China's amazing advance

AS a socialist and serious 1,500m athlete, I feel compelled to respond to Mr Marais's one-sided and inaccurate letter about China and the Beijing Olympics (M Star August 17).

According to the latest UN figures, China has lifted more people out of poverty per person and per capita than any other country in the history of the world.

Under the constitution, the Chinese government forced Wal-Mart to give trade union recognition to its entire workforce or face expulsion from operating in the country. Wal-Mart does not have to adhere to such demands anywhere else in the world, including the UK.

The Chinese government plays an extremely active role in regulating the market within its borders and, internationally, it seeks to build a reputation through trade and co-operation rather than bloody imperialist invasions.

China faces enormous challenges in the future and has and will continue to make mistakes in some circumstances.

But China has to be put in its proper context. Its human rights record and social development must be compared with other similar developing nations such as India or, in industrial development terms, 19th century Britain, where the working class suffered appallingly and the slave trade cost 10 million African lives.

As for comparing Beijing 2008 with the Olympics in nazi Germany in 1936, one of my heroes Jesse Owens won four gold medals, proving Hitler's racist ideology wrong and ensuring that no other athlete would have to go through that level of discrimination again.

The Olympic ideals are socialist and Beijing 2008 gives me, a working-class athlete, great inspiration to make the GB team in 2012. In the fullness of time, history will mark Beijing 2008 as the people's games.

JOHN MILLINGTON
Wolverhampton