陈凯论坛 Kai Chen Forum
不自由，毋宁死! Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death!
陈凯博客 Kai Chen Blog: www.blogspot.com
陈凯电邮 Kai Chen Email: elecshadow@aol.com
陈凯电话 Kai Chen Telephone: 661-367-7556
Today's conflict in the world can be defined as conflict over the definition of legitimacy of a government: Government by the power of guns and threat of violence vs. Government by the consent of the governed. Which kind of government is legitimate? You choose and your choice will tell who and what you are as a human being.
Putin should not remain in power. Biden is right on. This message is meant for the potential opposition inside Russia, for the dissidents and the Russian people in general - Putin is a murdering tyrant and a constant menace for the world peace and security. He should be removed in any fashion from the current power position, dead or alive. Let's make no mistake about this position from the entire free world.
Since the Cold War: The bear has been hibernating. The dragon has been constantly fed. Evil has been either appeased or co-oped. The world has been slumbering and hallucinating. The danger is accumulating. The peril is now to all of us. We should never be intimidated. We should always be prepared. The time is now to make hard choices and decisions.
Putin, Xi and Kim are all emperors without any clothes now. They don't care about what and how they look. The question is to all of us: What do we do about it?! Keep providing them with clothes like letting them host Olympics?
Kai Chen on appealing to the conscience of the Russian people to win the war against Putin: 3/3/22
This is Putin's war, never the Russians' war. Free world must understand that to win this war. We must appeal to the conscience of the Russian people. They are the biggest enemy of Putin, once they learn about the truth. Reagan understood this crucial point and won the Cold War against the USSR. We must emulate him and do the same against Putin - Calling for the conscientious Russians to rise up and throw the bum out.
Kai Chen on the counter attack of the Free World against despotism: 2/28/22
This is Putin's war, never Russians' war. This war may prove to be Putin's undoing. His days are numbered. Next is Xi in China. After the continued retreat of freedom in the world in the face of advancement of despotism and tyranny since the Cold War, the counter attack by the Free World has finally started, in a big way with a Bang. Thanks for the brave Ukrainians. Thanks for this war (though started by Putin) against Putin and all the tyrants in the world.
May God bless all the freedom loving people in the world.
Kai Chen on the Ukraine Crisis and the War: 2/27/22
Since the Cold War, the world seems to fall into a moral slumber. "The End of History" finally dawned on us. We don't have to worry about Good vs. Evil anymore. We can just relax and make money by making deals with anyone, even Putin, Xi and Kim, by enticing them the dictators into our capitalistic world. We feed the bear. We feed the dragon. We feed the killers and murderers. Thus a moral nihilist/a conman, with a book about nothingness - "Art of the Deal", was prompted into our leadership position. Truth or Lies does not matter anymore. Inside/outside, strong/weak, enemy/friend, winning/losing..., have become the ethos of the day. The world has been turned upside down. Lincoln, Kennedy and Reagan are turning in their graves.
Somehow all of a sudden, fortunately and mysteriously maybe, the current Russia - Ukraine war has shocked us into reality, time again, by revealing that eternal truth: Evil exists. Truth matters. Right matters. Justice matters. Freedom matters. Being great means one has to be good first.... Thank God we finally wake up by the explosions and bloodshed of war. The liars and con-artists are finally exposed as what/who they are.
Dictators always overestimate their own power and underestimate the will of free people, while democracies often underestimate their own strength by freedom and overestimate the prowess of the dictatorships. That's just a fact by the natures of their respective political settings.
Dictators (or dictators-want-to-be) will never admit their own failure. They will create lies through propaganda and misinformation, no matter how preposterous they sound and seem. Putin, Xi, Kim and our Donald have repeatedly demonstrated this truth. Hitler would kill himself first, rather than admitting his own stupidity, small-mindedness and failure. So we must face this harsh truth: Evil can never be co-oped and appeased. Evil must be defeated. The poisonous moral nihilism, as lately permeated around the world and among us in the US, must be cast aside. The true color of this great country, intended from the very beginning at her birth by the Almighty, must be re-polished to shine above the "Shining City on the Hill".
