Sir, - Denying freedom of religion, expression and political affiliation, China wants to maintain control of the population to the point of what to think, writes Terry Butler (July 4th). This is a judgment that lacks both balance and magnanimity and it belies the experience of those who have spent some time there. Lying down with the old Dragon can be a very pleasant and enlightening experience. And certainly Mr Butler's view is not in accord with the views of the former British Ambassador to China, Richard Evans, in his study of the late President Deng Xiaoping (1993).
China has been an ideological state throughout its history, Evans states. "The state has been the custodian and propagator of a complete ideology and of an associated morality and not just an apparatus for control by an individual, a class or an interest." With this tradition, it is not difficult for the party leadership to obtain a ready response when it argues that competition for political power would lead to political and social chaos. For all Chinese who keep out of political trouble, life is no longer rigidly controlled or narrowly circumscribed.
It is widely held that the reason for China's recent outstanding economic success was to make economic reform take precedence over political reform. Indeed it could be argued that Ireland's obsession with party politics since Independence to the neglect of economic development and education contributed to our backwardness and underdevelopment in the not too distant past. - Yours, etc.,
John F. Fallon, Boyle, Co Roscommon.