Editor:
The university's name has been dragged through the mud as a result of the shameful offer of an honorary doctorate to Chinese president Jiang Zemin. The fact that the Chinese government has chosen to drop the political hot potato does not mean that the university community should let the matter rest.
Dr. David Strong is reported by The Globe and Mail (Aug. 28) to have claimed that the decision to honour Jiang was a sign of "our support for the accelerating pace of reform in China." Reform of what? Obviously not reform of China's human rights record, which remains lamentable, but reform of China's economic system in the direction of full blown capitalism.
What mandate do Dr. Strong and the Senate have to exploit the University of Victoria's name in the service of economic ideology? The proffered excuse, that doing business with China will foster human rights reform, is pathetic and can only lead most people to believe it is simply a cynical cover for getting on with making money. The situation in China today recalls the final scene of Orwell's Animal Farm, where it has become impossible to distinguish the self-appointed leaders of the revolution from the old-fashioned (capitalist) rulers &endash; and democracy be damned.
UVic's China fiasco should have at least one positive result: it should help focus the minds of students and faculty members on the increasing threat to education by commercial interests.
Angus Taylor, Department of Philosophy