Dear Editor:
I was very concerned at a serious factual error in your article in the May (Overseas) issue. Quote: "there have been no reports thus far of use of MDMA leading to addiction or death." There have been masses of reports of Ecstasy-related death in the British press including controversial pictures of dead teenagers, having apparently died horrible deaths. There are also some similar stories from the USA, as I can see from a simple search for 'ecstasy death' on Google.
Perhaps the most balanced, unsensational article I found is this one: http://www.erowid.org/archive/hyperreal/drugs/mdma/ecstasy.and. death, which puts the number of deaths in perspective, compared with the risk of death from other activities such as skiing. Nevertheless it is completely beyond question that there are dangers in using Ecstasy, and for your article to say 'no reports of death' is an amazingly basic error of fact. It's not at all what I expect from your normally excellent magazine, and a potentially dangerous error, as many people will look to it as an authoritative source from which to learn.
Editor's reply:
Thank you for clearing up this important point. In fact, when we wrote the article in question, no MDMA addictions or fatalities had yet been reported in Taiwan. But then in July 2001 (after the article was published), the emergency room at Taiwan University Hospital announced Taiwan's first Ecstasy-induced fatality. Everyone needs to be aware that Ecstasy can be lethal, and we wish to apologize to our readers for not emphasizing this.
Correction: On page 73 of the November overseas edition (October domestic edition), the English translation says that technology from Thunder Tiger "will be applied to the production of as many as 200,000 notebook computers a year." This should have read "200,000 notebook computers per month." We apologize for the mistranslation from the Chinese.
Second-track contacts
Liu Keqin, USA (tr. by David Mayer)
Dear Editor:
I was really excited about what I learned from the latest issue of Sinorama. I've always been very concerned about matters related to China ever since leaving Hong Kong for the United States many years ago, and was quite upset about China's brusque treatment of Lin Hsin-i, Taipei's Minister of Economic Affairs, at the recent APEC proceedings. But when I read your report on second-track contacts between Taipei and Beijing, I was greatly heartened to learn that there are so many people working quietly behind the scenes to further the cause of cross-strait peace. I especially liked what Dr. Thomas A. Metzger said: "In cross-strait relations, Taiwan is like a psychiatrist and the PRC is the one in therapy." I believe that people can recover from their illnesses, and doctors must do everything they can to help it happen. I often see the second track mentioned in newspaper reports, but I never knew what the term referred to until I read your article. All the scholars that you interviewed are very important people in the US. I think you should do more reporting of this sort. For example, you could report on the attitudes and policies of Japan, which has very close ties with Taiwan, concerning cross-strait relations. And you haven't covered Hong Kong at all since it reverted to China in 1997. I'd like to see you pay more attention to Hong Kong, and I'm sure many other readers would too.