The time is now. With this war, the blood of the brave freedom fighters in Ukraine will serve to cleanse our moral confusion and re-invigorate our spirit to struggle for a better tomorrow. Putin and the likes (including the Bigly Donald), around the world will come to a rude awakening: Good exists as well. And Good will always defeat Evil, for Good has only one enemy - Evil, while Evil has two enemies - Good and Evil itself. May God bless the freedom-loving people around the world. May God bless my beloved America.
Kai Chen on winning the new Cold War against Putin, Xi and Kim (普习金）(PXK)：
Whom/what does a dictator fear the most? The answer is always: Their own people with a wakening conscience. Ronald Reagan, with his moral clarity, knew this instinctively. Every time he went to meet the leader of the USSR in Russia, he demanded to meet the Russian dissidents first as a precondition. What a moral wisdom! I feel eternally thankful for Reagan's moral approach against the Evil Empire. We won the first Cold War because of it, indeed.
When the Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo died in a Chinese prison, Trump the moral nihilist did nothing at all. You wonder why the world now is in such a danger with all the dictators daring to challenge freedom, democracy and America: Moral confusion/moral nihilism is the reason/our own biggest enemy. We don't mention Good vs. Evil anymore, as if all is about power, money and the muzzle of the gun. As PXK (普习金）now challenge the world order established by America after WWII, we must understand that to win the new Cold War today, we must rely on the conscience of the people under those dictatorships. We must rely on the hands of the Almighty, not just human intrigue and cleverness, to defeat the new Axis of Evil (普习金）.
May God bless the free people in the world. May God bless my beloved America.
"I am Chinese when I am in China. I am American when I am in America." Eileen Gu claims. What a typical Chinese Confucian "middle of the road" mentality.
Monkey King complex - a person can be anywhere/everywhere at any given moment, is a common trait in the Chinese Confucian culture. Human-Devil syndrome is the result of such a cultural pathology/sickness. This is why evil thrives in China and the Chinese Confucian Communism has become the main threat to freedom and democracy in the world today.
I have written on this subject in Chinese years ago with the title "On the Chinese Human-Devil Complex". I now share it with everyone who can read Chinese and hope you can gain some insight from Gu's mentality of amorality/immorality.
As a former Chinese professional athlete, I wholeheartedly support Peng Shuai's position with her honesty and truth-telling. I have witnessed a lot of abuses toward the Chinese women athletes by those in power with leadership position in the communist regime. I applaud and commend Peng Shuai's brave action and demand the accountability from those responsible for the abuse in the Chinese high leadership positions.
Injustice to one is injustice to all. We as free beings have a moral responsibility to voice our support for those who struggle for their freedom and dignity. The Chinese communist regime must answer for Peng Shuai's silence and disappearance.
陈凯：什么是真实的伟大 Kai Chen on what greatness means: 8/23/21
Greatness is never about being perfect, but about whether one's life has a meaningful end and whether he/she strives to move toward hope and future. America is great, not because America is perfect. America is great because America always strives toward future with a moral direction embedded in the nation's founding, and with a sense of eternal optimism and hope.
Miracles do happen in life but whether one embraces a life of meaning and purpose determines whether greatness is possible in his/her life. Escape from life dooms one into eternal hopelessness and makes silent despair possible. Indeed, happiness is a choice. Indeed, miracles have happened in my life and are continuing to happen. I have nothing but gratefulness toward America and hope toward future. May God continues to bless you - my beloved America.
Trump is falling into the Chinese trap. There is no other way to describe it. Over the last 30 years, NK was the bait dangling in front of America and the West. Yet all the American Presidents since Reagan fell into the trap. Trump is no exception. Same MO.
Only Reagan realized the criminal and illegitimate nature of a communist regime and denounce it as such - an Evil Empire. With this moral clarity, down goes the USSR, because God's values/principles entered the picture, not just human schemes. Now we don't have anyone who can hold God's values/principles with moral clarity and conscience. So goes the American moral leadership in the world. So comes the Chinese Confucian Communism. So again the world is in the grip of totalitarianism and despotism. So the NK crisis.
