Sir, - I read with interest Conor O'Clery's report of Madeleine Albright's criticism of human rights violations in China, especially in the area of political freedom (The Irish Times, March 3rd). This is a further instance of the US government trying to mould another country of differing culture and tradition to its own standards of democracy and its own economic system.
Some of your readers may be familiar with William Finnegan's recent book Cold New World, which exposes the slow corruption of the American dream for millions of its citizens as a result of the excesses of US capitalism. During my own preparation for work as an English teacher in China I wrote down a sentence from a lecture given by a young Chinese academic. The words are still etched in my mind: "Ask any Chinese which does he prefer, economic progress and better living standards or Western democracy, and he will have no hesitation in choosing the first." My two years in China confirmed the reality of his words.
Over the past 20 years under the late President Deng, economic and social progress has been remarkable, but the rising tide of prosperity and education has not brought any corresponding demand for Western-style democracy. As the former ambassador Richard Evans wisely remarks in his book The Making of Modern China, "Democracy does best when it grows slowly in a developing country and reaches maturity when that country has achieved quite high levels of prosperity and education."
When will Washington and Madeleine Albright learn this lesson? - Yours, etc., John F. Fallon,
Boyle,
Co Roscommon.