Patriots and Traitors

Statement from Dr. George Lee
US-Soviet Institute Director, Professor
San Francisco State University
for the "Free Dr. Chunyan Teng"
Press Conference

Who is traitor to China? Who is the patriot of China? To answer these questions, we must first answer the question, "What is China?" Is China the Chinese Communist Party? Of course not. Is China the current or past Chinese government? Again, no. China is the Chinese people.

Anyone who loves and protects the Chinese people is a patriot of China. Anyone who hates and hurts the Chinese people is a traitor to China. Those who reveal atrocities committed against the Chinese people are patriots. Those who hide atrocities against the Chinese people are traitors; those who commit the atrocities are even worse traitors.

The Mainland Chinese government and even many Chinese Americans in the United States call Harry Wu a Han Chien, a traitor to China. Why? Because he risked his life to show the world of China's Gulag's, the Lao Gai. If Harry Wu or Dr. Teng, who has videos showing the atrocities being committed in China's prisons is a traitor to China, then the people who taped Rodney King being brutalized by the Los Angeles police are traitors to the United States. If Dr. Teng is a traitor to China, then Dr. Sakharov, who told the world of Stalin's monstrous treatment of the Russian people, is a traitor to Russia. If Dr. Teng is a traitor to China, then Nelson Mandela was a traitor to the people of South Africa for daring to oppose South Africa racist Apartheid policies. If Dr. Teng is a traitor to China, then Aung San Suu Ki, who revealed the Burmese government's brutalization of the Burmese people, is a traitor to Burma. If Dr. Teng is a traitor to China, then the Cambodian reporter who revealed that country's killing fields is was a traitor to Cambodia.

So is Dr. Teng a patriot of China or a traitor to China? What is her crime that she dared to take and show the world pictures of the torture and brutalization of the Chinese people by the current Chinese government? That's not a crime against the Chinese people; that is not a treasonous act against China. Dr. Teng's actions are patriotic. Dr. Teng is a patriot of China. For the good of the Chinese people, and yes, for the current Chinese government, Dr. Teng should not be punished; she should be revered.

After all, if a government tortures and kills patriots of the people and the country, and if that government enriches and empowers leaders who torture and kill their own people, how many more minutes, hours or days can such a government last if the current leaders did not have guns aimed on their own people?

The current Chinese government, for the sake of its own existence, should free and thank Dr. Teng.

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