What the evil is most afraid of is the exposing of its true nature - man eating. Yet time again, an American president goes to an evil regime to pay homage to the murderers of Tiananmen and Liu Xiaobo (the Nobel Peace Prize winner). When is America going to wake up and realize all the Chinese evil regime wants from America is to use NK to legitimize itself and erase all the criminal record in its past - 80 million killed by Mao and more killed after Mao with all the atrocities - "one child", Tiananmen Massacre, persecution of FLG and dissidents, persecution of Christians and minorities.... Indeed, China desperately needs America's recognition of its own criminal regime's legitimacy. Trump is giving it to an evil regime. God's endowed conscience among the Chinese people and the world is weeping.
When will an American president announce with conscience and God's moral compass as his guide: Enough is enough, China's Confucian Communism is evil and must be defeated?
Couple Leaves China after Hurdles of Olympic Proportions
By Martha Michael (Canyon Country Magazine)
Canyon Country has a lot of colorful characters, but it isn’t often we meet residents on a government blacklist.
Kai and Fiona Chen can never return to their home country – the People’s Republic of China.
Fiona is from Shandong Province on the east coast of China, while Kai is from Beijing. Their stories are different, but their union has resulted in a doubly powerful voice against the hidden agenda of government in China.
Fiona left China on Christmas Eve in 2003 and moved to Canada with her firstborn son, Lawrence. Because her father criticized the Communist Party, Fiona’s family members in China were being persecuted.
The magazine editor found a job working as a TV reporter in Vancouver, where she used her skills to spread a message to the rest of the world that the image of China coming through propaganda was untruthful. She worked to “expose the evil deeds of Chinese authorities,” who she had seen quashing dissidents and “committing crimes against their own citizens and people in the free world.”
“I shed tears over Tiananmen,” Fiona said. “Since 1949 more than 80 million people have been killed by the communist regime. I was shocked by that.”
Fiona’s father was a writer and publicist who had to use a fictional name because of his statements against the government.
“In China there’s a one child policy,” said the mother of three – Lawrence, 16, David, 10, and Celina, 6. “I didn’t want my kids to live in (Communist Chinese) society.”
Fiona didn’t know anyone when she moved to Vancouver. Her parents immigrated to Canada two years after she did, where they still live today.
“When I landed (in Canada) it felt totally different, how people naturally trust each other. There’s a genuine smile on their face. They share their stories—not just to please people.” Fiona met Kai in 2007 before the Beijing Olympic Games. She produced a four-episode documentary (“My Way”) about Kai, a former Chinese professional basketball player, who she married in 2014.
“In one month there were more than 300,000 viewers,” Fiona said. “People were so moved by Kai’s story.”
She said the Chinese government soon blocked the YouTube upload of her documentary. “It was one professional athlete to stand up,” she said.
And when Kai Chen stands up, his 6-foot, 7-inch frame is noticed.
“Once the door opened in China, I was gone,” said Kai, a former professional basketball player for China’s National Team. He left China in 1981.
Born in Beijing, Kai’s family was caught up in the turmoil of 20th century China. They were involved with the Kuomintang, or KMT, the ruling party in China until 1949, when it moved to Taiwan after being defeated by the Communist Party. Kai’s father and his 9 siblings were separated by the Taiwan Strait. His grandfather stayed in Beijing with Kai’s parents, while his grandmother went to Taiwan with his uncle and other members of his family. His grandparents would never see each other again.
Because of his family’s ties to Taiwan, Kai and his family were exiled from Beijing to Tonghua in Manchuria. During the Cultural Revolution, young people were sent to the countryside. At age 16, Kai was forced to work at a grain depot, sometimes carrying up to 200 pounds on his shoulders. An avid basketball player, Kai found his passion through expressing himself on the court; later, it’s where he would find his freedom.
“The Communist Government wanted to use sports to break China’s isolation around the world,” Kai said.
Kai was chosen at the age of 16 to join a National Athletics program grooming talents for the Chinese National Teams in 1970.
