Up-side

IT is ironic that China protests US President Bill Clinton's private chat with His Holiness the Dalai Lama - in the latter's capacity as a religious leader - as a gross interference in China's internal affairs.

The irony is that on the same day, the South China Morning Post reported that PRC-owned businesses and agencies here had issued to their staff lists of which people to vote for in last Sunday's Legislative Council elections (which will, of course, be null and void come July 1, 1997).

The up-side is that no one can accuse the West of having a monopoly on double standards.

DAVID O'REAR Mid-Levels