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Web-only Exclusives November 30, 2000 From Our Correspondent: Hirohito and the War A conversation with biographer Herbert Bix From Our Correspondent: A Rough Road Ahead Bad news for the Philippines - and some others From Our Correspondent: Making Enemies Indonesia needs friends. So why is it picking fights? |
OCTOBER 8, 1999 VOL. 25 NO. 40
Letters
China's 50th
"China At 50" [Sept. 24] is bursting with facts that many readers may have long forgotten. The quotes of the ancients are always timely. They could lead one to speculate that if the rulers of the Middle People's Republic had occasionally looked up these wise sayings (instead of only the Little Red Book), the people's day-to-day existence may have attained its present height in perhaps half the time.
Rudolf Voll
Hong Kong
Loved your 50 greatest Chinese sayings, but you left out the best one, and the one most relevant for Chinese people today. It's in Confucius's Analects, 4:16, which I translate (somewhat freely) as: "A really cool dude goes with what's right; the low-class wankers go with what sells." Chinese people, take heed!
S. Tsow
Bangkok
A conventional translation of 4:16: "The mind of the superior man is conversant with virtue; the mind of the base man is conversant with gain." - Editors
Most articles about China's 50th birthday are focused on the negative as well as the sad history of our country. I believe that only with actual experience of staying in China, can one have a full and fair perspective [TO OUR READERS, Sept. 24].
Sunny Yan
Berkeley, California
Beyond East Timor
B.J. Habibie is a good guy, but he is in the wrong place at the wrong time and is in a circle of bad friends. The President's decision to let East Timor go was a good one, but it was not talked through. He wrongly assumed that the East Timorese would follow him [and choose autonomy]. He can cut off East Timor because it lacks resources, but what if it came to Aceh? That's why a new Indonesian security law had to be launched. Husin Wijaya
Alumni of Tarumanagara University
Jakarta
Cambodian Stability
Hun Sen is the last person who should get credit for bringing peace to Cambodia ["A Balm Called Normalcy," THE NATIONS, Aug. 20-27]. The Phnom Penh regime has orchestrated political murders, terrorist attacks and highly irregular elections while continuing the tradition of extraordinary corruption and complete impunity for violators. The foreign diplomats have done their best to play all this down. It is they, not Hun Sen, who returned Cambodia's U.N. seat and admitted the country to ASEAN. Now that they have cemented Hun Sen in power and turned the aid spigots back on full blast, they compliment him for bringing "stability." I suppose this shows what an excellent job they did. One might as well credit Milosevic for new housing construction in Kosovo. Rich Garella
Seattle, Washington
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WASHINGTON
U.S. secretary of state says China should be 'tolerant'
MANILA
Philippine government denies Estrada's claim to presidency
ALLAHABAD
Faith, madness, magic mix at sacred Hindu festival
COLOMBO
Land mine explosion kills 11 Sri Lankan soldiers
TOKYO
Japan claims StarLink found in U.S. corn sample
BANGKOK
Thai party announces first coalition partner
TIME:
COVER: President Joseph Estrada gives in to the chanting crowds on the streets of Manila and agrees to make room for his Vice President
THAILAND: Twin teenage warriors turn themselves in to Bangkok officials
CHINA: Despite official vilification, hip Chinese dig Lamaist culture
PHOTO ESSAY: Estrada Calls Snap Election
WEB-ONLY INTERVIEW: Jimmy Lai on feeling lucky -- and why he's committed to the island state
ASIAWEEK:
COVER: The DoCoMo generation - Japan's leading mobile phone company goes global
Bandwidth Boom: Racing to wire - how underseas cable systems may yet fall short
TAIWAN: Party intrigues add to Chen Shui-bian's woes
JAPAN: Japan's ruling party crushes a rebel ì at a cost
SINGAPORE: Singaporeans need to have more babies. But success breeds selfishness
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