“Before I knew there was a country called America, America had already saved me,” Kai said. “Because America invented basketball.”
He first tried to free himself from the national authorities, who were going to send him back to the grain depot in Liuhe after Kai’s Taiwan relatives were revealed. Kai found he could get on a professional team in Guangzhou Military District, so he escaped from Beijing, pretending to go shopping, carrying just a yellow satchel to deter suspicion. With Mao’s inscription, “Serve the People”. “Why?” he asked. “I would be keenly aware of the immorality and corruption in this society. I would be reminded of the falsehood and lies spread by the authorities.”
Kai was caught and sent back to the grain depot. But he escaped again to a provincial basketball team, and finally joined the Chinese Army for the political benefit to his family. China was in conflict with the Soviet Union at the time. Due to the intense physical labor, repairing dams and military training, Kai developed bleeding ulcers and was on the verge of death. While hospitalized for a month, he made up his mind he would find happiness. He had never in his life known anyone in China that was happy, he said.
“The biggest revenge for me against this society was to find freedom and happiness for myself,” Kai said to himself. Both Kai and Fiona are on the “blacklist” in China.
Her writing and internet posting through her own company, Liberty Bell Studios, is aimed at introducing American values to those behind the Communist curtain. She forms online groups in order to penetrate fire walls created by the Chinese government to impede citizens of China from gaining access to that information. Kai and Fiona help others find software to break through those firewalls.
The couple described a group called “50 Cents,” which is a propaganda team of thousands hired by the Communist government. It is made up of young “opinion leaders” who earn 50 cents when they complete an internet post promoting Chinese Communism and government agendas.
“The (Chinese government) learned from the collapse of the Soviet Union,” Kai said. “They’re better than the Soviet Union at controlling your thoughts. It’s been pretty effective so far.” They’re fanning nationalism and sentiment that is anti-U.S. and anti-Japan, according to the Chens.
Kai has spent decades protesting pro-Communism efforts and promoting the values espoused by America. A naturalized citizen of the United States, Kai fought Confucius Institutes that cropped up at the beginning of this century. It is a program teaching the language and culture of China that critics say advances the Chinese government’s agenda to falsely influence perceptions of China.
“I went to Congress and testified,” Kai said. “They terminated their contract because it violated U.S. educational policies, against American employment policies, when they hired teachers.”
They are established worldwide. There are hundreds in the United States at all levels of education.
“These are brainwashing … propaganda about reality,” he said. “They do a lot to damage the U.S., weaken this country’s moral underpinnings.”
In 2009 Kai protested a restaurant in Hollywood called Mao’s Kitchen for their portrait of the former Chinese leader and for “singing Mao’s praises,” Kai said. “I can’t do much, but I can protest,” he said.
When Kai found that the Nixon Library had a statue of Mao Tse-Tung in its “world leaders’ section, near Winston Churchill, he organized a protest.
“Mao is worse than Stalin and worse than Hitler, in terms of killing,” Kai said. “How are you educating young kids? When he’s with benign people like Winston Churchill? It’s confusing people.”
The Chens have strong political opinions, and share them when invited to speak at groups or meetings.
“Historians agree Mao committed atrocities against the Chinese people,” Kai said. “Reagan had great moral clarity, calling the Soviet Union an ‘evil empire.’ We needed an American president to enunciate moral principles.”
Among their goals, the Chens hope to affect U.S. policy toward their homeland. They hope to promote “political and moral wisdom in dealing with China.”
“We are not a country built on money; we are a country built on principles.”
“We feel obligated to give back,” Kai said. “(The U.S. is) the greatest country in the world. Don’t take it for granted.”
Fiona recently became a member of Zonta International of SCV. She was sponsored by longtime member Ronnie Erickson. “They are a group concerned about women’s lives. I fit in this category,” Fiona said. “A life with lots of layers.”
It was a big shift from Canada to living in the U.S. She said the education her children are receiving in the U.S. is more focused on reading and math. She was particularly pleased that her son, David, was chosen to have written two books through the Sulphur Springs School District Young Authors program.
