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, and must include your full name and address, plus a phone number for verification. I was recently given an old copy of Life International , dated December 7, 1959, featuring what was a new series on the great cities of the world. Han Suyin wrote about Hong Kong, which had to grapple with a stream of refugees from China and embargoes. Many said Hong Kong was doomed. Here is a short excerpt: “The US placed an embargo on Hong Kong, and it worked both ways: it prohibited Hong Kong from sending goods to China, but it also prohibited Hong Kong from accepting goods from China or North Korea for re-export to the US. That was when the refugees stepped in. ‘Instead of buying these goods from China,’ they said, ‘we shall set up factories and make these things right here in Hong Kong.’ Factories were built.” My take is that history is repeating itself. With its microprocessor and other embargoes against China , the United States hasn’t learned the lessons of history. Its embargoes are futile, China will develop its own advanced technologies and build its own factories, and then the Intels and Microns will have lost considerable market share worldwide. Michel Demuynck, Discovery Bay Hong Kong doesn’t need industrial action As Hong Kong shakes off the shackles of Covid isolation, it is unacceptable that the Cathay Pacific Airways Flight Attendants Union is using this moment to implement its “work-to-rule” industrial action . Their selfishness is reflected in their demands for more rest time and their puerile Facebook post, “Don’t rush me”. Hong Kong needs workers prepared to go the extra mile as we unite in our desire to see our home finding a path back to prosperity. Now is not the time for industrial action against an airline that has stood by Hong Kong through the darkest days of the pandemic. Mark Peaker, The Peak
