力奖”的香港人民的精神激励我们赢得新的冷战，激励我们朝着和平变革、民主和尊重中国人权的目标前进！
谢谢！
Arm Yourselves to Lead Change
–Opening Remarks at the 14th InterEthnic/InterFaith Leadership Conference
by Yang Jianli
(Oct. 21, 2019, Capitol Hill, Washington, DC, USA)
Dear friends and colleagues from around the world:
Welcome to the 14th InterEthnic/InterFaith Leadership Conference. It is an honor to host this meeting, and we deeply value and appreciate your participation.
In all the years that we have organized the Leadership Conference, never have our challenges been more pressing, never have the moral and political choices forced upon the world by the inhuman and anti-democratic policies of the Chinese Communist Party been so stark, and so consequential.
The theme of this year’s Leadership Conference is “Arm Yourself to Lead Change.” Let me explain.
Many people around the world resist this truth, but the free world faces a new cold war with China under the rule of the Chinese Communist Party. The regime in Beijing is trying to disguise its cold war with free societies. It is an ideological war with the ideal of freedom itself, with the very idea of democracy, human rights and the rule of law, the ideas the regime fears more than any economic and military force.
In fact, this cold war is nothing new. It has been waged unilaterally by the CCP for the entire 40-year period of engagement and appeasement.
In fact, the anti-democratic policies of the CCP that began under Mao during the original Cold War period have never abated. Instead, they have been disguised or modulated for pragmatic tactical reasons from time to time.
The West’s good-intentioned effort to help liberalize China by drawing China into the rules-based international order have not liberalized the regime, but allowed it to corrupt international institutions, to bring many small nations under its thumb, and even to infect great democracies like the United States of America with illiberal ideas—to bully Americans into disavowing their most cherished ideals like freedom of speech.
But under Xi Jinping, the mask is off and the face of communist rule in China and toward Hong Kongers, Uyghurs, Tibetans, Taiwanese, Christians, Falun Gong practitioners, and indeed all the diverse people that are directly related to China is being more clearly revealed for what it is: totalitarianism, ethno-nationalism, and fascism.
History has clearly shown that such regimes are threats not only to their own people, but to people of other nations as well. The will and capacity to repress internally is positively related to the ambition and ability to expand externally. With no respect for the independence and sovereignty of others, the CCP turns its anti-human wrath against its neighbors and other countries and openly threatens world peace. Evidence shows that the Chinese communist regime has become the biggest external threat to the free world.
What can be done? What can we, as individuals, do in this decisive moment in history? How can we work together, and combine our ideas and energies to build a movement for freedom and justice that is greater than the sum of its parts?
The ethnic, religious and regional groups represented at this Conference are on the frontlines of the new cold war and live at the place where the reality of the Chinese communist regime shows itself. The participants include young leaders from these groups. I speak directly to you: You need and deserve moral and physical support from the US and other democracies. We want to help develop new international strategies and skills to help achieve it, and to strengthen and sustain your leadership. This is exactly what this conference aims to achieve.
And we will not stop when this meeting is over. We will stay with you, because we are together. Arm Yourselves to Defeat Fascism with Chinese characteristics. Arm Yourselves to Lead Change. We do not mean guns or other weapons. We mean ideas, principles, methods, solidarity and courage.
May the spirit of the people of Hong Kong we just honored with our 2019 Citizen Power Awards inspire us to win the new cold war, to move forward toward the goal of peaceful change to democracy and respect for human rights in China.
Thank you.
