Letter: How to stop China invading

Sir: There are easier ways for the US to "Keep China in check" (leading article, 18 March) than sending a carrier group through the Taiwan straits - for example a little pressure on President Lee to dissuade him from pushing the cause of Taiwan's sovereign independence.

What Peking is trying to do is escape having to implement its longstanding commitment to use force if nothing else will deter Taiwan from what it sees as secession. The Chinese government will acquiesce indefinitely in Taiwan's de facto independence but its internal compulsions would not allow it to "stand idly by" if Taiwan made its independence de jure.

Neville Maxwell

Oxford