Letter: View of China

It is time for journalists to consider the US relationship with China in the late 1940s when the media and politicians were as one in proclaiming the Nationalists as the only viable government for China. The dissenting voices then, as now, were the sinologists in the State Department. Unfortunately their analysis that the Nationalists were corrupt went against the prevailing mood, their warnings were ignored and most saw their careers destroyed during the McCarthy era after being condemned as communist sympathisers.

The review of Jonathan Dimbleby's book The Last Governor: Chris Patten and the handover of Hong Kong should not have been used as yet another opportunity to bash the Foreign Office ("Dictator of democracy", Review, 27 July). The handling of Hong Kong is now a matter for history to judge. It may yet vindicate another set of China hands.

LK Tan

Portsmouth, Hampshire