Yeonmi Park, a North Korean defector who escaped famine and trafficking, is bringing a stark warning to a Michigan Christian university as it prepares to host an event challenging the growing appeal of communism and socialism among young Americans. Cornerstone University in Grand Rapids will hold «Why Not Communism? A Wisdom Conversation on Freedom, Faith and the Future of America» on October 1, featuring Park and other survivors of oppressive regimes.
University President Dr. Gerson Moreno-Riaño said the school chose the theme months ago after observing public opinion shift toward communism and socialism. «Frankly, we became alarmed and concerned because the history of communism, socialism is a dark one,» Moreno-Riaño said. «We thought we need to step up as a university committed to educating men and women for our country and really inform the community, educate the community and our students and the country at large about the moral bankruptcy of communism and socialism.»
The event's relevance is sharpened by its location. Grand Rapids sits in Kent County, where Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed won more than 61% of the vote in the primary. El-Sayed campaigned with Twitch streamer Hasan Piker, who has defended communism as the «honorable end goal» of socialism. The lineup includes Babylon Bee CEO Seth Dillon, Soviet communism scholar Dr. Gary Saul Morson, Mao Zedong's Cultural Revolution survivor Xi Van Fleet, and Park.
Park told Fox News Digital that communism is on the rise among students who learn about it «in a very nice classroom with the air conditioning running,» while she experienced oppressive regimes firsthand. «I had to live through a real socialist government every day until I escaped from North Korea,» she said. «And I know it is not nice when it is actually enforced in real life. Many people think it's an amazing thing as a theory, and they have no idea if we do bring this policy in our government, what that's going to do to our local population.»
Growing up in North Korea during the devastating famines of the 1990s, Park experienced hunger, severe poverty and political persecution. At age 13, she escaped with her mother across the frozen border river into China, where they were sold into trafficking rings. After two years of exploitation and hiding from Chinese authorities, Christian activist networks helped them cross from China to Mongolia, where they secured political asylum, and later gained their freedom in South Korea.
Park said that while in the U.S., students who are unaware of her background have told her she does not «understand oppression» because she is Asian, referring to her as a «White-passing person.» «They have no idea that I was, at 13 years old, being sold as a sex slave in China for two years of my life. I do understand oppression,» she said.
She insisted that American students often take their freedom for granted. «Most people are not free right now in the world. More than 70% of humanity right now live under authoritarian governments,» Park said, likely referencing data from the Varieties of Democracy Institute, whose most recent report estimates that 74% of the world's population lives under autocracies. She added that having freedom is «a very special thing» and she doesn't «want us to lose this amazing country, because if America falls, we do not have a place to escape to.»
For Moreno-Riaño, the defense of freedom is tied directly to Cornerstone's Christian identity. He said the principle of liberty is «at the bedrock» of the Christian faith. «We believe that the gospel sets us free. So, liberty and freedom are at the core of our Christian faith through the gospel of Jesus Christ,» he said. «We believe this basic Christian principle called the Imago Dei, that we've been created in His image, means that for us to flourish, you have to have a condition of freedom and liberty. It's absolutely essential.»
Moreno-Riaño hopes the event will encourage students to take action rather than «sit on the sidelines watching.» «As people of faith, Christians here at Cornerstone University, we want our students to be involved to be great citizens, modeling their faith and modeling what it means to be a great citizen of our great country,» he said. «That to me is the ultimate outcome for not just the students, but even for the community at large.»