Title: Is Communism Dead Yet? Word Count: 526 Summary: In order to control, these regimes tend to use fear. Generally, they create a culture of fear where people become afraid of speaking up. This leads to less people speaking out or complaining about anything. The environment of fear is amplified or bolstered when people who do speak out are punished in one way or another. Keywords: Falun, Gong, CCP, chinese, communist, party, Yuan, Li, Atlanta, communism, USA, power, totalitarian, Article Body: There are a handful of countries that are still considered communist regimes. Yet communism doesn't really exist. These countries are more like dictatorships with authoritarian type leaders who operate under the very thin veil of non-existent communism. These groups or individual leaders that have near absolute power cause great harm to their country's populace on a continual basis. Do you think there will be people who rejoice the day that Castro is gone or the Chinese Communist Party finally collapses? I think it is likely that there will be millions upon millions who will celebrate. Control is what is important to the leaders of these countries. They feel that in order to maintain control they must stop anyone with an alternative point of view. They cannot allow an arena for open debate because they worry that debate may expose their flaws. They will not allow freedom of expression or freedom of belief. In order to control, these regimes tend to use fear. Generally, they create a culture of fear where people become afraid of speaking up. This leads to less people speaking out or complaining about anything. The environment of fear is amplified or bolstered when people who do speak out are punished in one way or another. Take for example the Chinese Communist Party. They decided that they just couldn't have those young college kids promoting democracy on Tiananmen Square and decided to squash them with tanks. This resulted in a lot of killing of the country's youth. That was in 1989. Most Chinese people today will not say anything bad about their government for fear of becoming a target. Many people in China are sent to labor camps. They can even be sent there without having a trial. This is another level of control that keeps the people in line and under the thumb of the Party. Despite all of this, there have been a record number of protests in China in recent years. The Chinese Communist Party is probably very worried. This is what happens in the end. You can only have absolute control for so long. The pent up frustrations of a nation cannot be held at bay forever. The Chinese Communist Party in particular has used some of the most brutal tactics ever to maintain control over the Chinese people, over the last several decades. In addition, they have no qualms about crossing international boundaries to attack the people they fear. Yuan Li is a Falun Gong practitioner that lives in the city of Atlanta in the USA. Some Asian men forced their way into his house, tied him up and beat him. They took his laptop computers upon leaving, but did not take any valuables. It is suspected that the Chinese Communist Party's agents were responsible. The CCP dislikes Falun Gong practitioners. In China, they are often tortured and sometimes killed. When the overseas practitioners let the world know what is happening, it angers and frustrates the Chinese Communist Party. Never be fooled by the Chinese Communist Party or by their words. They care for only one thing, staying in power even if that means crushing innocent people in the process.