China must be quaking

Re: The world is watching, diplomats tell China — Canada reaches out to friends for help after stiff sentence; and The West is buckling under China’s brutal hegemony, Terry Glavin, both Aug. 12

China must be quaking in its boots with that group photograph of diplomats in Beijing. How about Western countries boycotting the upcoming Winter Olympics?

Sorry, that will never happen — trade and cheap goods trump lives every time with this sad-sack crew.

Stephen Flanagan, Ottawa

China has a comprehensive catalogue of time-tested responses to the intimidation of “the world is watching.” Such as: We don’t care; the world has been watching for decades and little has come of it — we like it when the world watches and then massively buys our exports. And most often used: silence.

John P.A. Budreski, Vancouver

Is it too simple to stop buying “made in China?” The deal with the devil may have been procured when we started trading in our morality in our plight for cheap consumer goods. The writing has been on the wall for some time now and collection has become due. Our focus on the “axis of evil” (George W. Bush) has distracted from the real nemesis in our pursuit of greater morality and protection of our environment. We have allowed China to globally integrate itself for the almighty dollar and now we are paying the price. It’s time to stop exploiting cheap labour and trading human rights in favour of our own over consuming needs. The first step is to take responsibility and be accountable. We have done this to ourselves. Now the question is: how do we turn this around, promoting our own domestic sustainability to produce the quality of life that has become an entitlement of our own consuming standards? Solve this and we can get back to achieving sustainable moral ideology and a healthier environment.

Israel Ellis, Toronto