Voluntary hordes
Sir: Paul Johnson is wrong to say (And another thing, 5 June) that the Chinese government is kept in power by a conscript army. The People's Liberation Army is composed entirely of volunteers. When times are hard — and times are always hard somewhere in China — the number of vol- unteers greatly exceeds the recruiting quota.
This invalidates Mr Johnson's thesis that a world-wide ban on conscription might make the world safer. For, as he correctly observes in an earlier piece (22 May), the greatest threat to the serenity of the world over the next couple of decades will be China. I have helped to educate the coming generation of Chinese leaders, and interna- tional harmony is the last thing on their minds. The first is the 'recovery' of Outer Mongolia, regarded by all Chinese including dissidents, anti-communists and the Kuomintang rump on Taiwan — as Chinese territory unjustly alienated from the Motherland. But the troops who invade Mongolia, some time around the end of this decade, will be volunteers.
John Derbyshire
15 Chestnut Street, Huntington, NY, USA
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