International -- Readers Report
Is Spying the Right Way to Deal with China?
Imagine what the U.S. would do if a Chinese spy plane were zipping around outside Virginia or Silicon Valley, became entangled with U.S. jets, and then landed at a U.S. base ("Lessons of a crisis," Asian Business, Apr. 23). The U.S. has fulminated for years about supposed spying by China against the U.S. But it turns out that the U.S. regards such activity as routine and justifiable, if directed against other countries.
Chongj Du
Cleveland
Now is the time for America, both government and business, to rethink its relationship with China ("China: Coping with its new power," Cover Story, Apr. 16). Only if China becomes a really democratic and free country will there be a friendly country to deal with and a favorable place to do business without too much artificial interference.
Yea Shin Lin
Taipei
Europe's Pension Woes: Immigrants Are the Answer
Although I find your description of the upcoming demographic situation and the dire prospects for future European pensioners quite accurate, privatization of pensions is not the only way out of the economic crush of the pension system ("Privatize Europe's public pensions," Editorials, Apr. 16). Loads of young immigrants from Eastern Europe, Africa, and Asia are waiting for Europe to open its borders and let them join an aging workforce. Letting them in would increase Europe's active population and improve the ratio of retirees to workers, thus allowing countries to support public pay-as-you-go systems in the medium and long terms.
Francisco M. Torralba
Terrassa, Spain
Price Controls Take the Power out of the Market
It seems that California Governor Gray Davis does not understand the ABCs of economics ("`At the mercy of forces that show no mercy,"' American News, Apr. 23). He says: "The free market works as long as you have more power than demand." The free market also works when you have more demand than power--but only if you let it work. If you don't allow the rates charged to consumers to rise, that is not a free market. Not allowing consumer prices to rise inevitably creates shortages in the long run. That's what the Russians found out 20 years ago in the former Soviet Union.
D.H. Van Den Berghe
Ghent, Belgium
Singapore Isn't Stalled Anymore
"Stalled in Singapore" (Asian Business, Apr. 23) may have been appropriate 12 months ago. But with the recent buys of Cable & Wireless Optus and Dao Heng Bank Group by Singapore Telecommunications and Development Bank of Singapore (DBS), respectively, Singapore is now charging ahead. If the deals had been made when markets were frothy, DBS and Singtel would face competition not only from global giants but also from a lot of wannabes with cheap capital.
Choon Ho Hui
Singapore
The Mideast Tragedy Has Many Acts Remaining
Even to a 12-year-old Israeli, the Intifada has demonstrated that there is a strong nucleus among Palestinians that will continue their acts of terror, no matter what the Israelis give up ("Mideast prospects: More miserable by the minute," International Outlook, Apr. 16). Hence, the farther away they are kept, the safer they will be. Unfortunately, the only realistic forecast is that the Palestinian tragedy will continue for several more decades.
J. Hazan
Paris
Exxon Mobil Should Pony Up to Save the Tigers
With $232.7 billion in sales and $17.7 billion in net income, it is a shame that the most powerful corporation in the world has to resort to the sale of posters and tax-deductible donations to help save the Panthera tigris, which has, in Exxon's own words, "portrayed Exxon Mobil and its products with grace, strength, and pride" for almost a century--and for free ("Exxon Unleashed," Cover Story, Apr. 9).
Exxon says that, by the end of 2002, it will have spent $10 million in the course of eight years on various conservation programs. But with around 7,000 tigers still in the wild, this yields just $179 per animal per year. It is time for Exxon Mobil Corp. to step forward, give its contribution a twentyfold boost, to $200 million, and show other corporations the path to the future.
Antonio Camargo
São Paulo
Import Tariffs Shouldn't Soak the Poor
Rich nations have set tariffs on imports from developing countries 30% higher than the global average ("Betting on free trade," Latin America, Apr. 23). These practices are especially common in the agricultural and textile sectors, which are the sources of income for many of the poorest people on earth. A level playing field is a bare minimum if the world's poor are to have any chance of benefiting from increased global trade.
Blaise Salmon
Victoria, B.C.
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Copyright 2001 , by The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. All rights reserved.
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