MHS graduate questions school's role with China

Mike Chaffee

As a graduate of Melrose High School I was disappointed to read about the partnership that MHS is entering into with the People's Republic of China ("MHS raises the Chinese flag," Nov. 17). Even more distressing is the fact that the Chinese communist flag was flying on the grounds of the high school. To see the flag of a tyrannical, oppressive regime flying above my alma mater was tragic to say the least.

The People's Republic of China has been oppressing it's people for 56 years and counting. Horrific abuses such as the Cultural Revolution, "the great leap forward" (which was anything but), and the purges of the late 1950s and 1960s led to the deaths of an estimated 3 million people.

Even though I was only 12-years-old at the time I remember the lone, unknown student standing in front of a column of tanks for freedom and democracy. Everyone has heard of Tiananmen Square but most people do not know of the casualties from the communist crackdown in the early morning hours of June 4, 1989. They run anywhere from 300 Chinese government figures) to 3,000 CIA figures) dead and wounded. It's important to note that a respected Yale sinologist puts the number around 700 dead. No matter what the number, these students were butchered in the streets of Beijing for wanting nothing more than freedom and democracy. Something the People's Republic of China still does not allow.

Just because Chairman Mao and Deng Xiaopeng are dead, it does not mean that the human rights abuses have stopped. This is still the same old People's Republic of China. In my opinion they are even more dangerous. They are much better at controlling the international press and United Nations than the old Soviet Union was.

In recent years one of the communist government's favorite tactics has been to trump up espionage charges against human rights advocates arrested entering the country. They arrest pro-democracy Chinese citizens and claim they are spying for the Republic of Taiwan. One such person sentenced under these bogus charges is an American citizen and Boston area resident, Dr. Yang Jianli. He was arrested April 26, 2002 trying to enter the People's Republic of China under a friend's passport so he could meet with dissidents and view labor unrest in the northeastern part of the country. He could not enter the country under his own passport because of his involvement with the pro-democracy protests in Tiananmen Square. Although he took a risk, he did it to help his own countrymen. He was tried and sentenced in secret and the communist Chinese government still has not produced any evidence of his alleged espionage activities. A group of US Congressmen have asked President Bush to try and secure the release of Dr. Yang while he and the communist government's premier are attending the APEC summit in Seoul. Dr. Yang is a married father of two and his own 92-year-old father is near death in Maryland. He is one of many brave Chinese citizens who would not be oppressed by this communist regime.

I would just like Dr. Burke [MHS principal] to ask himself if it is really a good idea to enter into this deal with the devil and to warn those young MHS teachers going to the People's Republic of China to expect total surveillance by the Red Chinese Secret Police. You see, communist countries need secret police to control all aspects of life. MHS teachers can expect a government "representative" (watchdog ), phone and wire taps, total Internet control, and assuredly classroom monitoring. Wouldn't want to teach how great living in a democracy is, would we??

I would also like to know what part of Chinese culture would be taught to MHS students? The great thinkers, philosophers, and dynastys of old or the communist dogma that has perverted the lives of so many. Surely there will be nothing taught about the brave Chinese Nationalists who helped so many US Airmen during WWII. They of course were driven to Taiwan - the democratic island nation that the so-called United Nations will not even recognize.

What Melrose has become in the 10 short years since I have graduated truly saddens me. It was a great city to grow up in but has changed from its middle class roots. It is now a high income, high real-estate value city that is buying into the Western European Socialism that is also taking over our colleges and the country as a whole.

Mike Chaffee lives on Leonard Road in Melrose.

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Source: "Melrose Free Press".