"I want to solemnly declare that I quit the Chinese Communist Party," said one old lady in her 60s after signing her name at the Party Resignation Service Center in Chinatown, San Francisco. "I want to purge any ties to the Communist Party," she said. Since its debut a few months ago, The Epoch Times' “Nine Commentaries on the Chinese Communist Party” has generated a mass exodus of Communist Party members. The old lady is one of more than 300,000 people who have resigned from the Communist Party and its affiliated organizations, almost all of them having suffered under the communist rule in mainland China.

In the Bay Area, the number of people resigning from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is also on the rise. On March 12th, the Bay Area Party Resignation Service Center set up three public stands to better help those who want to quit the CCP. There is one in Chinatown, a second in the Sunset District and a third in the Richmond District.

According to the director of the service center Wenbiao Zhen, the number of people rescinding their party membership has shot up during the past month. Every day more than 20,000 people withdraw their membership through The Epoch Times' online resignation website (http://tuidang.epochtimes.com.) "Those who want to renounce their party memberships can do so by signing a statement to withdraw from the Chinese Communist Party," Zhen said. When asked if people need to sign their real names, Zhen said it should be fine either way as long as the signer knows who he is signing for in his mind. Many, however, do sign their real names.

Zhen said he was forced to become a member of the Chinese Communist Youth League growing up in China. There was no choice but to pledge devotion to communism. Though his membership expired after exceeding a certain age, he still wanted to withdraw from the Communist Youth League formally and renounce all the pledges he made previously. He said his mind was distorted and he suffered psychologically from his forced belief in communism. By formally withdrawing from the CCP, he feels that all those blemishes from his past have been removed.

The service center has attracted many Chinese, both local residents and tourists. Many people stop in front of the big screen TV to watch the series "Nine Commentaries on the Chinese Communist Party." Some sign their names and leave quietly; others sign and exchange their disheartening experience under the communist rule. One lady signed the withdrawal statement for herself and four of her family members. She said she was severely persecuted during the Cultural Revolution. She recalled that she naively wrote an anonymous opinion letter to the party leadership. The Communist Party nevertheless traced the letter back to her address and persecuted her even though she was a party member. She said she was very relieved after signing the withdrawal statement.

Zhen says whoever wants to withdraw from the Chinese Communist Party can do so by calling the service center at 1-888-892-8757, faxing to 1-510-372-0176, e-mailing tuidang@gmail.com, or visiting http://tuidang.epochtimes.com