party rule.' Does Hutton not understand that the Chinese government embraces a far wider range of social and economic points of view than the effective one party states in the US the UK and Canada? This is something which will be tested in the coming weeks and months as the Capitalists will insist on us all making massive sacrifices to maintain their shibbolethsand sacred cows. My guess is that China will be far more pragmatic than our governments, which are thoroughly committed to the utopian unrealities of the self regulating market economy. If the west runs true to form it will take this crisis as a good opportunity to seek out the last pools of skilled labour, the last scraps of technical innovation (in the non-defence sector) and the last functioning factories. And close them down: turn them into shopping malls, makeTrafford Park a museum (if it isn't already one) and crate up Jaguar, Rover and RollsRoyce and send them to Shanghai. It's as if the sense of shame at being connected with "trade" had percolated down from the hidalgos to society as a whole. And we had decided that we are far too clever and well bred to dirty our hands on any manual work except killing. I must admit that actually living here in China I see a different picture than the one painted here. All I see is massive consumer confidence, constant large scale building and a very well motivated workforce. i admit that China is a