Moving Farmers

Re “World Bank Exits Project in China Opposed by U.S.,” July 8:

I am puzzled by the objections to the project. The main purpose of the project is to save lives, to relocate the poorest farmers on Earth from a land that has been compared to the “surface of the moon.” Where is the humanitarian spirit?

The Tibetan activists suspected that Beijing’s real goal was to dilute Tibetan influence and culture. They should have known that China is a melting pot of many races and cultures, just like the U.S. In fact, China was ruled by the Mongols for 100 years (1260-1368), the Manchus for 260 years (1644-1911) and the northwestern part of China by the Tangut tribes (of Tibetan origin) for more than 100 years. Nowadays there is not a single town in China inhabited by only one race. China recently even allowed high school graduates of minority races to take college entrance examinations in their own languages.

Assimilation of races and cultures, instead of separation, is the only way to world peace. Otherwise, Slobodan Milosevic would prevail.

JACK LIU

Woodland Hills

* A plan to relocate 58,000 farmers was seen as a ploy by Beijing to undermine Tibetan culture. China’s desire and motives in moving people westward to better farmland near Tibet are not much different from America’s policy of moving settlers westward to occupy Indian lands in the 19th century. Is there a Free North Dakota Movement that I can join?

BRIAN J. SHERIDAN

Oceanside