Why we must remember Allen Leung

This post originally mentioned Allen Leung as a Freemason. I have since been informed that the Chinese Freemasons of the World is not tied to Freemasonry as it is generally known. For that reason, this post has been amended to its current form.

The death of Allen Leung alerts us to the threat of the Chinese Communist Party to American liberty - a threat from which no one is immune.

Mr. Leung's death silenced one of the leading anti-Communists in San Francisco's Chinatown, one local called him "the backbone of anti-communism" (Epoch Times). He was deeply involved in the battle to keep Chinese-American social and community groups in San Francisco free of Communist influence. His killer remains unknown and at large, but investigators are certain this was neither a random act of violence nor a robbery. Several community leaders, understandably afraid to reveal themselves, called Leung "an eyesore for the CCP" (Epoch Times), and his support for the island democracy of Taiwan was well known. Many believe "that the case involved political motivations."

The implications of this murder should make all Americans sit up and take notice.

Leung came to America from Hong Kong, when it was still a British colony, and had been an outspoken public figure in America for years. Yet he was either killed by the Communists directly, or by triad members, which in many parts of Communist China are the same thing (Other Mainland News and third item). The Communists have not been above using gang members to do their dirty work abroad. The message to the Chinese-American population was loud and clear - even in America, you are not safe.

For those of us who have tracked the Communist menace, this is no surprise. Chen Yonglin and Hao Fengjun revealed the extent of the Communist overseas espionage network, and how so much of it is dedicated to intimidating overseas Chinese communities into towing the Party line. However, this is the first time (to the best of my knowledge) that a Chinese anti-Communist was murdered for his beliefs on American soil. Remember the great watch-phrase of those concerned about freedom's erosion in America: "It can happen here"? Well, if what is assumed is correct, it just did happen here. It may not be the last time; Falun Gong practitioners have been threatened repeatedly, non-ethnic Chinese included.

These are not the actions of a "government" that wishes better relations with the United States. They are the actions of a regime that wishes to squelch American liberty any way it can, because to the Chinese Communist Party, the United States and the democracy it practices (however imperfectly) are the greatest threats to its survival. This is why the regime has sought out anti-American terrorists as allies, and why the democratic world must be prepared to win the Second Cold War, which Communist China has already been fighting for over a decade and a half.

For the Communists, this Cold War has no rules: even ethnic Chinese on foreign soil are vulnerable. The democratic world need not be so sinister or bloodthirsty; we need only do what is necessary to help the Chinese people take their country back from the Communists. Chief among those concerns is ridding the democratic world of the extensive Communist espionage network that risks our security, damages our economy, and uses fear and intimidation to deprive Chinese-Americans, Chinese-Canadians, Chinese-Australians, and many more of the freedoms the rest of the democratic world hold so dear.

We must even be prepared to face the fact that the regime's own victims in the overseas Chinese communities will be used against us. Several, if not most, of the informants in the Communist spy networks are acting not out of hatred for their new homes, but for fear of retribution against relatives left behind, or against themselves.

The murder of Allen Leung has fueled that fear. We must act now to remove it from the lives of overseas ethnic Chinese. The democratic world will never be secure until the Chinese people - both there and here - are free from Communism. Then we can honestly say that Allen Leung did not die in vain.

Cross-posted to the Shotgun