• WHAT is behind the rise of China to being the monster it is today?

In 1972 then US president Richard Nixon made the terrible decision to open trade with China, ostensibly to “bring them into the fold” but actually to get cheap consumer goods. The rest of the West followed suit.

The result was to turn a failing communist state, when I visited in 1973, into a materially successful fascist one which oppresses minorities, suppresses the freedoms of its citizens and acts as a neo-colonialist power in Africa, South America and Asia.

On top of that, in producing the cheap consumer goods that the West craves, it has become the largest emitter of CO2 on the planet.

So we have been supporting this monstrous regime for 50 years and contributing to its destruction of the planet. Nixon and our greed for cheap goods have a lot to answer for.

NIGEL ARMISTEAD
Ospringe Road, NW5