The Chens said their kids are “making tremendous progress.” Ten-year-old David enjoys activities such as a magic class offered in Newhall, and six-year-old Celina takes piano lessons and plays soccer. Lawrence, 16, is a student at Canyon High School.
Kai is a four-year resident of Canyon Country and has two grown children, who both played college basketball – one at Yale and one at Brandeis University. Fiona moved here with her children in 2014.
“People are very friendly and they are trustworthy,” Kai said of the Santa Clarita Valley. “It’s very quiet. There’s a wonderful sense of community.”
Couple Leaves China after Hurdles of Olympic Proportions
By Martha Michael (Canyon Country Magazine)
Canyon Country has a lot of colorful characters, but it isn’t often we meet residents on a government blacklist.
Kai and Fiona Chen can never return to their home country – the People’s Republic of China.
Fiona is from Shandong Province on the east coast of China, while Kai is from Beijing. Their stories are different, but their union has resulted in a doubly powerful voice against the hidden agenda of government in China.
Fiona left China on Christmas Eve in 2003 and moved to Canada with her firstborn son, Lawrence. Because her father criticized the Communist Party, Fiona’s family members in China were being persecuted.
The magazine editor found a job working as a TV reporter in Vancouver, where she used her skills to spread a message to the rest of the world that the image of China coming through propaganda was untruthful. She worked to “expose the evil deeds of Chinese authorities,” who she had seen quashing dissidents and “committing crimes against their own citizens and people in the free world.”
“I shed tears over Tiananmen,” Fiona said. “Since 1949 more than 80 million people have been killed by the communist regime. I was shocked by that.”
Fiona’s father was a writer and publicist who had to use a fictional name because of his statements against the government.
“In China there’s a one child policy,” said the mother of three – Lawrence, 16, David, 10, and Celina, 6. “I didn’t want my kids to live in (Communist Chinese) society.”
Fiona didn’t know anyone when she moved to Vancouver. Her parents immigrated to Canada two years after she did, where they still live today.
“When I landed (in Canada) it felt totally different, how people naturally trust each other. There’s a genuine smile on their face. They share their stories—not just to please people.” Fiona met Kai in 2007 before the Beijing Olympic Games. She produced a four-episode documentary (“My Way”) about Kai, a former Chinese professional basketball player, who she married in 2014.
“In one month there were more than 300,000 viewers,” Fiona said. “People were so moved by Kai’s story.”
She said the Chinese government soon blocked the YouTube upload of her documentary. “It was one professional athlete to stand up,” she said.
And when Kai Chen stands up, his 6-foot, 7-inch frame is noticed.
“Once the door opened in China, I was gone,” said Kai, a former professional basketball player for China’s National Team. He left China in 1981.
Born in Beijing, Kai’s family was caught up in the turmoil of 20th century China. They were involved with the Kuomintang, or KMT, the ruling party in China until 1949, when it moved to Taiwan after being defeated by the Communist Party. Kai’s father and his 9 siblings were separated by the Taiwan Strait. His grandfather stayed in Beijing with Kai’s parents, while his grandmother went to Taiwan with his uncle and other members of his family. His grandparents would never see each other again.
Because of his family’s ties to Taiwan, Kai and his family were exiled from Beijing to Tonghua in Manchuria. During the Cultural Revolution, young people were sent to the countryside. At age 16, Kai was forced to work at a grain depot, sometimes carrying up to 200 pounds on his shoulders. An avid basketball player, Kai found his passion through expressing himself on the court; later, it’s where he would find his freedom.
“The Communist Government wanted to use sports to break China’s isolation around the world,” Kai said.
Kai was chosen at the age of 16 to join a National Athletics program grooming talents for the Chinese National Teams in 1970.
“Before I knew there was a country called America, America had already saved me,” Kai said. “Because America invented basketball.”
