10th September 08

Asia Times Online

Letters to the Editor

I appear to have got star billing.

Regarding Kent Ewing's article China's Paralympic possibilities [Sep 8], I spend a reasonable amount of time in China with my wife, Xiaosui, and I fully concur with Ewing. However, the 'West' cannot rest on its laurels. There is still a way to go. As a person with a disability I know too well that there is still a level of prejudice in the 'West'. It is understandable in any society. A well person cannot relate to an unwell person. That is fundamental to human nature. Any advances made go against a profound and elemental lack of empathy. I applaud the advances made in any society and understand that any further progress will come through quiet persistence. The Paralympics are a chance to show the world that while the body may have a disability the mind is still strong and with the right attitude great things can be achieved.
Graeme Mills
Australia (Sep 9,'08)

SUN WUKONG
Party time for China
By Wu Zhong, China Editor

HONG KONG - The party mood of the Beijing Summer Olympic Games over, China is now preparing to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the economic reforms that have transformed the country and made it the world's industrial dynamo, an event that may mark the start of reforms of a quite different nature

Paulson placates China, Russia - for now
By Julian Delasantellis

By now, the problems attendant to China's recent economic success are fairly well known. China is running a roughly $25 billion a month trade surplus with the US. Standard floating exchange rate theory states that countries experiencing large trade surpluses see their currencies appreciate, with the flip side of that being the deficit countries' currencies depreciating.

China investors also want help
By Olivia Chung

HONG KONG - Stock markets in China, whose government is one of the biggest holders of debt issued by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, alone among Asian markets failed to gain in the wake of the US government's weekend bailout of the two mortgage finance companies.