Madam, - Ronan Kilgannon (August 13th) is perfectly entitled to criticise my views, but he should leave my entirely innocent armchair out of it.
As it happens, I occasionally leave the aforementioned seat to venture to places as far away as China - Suzhou, to be precise, a couple of years ago.
From my own experience I agree with him that Chinese people are extraordinarily warm, open, friendly and generous, whether one meets them in China or here in Ireland. I greatly enjoyed my visit there, which was a working one, and also learned - to my own surprise, I must admit - that there are many NGOs in China working for the rights, for instance, of migrants, people with disabilities and minorities. I think that Chinese society is evolving rapidly and in most interesting ways.
I remain concerned about any regime, especially if it has superpower status, which brooks no opposition and which suggests, directly or indirectly, explicitly or implicitly, that it is unique or exceptional in a way which places it beyond criticism or comment and which enables it to justify the most brutal suppression of dissident voices in the name of a false communal unity.
We should know this all too well: 20th-century Europe saw many excesses committed in the name of the state, whether fascist or communist.
The twenty-first century, regrettably, is no different - something which is all too evident from the savagery of Russian behaviour in Georgia, even if that situation is by no means a simple one of right on one side and wrong on the other.
For me, the opening of the Beijing Olympics, however impressive in some respects, epitomised the all-powerful and all-controlling entity of the Chinese state, the same entity which behaves as a colonial power in Tibet and various parts of Africa and which suppresses all opposition within its own borders.
I don't want to single out China, nor is it true that I suggested that behind the opening ceremony there were Government officials "enforcing" people's behaviour. We should all be proud of our respective histories and traditions. But no one should idolise the state or the party, whether that state is China, the US or Ireland. - Yours, etc,
PIARAS MAC ÉINRÍ,
Model Farm Road,
Cork.