He first tried to free himself from the national authorities, who were going to send him back to the grain depot in Liuhe after Kai’s Taiwan relatives were revealed. Kai found he could get on a professional team in Guangzhou Military District, so he escaped from Beijing, pretending to go shopping, carrying just a yellow satchel to deter suspicion. With Mao’s inscription, “Serve the People”. “Why?” he asked. “I would be keenly aware of the immorality and corruption in this society. I would be reminded of the falsehood and lies spread by the authorities.”
Kai was caught and sent back to the grain depot. But he escaped again to a provincial basketball team, and finally joined the Chinese Army for the political benefit to his family. China was in conflict with the Soviet Union at the time. Due to the intense physical labor, repairing dams and military training, Kai developed bleeding ulcers and was on the verge of death. While hospitalized for a month, he made up his mind he would find happiness. He had never in his life known anyone in China that was happy, he said.
“The biggest revenge for me against this society was to find freedom and happiness for myself,” Kai said to himself. Both Kai and Fiona are on the “blacklist” in China.
Her writing and internet posting through her own company, Liberty Bell Studios, is aimed at introducing American values to those behind the Communist curtain. She forms online groups in order to penetrate fire walls created by the Chinese government to impede citizens of China from gaining access to that information. Kai and Fiona help others find software to break through those firewalls.
The couple described a group called “50 Cents,” which is a propaganda team of thousands hired by the Communist government. It is made up of young “opinion leaders” who earn 50 cents when they complete an internet post promoting Chinese Communism and government agendas.
“The (Chinese government) learned from the collapse of the Soviet Union,” Kai said. “They’re better than the Soviet Union at controlling your thoughts. It’s been pretty effective so far.” They’re fanning nationalism and sentiment that is anti-U.S. and anti-Japan, according to the Chens.
Kai has spent decades protesting pro-Communism efforts and promoting the values espoused by America. A naturalized citizen of the United States, Kai fought Confucius Institutes that cropped up at the beginning of this century. It is a program teaching the language and culture of China that critics say advances the Chinese government’s agenda to falsely influence perceptions of China.
“I went to Congress and testified,” Kai said. “They terminated their contract because it violated U.S. educational policies, against American employment policies, when they hired teachers.”
They are established worldwide. There are hundreds in the United States at all levels of education.
“These are brainwashing … propaganda about reality,” he said. “They do a lot to damage the U.S., weaken this country’s moral underpinnings.”
In 2009 Kai protested a restaurant in Hollywood called Mao’s Kitchen for their portrait of the former Chinese leader and for “singing Mao’s praises,” Kai said. “I can’t do much, but I can protest,” he said.
When Kai found that the Nixon Library had a statue of Mao Tse-Tung in its “world leaders’ section, near Winston Churchill, he organized a protest.
“Mao is worse than Stalin and worse than Hitler, in terms of killing,” Kai said. “How are you educating young kids? When he’s with benign people like Winston Churchill? It’s confusing people.”
The Chens have strong political opinions, and share them when invited to speak at groups or meetings.
“Historians agree Mao committed atrocities against the Chinese people,” Kai said. “Reagan had great moral clarity, calling the Soviet Union an ‘evil empire.’ We needed an American president to enunciate moral principles.”
Among their goals, the Chens hope to affect U.S. policy toward their homeland. They hope to promote “political and moral wisdom in dealing with China.”
“We are not a country built on money; we are a country built on principles.”
“We feel obligated to give back,” Kai said. “(The U.S. is) the greatest country in the world. Don’t take it for granted.”
Fiona recently became a member of Zonta International of SCV. She was sponsored by longtime member Ronnie Erickson. “They are a group concerned about women’s lives. I fit in this category,” Fiona said. “A life with lots of layers.”
It was a big shift from Canada to living in the U.S. She said the education her children are receiving in the U.S. is more focused on reading and math. She was particularly pleased that her son, David, was chosen to have written two books through the Sulphur Springs School District Young Authors program.
The Chens said their kids are “making tremendous progress.” Ten-year-old David enjoys activities such as a magic class offered in Newhall, and six-year-old Celina takes piano lessons and plays soccer. Lawrence, 16, is a student at Canyon High School.
