Internal affairs

Comments on Li Xing's column "Managing our own affairs well"

(China Daily, September 20, 2007)

I am a Canadian who is currently staying in Shanghai and who read your article today on international reports of China and what concerns China is indeed trying to address on its own. I applaud your efforts in reporting China's struggles to the English-reading community in China.

Last year, I came to China to do exactly what you seemed to be trying to achieve with your article: to show that China "should manage its own affairs well". My exploration of the automotive industry here led me to a similar conclusion, but I also learned that wherever possible, Western countries should help China "leapfrog mistaken strategies" that have already been attempted.

It is for this reason that I returned to Shanghai once again this year. Specifically, my goal is to do something you also addressed in your article: help Chinese businesses purchase clean production technologies.

Tim Singh

via e-mail

What an opportunity to learn from countries that have experienced economic development and avoid their mistakes. To accuse them of deep prejudice toward the Chinese is small.

Ted Acker

On China Daily website

Managing our own affairs represents one hand, cooperation with others is the other hand.

It is absolutely right that we should manage our business well so that we can develop a good reputation for made-in-china products. Only in this way will our industry achieve sustained development, whether abroad or at home.

However, it is not enough to focus only on our own affairs.

Our development should also be the result of cooperation and exchange in the context of globalization. Only through communication can we clear away prejudice and solve problems.

Worldwatcher

On China Daily website

The key to learning

Comment on Raymond Zhou's column "A learning fad that's truly crazy" (China Daily, September 22)

I've had some students of Li Yang come up to me and start yelling. I asked what they were doing and the response was that he writes in his books that they should yell louder and faster to learn English.... I walked away without saying another word.

Too often people who want to learn something don't want to earn it. They want a quick, easy shortcut. If I could develop a pill they could take to learn English, I'd be a billionaire. Sadly, there is no quick, easy shortcut for learning a language. It takes work - hard work. It should. Those who work for something usually place a higher value on what it is they have earned.

The best non-native English speakers I've met are self-taught. They were motivated and they learned English because they wanted to.

Anonymous

On China Daily website

(China Daily 09/25/2007 page11)