China’s efforts to control its people are worrying
That Marxist China would want to keep religion under some sort of control is not in itself surprising or necessarily undesirable (The one commandment, 18 January). “Opiate of the masses” and all that.
Much worse ideologically is the Chinese governmental crackdown on Marxist students deviating from rigid party orthodoxy on Marx. It’s mind control that brings to mind the Ministry of Truth in George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four – a ministry dedicated to the falsification of knowledge to dupe the masses into blind obedience to the Big Brother state.
So it’s a more general authoritarian mind control in Chinese society that’s the worry and that threatens a totalitarian nightmare in China.
Sooner or later we in the west will need to decide where we draw the line on such oppression in our relations with China.
Terry Hewton
Adelaide, South Australia
• It is no surprise that the now 40-year rise and rise of China’s variety of capitalism has been associated with increased suppression of Uighur Muslims, expanding surveillance of the population, jailing of dissidents and, of course, annually executing more people than the rest of the world combined.
The economic and social disruption associated with the rise of capitalism in the UK and then the US produced heightened measures to stabilise and control the social order. In the case of the UK a combination of imprisonment, hangings, transportation and establishment of police forces was used. In the case of the US it was a combination of imprisonment, executions, use of police and military and arguably a civil war.
None of this serves to justify or excuse current events in China. It is, however, important for our understanding to recognise that China in this case is following a well-trodden path.
Stewart Sweeney
Adelaide, South Australia
• In your article on China and religion, Pastor Wang states “the rulers have chosen an enemy that can never be imprisoned – the soul of man”. Organised religions and their priesthoods have been imprisoning the souls of men and women since time immemorial. I doubt that Early Rain is an exception.
Dave Adair
Adventure Bay, Tasmania, Australia
Climate change is a factor in Nigeria’s killings
With The Guardian often discussing the perils of climate change, it was surprising that Ruth Maclean (Forgiveness in Nigeria’s killing fields, 18 January) didn’t mention it as a factor in the killings that were described in her article. As massive drought and desertification spread in the north of Nigeria, the cattle herders are pushed further south, leading to the incursions on farmers lands and conflict.
These murders – and similar ones that are committed over access to water – are perhaps the first climate wars, a scary harbinger of our future.
Richard Abram
Sydney, Australia
Rosa Luxemburg’s ideas remain an inspiration
As we commemorate Rosa Luxemburg’s murder 100 years ago (18 January), we also celebrate her dangerous ideas. One is about democracy. Luxemberg said: “there is no socialism without democracy and there is no democracy without socialism”.
Then as today, her ideas are dangerous. And that is why she is the love of the working class.
Thomas Klikauer
Sydney, Australia
Statues are a symbol of an outdated order
Rebecca Solnit rejoices in the destruction of statues built by society’s powerful to commemorate those they wish to honour (11 January). At one time, she says, “Men, mostly white Protestants did nearly everything that ever mattered”. So they did. That was the way it was.
Now that this history is being erased, is it time to depend on our many other forms of records and do away with statues altogether?
Elizabeth Quance
Westmount, Quebec, Canada
Indigenous people are protecting their land
Concerning your story Indigenous pipeline protests cast a shadow on Trudeau (18 January). “Protests” is the wrong word. The people are doing their best to protect their land, water and air against the ravages of civilisation.
David Huntley
Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada
Actors’ views on politics are always fascinating
David Smith’s interview with the actor Robert de Niro was fascinating (18 January). I look forward to Gerard Depardieu’s views on Vladimir Putin.
Stephen Morris
London, UK