Kai is a four-year resident of Canyon Country and has two grown children, who both played college basketball – one at Yale and one at Brandeis University. Fiona moved here with her children in 2014.
“People are very friendly and they are trustworthy,” Kai said of the Santa Clarita Valley. “It’s very quiet. There’s a wonderful sense of community.”
Couple Leaves China after Hurdles of Olympic Proportions
By Martha Michael (Canyon Country Magazine)
Canyon Country has a lot of colorful characters, but it isn’t often we meet residents on a government blacklist.
Kai and Fiona Chen can never return to their home country – the People’s Republic of China.
Fiona is from Shandong Province on the east coast of China, while Kai is from Beijing. Their stories are different, but their union has resulted in a doubly powerful voice against the hidden agenda of government in China.
Fiona left China on Christmas Eve in 2003 and moved to Canada with her firstborn son, Lawrence. Because her father criticized the Communist Party, Fiona’s family members in China were being persecuted.
The magazine editor found a job working as a TV reporter in Vancouver, where she used her skills to spread a message to the rest of the world that the image of China coming through propaganda was untruthful. She worked to “expose the evil deeds of Chinese authorities,” who she had seen quashing dissidents and “committing crimes against their own citizens and people in the free world.”
“I shed tears over Tiananmen,” Fiona said. “Since 1949 more than 80 million people have been killed by the communist regime. I was shocked by that.”
Fiona’s father was a writer and publicist who had to use a fictional name because of his statements against the government.
“In China there’s a one child policy,” said the mother of three – Lawrence, 16, David, 10, and Celina, 6. “I didn’t want my kids to live in (Communist Chinese) society.”
Fiona didn’t know anyone when she moved to Vancouver. Her parents immigrated to Canada two years after she did, where they still live today.
“When I landed (in Canada) it felt totally different, how people naturally trust each other. There’s a genuine smile on their face. They share their stories—not just to please people.” Fiona met Kai in 2007 before the Beijing Olympic Games. She produced a four-episode documentary (“My Way”) about Kai, a former Chinese professional basketball player, who she married in 2014.
“In one month there were more than 300,000 viewers,” Fiona said. “People were so moved by Kai’s story.”
She said the Chinese government soon blocked the YouTube upload of her documentary. “It was one professional athlete to stand up,” she said.
And when Kai Chen stands up, his 6-foot, 7-inch frame is noticed.
“Once the door opened in China, I was gone,” said Kai, a former professional basketball player for China’s National Team. He left China in 1981.
Born in Beijing, Kai’s family was caught up in the turmoil of 20th century China. They were involved with the Kuomintang, or KMT, the ruling party in China until 1949, when it moved to Taiwan after being defeated by the Communist Party. Kai’s father and his 9 siblings were separated by the Taiwan Strait. His grandfather stayed in Beijing with Kai’s parents, while his grandmother went to Taiwan with his uncle and other members of his family. His grandparents would never see each other again.
Because of his family’s ties to Taiwan, Kai and his family were exiled from Beijing to Tonghua in Manchuria. During the Cultural Revolution, young people were sent to the countryside. At age 16, Kai was forced to work at a grain depot, sometimes carrying up to 200 pounds on his shoulders. An avid basketball player, Kai found his passion through expressing himself on the court; later, it’s where he would find his freedom.
“The Communist Government wanted to use sports to break China’s isolation around the world,” Kai said.
Kai was chosen at the age of 16 to join a National Athletics program grooming talents for the Chinese National Teams in 1970.
“Before I knew there was a country called America, America had already saved me,” Kai said. “Because America invented basketball.”
He first tried to free himself from the national authorities, who were going to send him back to the grain depot in Liuhe after Kai’s Taiwan relatives were revealed. Kai found he could get on a professional team in Guangzhou Military District, so he escaped from Beijing, pretending to go shopping, carrying just a yellow satchel to deter suspicion. With Mao’s inscription, “Serve the People”. “Why?” he asked. “I would be keenly aware of the immorality and corruption in this society. I would be reminded of the falsehood and lies spread by the authorities.”
