From the Readers

Letters

(China Daily)
Updated: 2010-03-23 07:51

Expect a sudden change

Comment on "Solving climate change? Why bother?" (March 17, China Daily).

Do you really believe that it is going to take a long time for a critical mass of peoples and their governments to realize that the coming crisis requires concerted efforts to have any chance of mitigating, and to start acting? I suppose this may happen much sooner than skeptics think. This year could see the beginning of the runaway effects of the crisis. In fact, the runaway effects may have already begun, but this year we may see a sudden rapid escalation.

Then, you might propose an entirely appropriate question: Why bother to try and solve the problems climate change may bring about, because it may well be too late for humanity to do anything about it?

BJ Douthwright on China Daily website

Weak dollar policy to blame

Comment on "America's huffing about yuan does nothing" (March 17, China Daily).

The excerpts used in the article are interesting judgments of Liam Halligan, an economist and influential European journalist. They are expressed in the same vein as those by Martin Jacques, well-known author of When China Rules the World. Both authors speak clearly of China's rise as an irresistible trend and criticize the political myopia of Western governments, especially the Obama administration, in attributing their decline to China's independent development. By doing so, perhaps they want to force European governments and peoples to differentiate their policies from the US' .

The West should change its attitude toward China, they say, and many would agree. But the reasons advanced by Halligan are sometimes more psychological than logical: "Chinese politicians are as unlikely to buckle in the face of Western pressure as their counterparts would be given a tongue-lashing from Beijing." The other observations by Halligan are so detailed, deep, rational and based on facts that everyone will marvel at his brilliant journalistic way of exposing complex problems. I just need to mention that "America's 'weak dollar' policy - its long-standing practice of allowing its currency to depreciate in order to lower the value of its foreign debts - amounts to the biggest currency manipulation in human history".

Claudio Cervini via e-mail

(China Daily 03/23/2010 page9)