Sir, Your leading article (Dec 26) about the 11-year prison sentence imposed on Liu Xiaobo, the Chinese scholar and political dissident, is timely and apposite but it is difficult to envisage that a new Helsinki agreement on human rights will lead to political reforms in China.
While the Cold War had effectively resulted in the demise of Soviet communism, the institution of economic reforms in China has come while its rigid state apparatchiks have retained full control over its political system. In view of China’s economic prosperity and a burgeoning middle class it is unlikely that there will ever be a widespread social or cultural revolution in China. With the USA running a massive deficit economy and China’s hoarding of dollar-capital, China’s economic