Tuidang, Third Most Important Event of 2011: Putin’s Former Advisor

[Andrei Illarionov, Former Economic Policy Advisor to Putin 2000–2005]:
"Currently there are more than 100 million Chinese people who have openly withdrawn from the Communist Party. I want to remind people, seven years ago, in 2004, a book titled, 'Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party' was published which encourages all Chinese citizens to quit the CCP and its associated organizations.”

These are the words of Andrei Illarionov, the former economic advisor to Russian leader Vladimir Putin. Illarionov is referring to the "Tuidang" or the "Quit the Party" movement in China. A grass roots movement of people quitting the Chinese Communist Party and its affiliated organizations.

After serving as an economic policy advisor to then Russian President Vladimir Putin, Illarionov later declared his opposition to what he saw as the authoritarian rule of Putin’s party and now sits as an assembly member for an opposition party. Illarionov also runs a radio show called "No Kidding" on a radio station called "Echo of Moscow," currently the only private political commentary radio station in Moscow.

On January 1st, Illarionov announced the top ten important events of 2011 on his radio show. His research institute selected these events, and in the top three was the Tuidang movement.

[Andrei Illarionov, Former Economic Policy Advisor to Putin 2000–2005]:
"Now let’s discuss things happening in the world. There are three things I think are very important and must be mentioned. One of which is the 'Arab Spring;' second is the crisis in Europe, a crisis of the entire European model which might result in an economic, political and social crisis; last is the Quit CCP movement in China."

The Tuidang movement bears similarities with the situation in Russia before the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. The collapse of the bloc was preceded by a Russian quit the Communist Party movement in which 4.2-million people, or one fifth of all the members quit.

[Yi Rong, Vice President, Global Quit CCP Service Center]:
"His judgment is very accurate, 100 million people quitting the party is indeed a very big thing, not only for China, its influence on the whole world is very large. China is the last large and powerful communist country. If China wouldn't be ruled by the Communist regime, this would be very important for world peace, it would change the world order. So this is a huge piece of news in 2011, what is more, in the near future the influence of this will be huge."

The Tuidang movement started in 2004 and encourages Chinese citizens to quit the Communist Party, Youth League and Young Pioneers. The number of people who have quit now stands at one hundred and nine million.