Kai was caught and sent back to the grain depot. But he escaped again to a provincial basketball team, and finally joined the Chinese Army for the political benefit to his family. China was in conflict with the Soviet Union at the time. Due to the intense physical labor, repairing dams and military training, Kai developed bleeding ulcers and was on the verge of death. While hospitalized for a month, he made up his mind he would find happiness. He had never in his life known anyone in China that was happy, he said.
“The biggest revenge for me against this society was to find freedom and happiness for myself,” Kai said to himself. Both Kai and Fiona are on the “blacklist” in China.
Her writing and internet posting through her own company, Liberty Bell Studios, is aimed at introducing American values to those behind the Communist curtain. She forms online groups in order to penetrate fire walls created by the Chinese government to impede citizens of China from gaining access to that information. Kai and Fiona help others find software to break through those firewalls.
The couple described a group called “50 Cents,” which is a propaganda team of thousands hired by the Communist government. It is made up of young “opinion leaders” who earn 50 cents when they complete an internet post promoting Chinese Communism and government agendas.
“The (Chinese government) learned from the collapse of the Soviet Union,” Kai said. “They’re better than the Soviet Union at controlling your thoughts. It’s been pretty effective so far.” They’re fanning nationalism and sentiment that is anti-U.S. and anti-Japan, according to the Chens.
Kai has spent decades protesting pro-Communism efforts and promoting the values espoused by America. A naturalized citizen of the United States, Kai fought Confucius Institutes that cropped up at the beginning of this century. It is a program teaching the language and culture of China that critics say advances the Chinese government’s agenda to falsely influence perceptions of China.
“I went to Congress and testified,” Kai said. “They terminated their contract because it violated U.S. educational policies, against American employment policies, when they hired teachers.”
They are established worldwide. There are hundreds in the United States at all levels of education.
“These are brainwashing … propaganda about reality,” he said. “They do a lot to damage the U.S., weaken this country’s moral underpinnings.”
In 2009 Kai protested a restaurant in Hollywood called Mao’s Kitchen for their portrait of the former Chinese leader and for “singing Mao’s praises,” Kai said. “I can’t do much, but I can protest,” he said.
When Kai found that the Nixon Library had a statue of Mao Tse-Tung in its “world leaders’ section, near Winston Churchill, he organized a protest.
“Mao is worse than Stalin and worse than Hitler, in terms of killing,” Kai said. “How are you educating young kids? When he’s with benign people like Winston Churchill? It’s confusing people.”
The Chens have strong political opinions, and share them when invited to speak at groups or meetings.
“Historians agree Mao committed atrocities against the Chinese people,” Kai said. “Reagan had great moral clarity, calling the Soviet Union an ‘evil empire.’ We needed an American president to enunciate moral principles.”
Among their goals, the Chens hope to affect U.S. policy toward their homeland. They hope to promote “political and moral wisdom in dealing with China.”
“We are not a country built on money; we are a country built on principles.”
“We feel obligated to give back,” Kai said. “(The U.S. is) the greatest country in the world. Don’t take it for granted.”
Fiona recently became a member of Zonta International of SCV. She was sponsored by longtime member Ronnie Erickson. “They are a group concerned about women’s lives. I fit in this category,” Fiona said. “A life with lots of layers.”
It was a big shift from Canada to living in the U.S. She said the education her children are receiving in the U.S. is more focused on reading and math. She was particularly pleased that her son, David, was chosen to have written two books through the Sulphur Springs School District Young Authors program.
The Chens said their kids are “making tremendous progress.” Ten-year-old David enjoys activities such as a magic class offered in Newhall, and six-year-old Celina takes piano lessons and plays soccer. Lawrence, 16, is a student at Canyon High School.
Kai is a four-year resident of Canyon Country and has two grown children, who both played college basketball – one at Yale and one at Brandeis University. Fiona moved here with her children in 2014.
“People are very friendly and they are trustworthy,” Kai said of the Santa Clarita Valley. “It’s very quiet. There’s a wonderful sense of community.”
Fri Oct 21, 2022 6:51 am
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