The American Spectator

Reader Mail

p> CHINESE FORTUNE br> Re: Doug Bandow's Those Meddlesome ChiComs : /p>

The Chinese Communists think of themselves as appointed by Heaven just as emperors were before Sun Yat Sen. Worse, the ultimate and basic law those Communists will enforce is ex-post facto law: do whatever you think is right and good. If, after the fact, you are wrong, we will tell you and punish you; we, no one else, decide what is right and what is wrong.

No wonder Chinese capitalism never grew much beyond extended family business in the past. The reason for overseas Chinese prowess in economic matters was the completely trustworthy family fiduciary far, far from home base who collected and accounted honestly for the money. In a world where pirates ruled the seas and robbers ruled the trade routes, shipping gold was chancy. Pirates and robbers could not so easily get away with goods, but gold asportation was a chinch.

p>The mixture of Chinese intra-family fiduciary solidarity and English common law, equity, and admiralty in Hong Kong and Singapore worked economic wonders. The Communist ego will not allow complete, effective replacement of the ex-post facto "law" they so love by real, predictable law analogous to what existed in Hong Kong and may still exist in part in Singapore. The dictatorship in the latter may be a precursor to customary Chinese mainland practice. br> -- Nathan Lord /p> p> HANG ON TO YOUR HEALTH br> Re: William Tucker's

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