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Letters

Feel strongly about these letters, or any other aspects of the news? Share your views by emailing us your Letter to the Editor at letters@scmp.com or filling in this Google form. Submissions should not exceed 400 words.
In May 1979, while editing the Econoscope business page at the Deccan Chronicle in Hyderabad, I accepted an offer to join the newsroom of The Star, Hong Kong, that June.
Landing in the city at that exact juncture placed me at the literal crossroads of modern economic history. Across the border, Deng Xiaoping was taking up the reins of leadership and initiating the historic “reform and opening-up” policy.
Over the ensuing years, working as a journalist across The Star, the South China Morning Post, Hongkong Standard and The Asian Wall Street Journal, I had a ringside seat to the most consequential economic metamorphosis of our era.
Deng’s brilliance was never rooted in abstract ideological dogma; it was forged in radical operational pragmatism. Inheriting an economy constrained by decades of rigidity, he cut through paralysis with unapologetic clarity: “It does not matter whether a cat is black or white, as long as it catches mice.”
Living and reporting in Hong Kong, I found the commercial dynamism impossible to ignore. Just a year after arriving, I launched a home-based business-to-business trade venture, balancing full-time journalism for eight years before dedicating a subsequent decade entirely to global exporting and merchant manufacturing. It was a lived education in the cross-border revolution Deng orchestrated.
Deng understood that Hong Kong’s common law system, institutional agility and free capital markets made it the irreplaceable bridge between mainland production lines and international buyers.
By designating Shenzhen as China’s first special economic zone in 1980, he created an unprecedented engine for foreign direct investment and export-driven manufacturing. When bureaucratic inertia threatened to stall market reforms years later, his historic 1992 southern tour reaffirmed that economic development was the only hard truth, permanently embedding private enterprise into the national fabric.
Grounded in the conviction that practice is the sole criterion for testing truth, his policies helped lift over 800 million citizens out of extreme poverty and forge the modern global supply chain.
By the late 1990s, the arrival of the commercial internet began disintermediating traditional trade intermediaries, marking the end of an era. Having secured financial independence, I stepped away from manufacturing, but the foundational principles of that epoch remained permanent.
Nearly five decades after my arrival coincided with Deng’s ascent, the global economy stands at another vital inflection point – navigating artificial intelligence, localised micro-manufacturing and decentralised supply corridors.
As we mark Deng’s birth anniversary this August 22, his core philosophy remains as urgent as ever: pragmatic adaptability, decisive execution and verifiable outcomes will always outstrip procedural dogma.
Jawaharlal Panjabi, Tai Kok Tsui
Don’t let dog-related incidents derail pet-friendly push
It is deeply saddening to hear about the recent dog-related incidents in Hong Kong (“Unleashed 60kg dog runs amok, fatally mauls poodle, bichon frise in Hong Kong”, August 17, “Woman found dead in Hong Kong after dog mauling”, August 20). The timing of these two events, occurring in the wake of a major shift in public policy allowing dogs in restaurants, is unfortunate.
In the last decade or so, we have seen significant expansion of pet-friendly public places (for example, dog parks), increased availability of public transport options for people travelling with their pets (light rail on weekends and KMB’s pet-friendly bus scheme), and more shopping malls that allow dogs. The implementation of the new policy allowing dogs to enter permitted food premises renewed public interest in our furry companions and highlights how much further we must go as a society to become truly “dog friendly”.
The two recent incidents provide additional ammunition for people who dislike pets, some of whom have filed baseless reports to the government about hygiene issues at permitted food premises. Amid this emerging social divide between pet lovers and haters, we must remind ourselves that these two incidents are isolated, unrelated events that should not undermine our society’s progress towards becoming more pet-friendly.
Dogs and cats are important companions for numerous people, and we should acknowledge their importance and respect their rights. Having said that, I would like to see more effort to promote responsible pet ownership, which would hopefully reduce pet abandonment, and a shift away from the obsession with purebreds, many of which are not suitable for inexperienced owners living in relatively small flats.
Anthony Lau, Tuen Mun


AI can make China’s political language sound more threatening, scholar warns

Deng Xiaoping’s philosophy worth recalling in a global economy in transition

As China deepens reforms, Zhu Rongji’s legacy serves as an inspiration

Zhu Rongji: reformer who led China’s economic transformation through ‘minefield or abyss’

Deng Xiaoping

A photograph of Deng Xiaoping during his southern tour in 1992 is projected on a large screen during a performance celebrating the centenary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, at the National Stadium, in Beijing, China, on June 28, 2021. Photo: Simon Song

Reinventing Hong Kong does not require amnesia

An event marking the 105th anniversary of the Communist Party of China is shown live on television in a cha chaan teng in Wan Chai on July 1. When people value a cha chaan teng, wet market or familiar streetscape, they may not be rejecting what Hong Kong is becoming. They may simply be trying to preserve some continuity with what came before. Photo: Karma Lo

As China shows, liberal capitalism is not the only path

A visitor to the World Robot Conference in Beijing touches a humanoid robot on display, on August 19. Photo: China News Service via Getty Images

Apple CEO Tim Cook and Tesla CEO Elon Musk among the party at the welcome ceremony for US President Donald Trump by Chinese President Xi Jinping, at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, on May 14. Photo: EPA

Why China’s political and industrial systems work better than the US

A giant screen shows news footage of Chinese President Xi Jinping shaking hands with DeepSeek founder Liang Wenfeng during a symposium on private enterprise, at a shopping complex in Beijing on February 17, 2025. China’s treatment of its billionaire class differs from the United States’. Photo: Reuters

Tech billionaire Elon Musk looks around ahead of the US president’s inauguration in the Capitol Rotunda in Washington on January 20, 2025. Photo: AFP

Apple CEO Tim Cook and singer Li Yuchun attend an event marking Apple’s 50th anniversary at the Apple Taikoo Li Chengdu store on March 18 in Chengdu, Sichuan province. Over decades, the US outsourced its industrial capacities, as American companies optimised for the next quarter. Photo: VCG via Getty Images

Little surprise Beijing doesn’t want Western advice for its economy

An AI-themed bar in Beijing's tech district, Zhongguancun, pictured on August 9. Beijing’s priority is to build capabilities it believes will determine whether China remains vulnerable or becomes strategically resilient. Photo: AFP

Workers prepare Haier air conditioners to be shipped to Europe, at a warehouse in Jiaozhou, Shandong province, on August 4. China’s swelling trade surplus has intensified pushback from the West. Photo: Xinhua

Opinion

Readers remember the late Chinese leader’s contributions on his birth anniversary, and reflect on recent dog-related incidents


Readers remember the late Chinese leader’s contributions on his birth anniversary, and reflect on recent dog-related incidents.


.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Readers remember the late Chinese leader’s contributions on his birth anniversary, and reflect on recent dog-related incidents

Readers remember the late Chinese leader’s contributions on his birth anniversary, and reflect on recent dog-related incidents