CHINA TO-DAY

30. I am inclined to agree with Ken McAllister (Press 24/02). I suggest that Lorne Kuehn engages in some direct talk with Chinese students to find out what their thinking is of China to-day. We all know that in the United States and other western (dependent) capitalist countries there is a huge discrepancy between rich and poor; the rich getting increasingly and disproportionately richer; the poor getting poorer by the day. In the United States many people are now dependent on charity and free-food hand-outs. Within the last sixty years China has emerged from a backward, feudal, medieval society into the second largest economy of the world and liberated millions of people from starvation; an unprecedented achievement in the evolution of human society. It is only a matter of time and the Chinese will surpass the U.S. China has a State guided economy; Americans would call it "socialism", which accounts for this phenomenal hitherto unprecedented success, quite different from 18th century laissez-fair "dog eats dog" capitalism, which ultimately will lead to America's demise, the same as so many great empires in the past.

Letter submitted on the 20th and 24th in an amended form. Both times rejected.

Postscript:
I realize that China is not a champion in human rights, but as Ken McAllister rightly pointed out, who are we to criticize with our own dismal human rights records in the west. Surely we can find just as many human rights abuses, if not more in western capitalist countries. We only have to look at Guantanamo Bay, the "rendition" of "terrorist suspects" by the CIA to countries that practises in torture in even more ghastly and horrific ways; Israel's treatment of Palestinians in the occupied territories; the indiscriminately and large scale killings of civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan with remote operating hi-tech devices. And so we can go on for a long time. Is it not a bit hypocritical to accuse China ? Let's first engage in some self-criticism before we accuse others. No country has a clean bill of human rights.