Tibet overlooked in MFN debate

The editorial "The China Vote," July 18, looks forward to a presidential veto of the House vote to stop most-favored-nation trading status for China by stating, "The best way to support liberal reform in China is to keep alive China's contact and exchanges with the West."This overlooks one very important fact - the Chinese occupation of Tibet. In 1960, an impartial inquiry by the International Commission of Jurists concluded that Tibet had been a fully sovereign state and that China was guilty of "the gravest crimes of which any person or nation can be accused: the intent to destroy, in whole or part, a nation, ethnic, racial, or religious group as such that is, genocide. Since 1960 the situation the Tibetan people find themselves in has only worsened. The Chinese have a right to govern their own people, but they have clearly broken international law by occupying Tibet. Joel G. Prunty, Green Bay, Wis.

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