Thanks Rohan. Some good sentiments there.

I seem to remember that about 80 per cent of China's market is internal so the impact of boycotts of Chinese goods for human rights would not be that great, least of all if the US did not join in.

I think however there is another matter here. It is what do the forces in China fighting for democracy and freedom want? The apartheid struggle comes to mind wnhen some coutnries did eventually boycott South Africa and its products at the behest of the liberation forces.

I raise this because I see the forces within a country as the most important in overrthrowing tyrants. That's why I think the invasion of Iraq was doomed from the beginning - because the oppositional forces (apart from the Kurds) had not matured and did not have enough support to enable them to bring down the dictator and run the country.

Developments in China (see for example my (John Passant) OLO article earlier this year on China) hold the key to change in China. Through rapid industrialisation the Chinese Communist Party is creating its sown gravedigger - a strong, widespread, numerous and concentrated Chinese working class.

Rohan,

Western business people do not really understand the of Chinese entrepreneurship. Many a suit will roam down to the local Dymocks and buy a book on Confucius and the Tsu's thirty-six strategies and falsely believe they understand their situation in say importing or a jpint-venture. Rarely, so.

Confucianism, which pursues harmonious relationships, included the Court, bureaucrates and argrian class. Merchants were/are Shang and are outside the system by large measure on many culture traits, but not all.

Herein, hierarchies and familialism are strong, yet many of the ethical counter balances are missing regarding workforces.

Based from Singapore and Hong Kong, I have worked in China. Purchasing ethical educational assets for Singaporean Chinese. Yet, I would not involve myself in manufacturing.

Regards,

O.