MAY 5, 2000 VOL. 26 NO. 17 | SEARCH ASIAWEEK

Letters

China's IPOs
Like many countries, China tries to raise foreign capital from the U.S. stock markets ["In Search of Money," ECONOMY, April 21]. Unfortunately, Chinese efforts are blocked by shortsighted NGOs on human rights and Tibetan independence and also labor groups. The only way to prevent the U.S. stock markets from crumbling is to get new listings. If there are none or the stock markets cannot recruit enough, the markets are vulnerable. Why? Because stocks are overvalued.

If U.S. stocks still face a hard landing, the impact on that economy will be huge and affect the recovery in Asia. This could create a new global crisis lasting longer than the recent one. Therefore, new listings are a win-win situation for China and the U.S. markets. A prosperous and strong China will enhance world growth.
Paisal Suriyawongpaisal
via the Internet
Thailand

The Price of Courage (Cont.)
Her right eye damaged, Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga travels in secret because of fears of another assassination attempt [NEWSMAP, April 21]. That reminded me of a letter I wrote to Asiaweek of Aug. 9, 1996. In it, having quoted Ernest Hemingway's grim prognostication about the fate of people who "bring so much courage to the world," I confessed: "Being pathologically optimistic, I keep reassuring myself that President Kumaratunga will prove herself to be an exception to Hemingway's rule, which her husband Vijaya sadly exemplified." By a hair's breadth Kumaratunga has justified my optimism. Her courage is now bordering on bravado and my optimism is becoming irredeemably pathological.
Prof. Carlo Fonseka
Colombo

Clarification
In "The Trouble with Annette" [The Nations, April 21], we quoted Linda Gail Arrigo saying of Taiwan's vice president-elect: "She is by no means in the Taiwan independence camp." Arrigo meant that Annette Lu Hsiu-lien, unlike the Taiwan independence purists, sees the current de facto sovereignty of the Republic of China as an acceptable present form for Taiwan. In Arrigo's view, Lu shares the position that has evolved in Taiwan's Democratic Progressive Party.

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