If it works with CDs ...

In the opinion-page article ``Business and Human Rights,'' April 21, the author maintains that the United States should not suspend China's most-favored-nation status because ``the threat of economic punishment does not work.''

But two pages later, the brief piece on ``Compact disc piracy'' indicates that ``the threat of US trade sanctions'' may have led to Beijing's crackdown on CD pirates operating in China.

American economic pressure worked with South Africa, and apparently counts for something with the People's Republic. If Washington is willing to take China to task for copyright infringement, surely economic pressure is also an appropriate response for torture, extrajudicial killings, suppression of religion, and other violations listed in this year's State Department human rights report. Stanley T. Holmes, Salt Lake City, Utah

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