IS there not something extremely distasteful in the sight of senior members of the Hong Kong Government pleading in Washington for the US Government to renew China's Most Favoured Nation (MFN) trade status, regardless of China's dismal human rights record? We are all aware that the economic consequences of failure to renew will be harmful to Hong Kong. Nevertheless, at a time when China has just dismayed Hong Kong's people by making its contempt for press freedom clear, to give the impression that human rights are of secondary significance to Hong Kong will send exactly the wrong message to Beijing. RODERICK A. PARKES New Territories
