Christine Flowers gave a powerful speech at the Philadelphia Chinatown to condemn the evil nature of communism on Sep. 19th, 2026. Her speech is part of the rally supporting 466 million Chinese people quitting CCP, hosted by the local Falun Gong practitioners.
Christine Flowers is a lifelong Philadelphian who has been practicing immigration law, with a specialization in asylum, for almost three decades. She has also been a political and cultural columnist for the past twenty years, writing for publications like the Philadelphia Daily News, the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Delaware County Times and Broad and Liberty. Her column is nationally syndicated. Christine can also be heard on the radio and is a regular panelist on 6 ABC’s Inside Story, a local political roundtable. A graduate of Bryn Mawr College and Villanova Law School, Christine spent several years as a high school language teacher and speaks French, Italian and Spanish fluently. She lives in Philadelphia.
An experienced immigration lawyer discusses the dehumanizing effects of totalitarian regimes, specifically the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). While celebrating the younger generation of Chinese citizens for rejecting communist ideology, the speaker warns that American progressives are adopting similar toxic philosophies under the guise of democratic socialism.
Good afternoon. I'm so very happy to be here in Chinatown, the oldest Chinatown in the
nation where our nation began. Incredibly honored to be here. As Alex mentioned, I have
been practicing immigration law for over 30 years. And for the last 20 years, I've been
practicing and specializing in asylum and refugee law. And over the last three decades,
I have had hundreds of people come through my office who have been victims of totalitarian
regimes, of torture, of threats, of all sorts of human degradation. And although they've
come from different countries, South Asia, the Middle East, the former Soviet bloc countries,
South America, Africa, and China, there is a common thread in the persecution, and that
is the dehumanization of individual human beings, the stripping of them of their autonomy,
of their ability to practice their faith, of their ability to work in the jobs that
they want, of their ability to speak out, of their ability to publish their opinions.
And in the case of China, for many years, of their ability to have more than one child.
And a lot of this, most of this, derives from the Communist Party. The Communist Party has
had at its core a desire to crush the human spirit, individuality, autonomy, and that
unfortunately has been the ruling principle in China for many decades, for many generations.
However, I am so happy to be here today to celebrate the fact that the Communist Party
in China is losing thousands and thousands of people every day, that the Communist Party
no longer has that philosophical and emotional stranglehold on generation, on the newest,
youngest generations of Chinese citizens as it had on their parents and their grandparents
and their great-grandparents. These younger people are seeing the truth of what the Communist
Party is and are rejecting it, and are saying, we are human beings, we have a right to exist,
to live, to breathe, to do what we want. And I am so happy to celebrate that and honor
that. However, sadly, we in the United States, including in this beloved city of Philadelphia
in which I was raised, are not learning the lessons that the younger generations of Chinese
have learned. Progressives, particularly those who call themselves democratic socialists,
pretend to embrace the welfare of people when they are actually parroting much of what the
CCP believes in China, in putting a more attractive face on a very toxic philosophy. American
progressives are walking dangerously towards what the Chinese are walking away from today.
Of course, the sort of people who will vote for democratic socialism will tell you that
it is very different from communism, that it's concerned with the welfare of the individual,
free healthcare, free housing, you know, free jobs, minimum wages that are at a level which
a free market society simply cannot manage. But the truth is, once you look at people as a group
and say, what is the greatest good for the greatest number, you are marching towards that
same system of communism that looks at people as simply pegs in a machine, that look at them
not as individuals with human spirits, but as just something on which to build
a governmental entity, a totalitarian regime. I applaud, I celebrate those who are rejecting
the communist philosophy in China, those who are pushing against repression, oppression,
and suppression, pushing against the party that carried out the massacre at Tiananmen Square.
Never forget that Tiananmen Square was orchestrated by the communist party in China.
I caution my own citizens that we need to follow their lead and not fall for the lies
of communism wrapped in a prettier, more palatable package. I'm troubled that President Trump
will be meeting with President Xi this week, ostensibly to talk about AI and free market,
capitalism, economic ideals, possibly national security. But how do you deal with the president
of a country that talks about a free market system when they don't understand what the word
free means? Also, we will be celebrating Chinese National Day in Philadelphia, and there is nothing
wrong with celebrating the rich cultural traditions of this amazing country and its amazing people,
which we celebrate here in this beautiful corner of Philadelphia, the city that gave the country
democracy. There is nothing wrong with that. But we should not be raising the communist flag
at Philadelphia City Hall. We should not be honoring any communist regime in the country
that gave us democracy. So again, I salute the Chinese people, the great and glorious Chinese
people who are rejecting the yoke of communism that has threatened and abridged the rights and
the humanity of their parents and their grandparents and their great-grandparents.
And I hope that my own beloved citizens, particularly in the city of Philadelphia,
will listen to their message and take their lead. Thank you.
