China And India

Re "Anti-NATO Axis Could Pose Threat," Sept. 27: What astounds me is that your reporters were unable to find even one "expert" who thought a potential alliance among Russia, China and India might be a good thing. If 2.5 billion people, many of whom live with crushing poverty, can ally to improve their standard of living, isn't that good? These nations have a desperate need for infrastructure and other productive investment. That strikes me as an opportunity. They have millions of children crying out to be educated.

U.S. foreign affairs specialists are monitoring the potential for increased cooperation between Russia, China and India, amid a growing conviction in all three countries, especially after NATO's bombing campaign against Yugoslavia, that U.S. power must somehow be checked. Although agreeing that the three nations are far from coalescing into a pan-Eurasian, anti-NATO axis, the analysts remain concerned about what they call a nightmare scenario: an alliance that would bring together about 2.

Fifty years ago this week, the Indian subcontinent broke its colonial chains with Britain, forming the nations of India and Pakistan. India, crippled by partition and poverty, chose a democratic path to the future. "Long years ago, we made a tryst with destiny," Indian leader Jawaharlal Nehru said in a speech on the eve of independence, Aug. 14, 1947, "and now the time comes when we shall redeem our pledge.

Will gum chewing, a staple for American kids and the bane of schoolteachers and floor-cleaners everywhere, take off in relatively gum-free places such as China, India and Vietnam? Wrigley thinks so. Wm. Wrigley Jr. Co., whose name is synonymous with chewing gum, is already selling Double Mint and Juicy Fruit in over 120 countries outside the United States. In fact, the Chicago-based company gets just over half of its sales volume from international markets.

Several times over the past few years, pregnant friends, fresh from ultrasound appointments or prenatal tests, have phoned or e-mailed with the news: It's a girl! Their joy was palpable--no exasperating, testosterone-pumping, car-insurance-raising boys. Of course, they would have loved a boy, but there was something especially wonderful about a girl.

Chinese Premier Li Peng arrives here Wednesday for a six-day visit that is likely to further promote growing contacts between the world's two most populous nations. Li is due to hold talks with Indian Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao and other officials on a variety of issues, including the two nations' disputed Himalayan border.

China and India will open talks here today on their long-running border dispute, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said Thursday. A spokesman said the five-day talks will involve vice foreign ministers of the two countries and a joint working group on the boundary question. China and India fought a war over the dispute in 1962.

As the 20th Century enters its last decade, there will be numerous publications that will attempt to review and evaluate the century from many different vantage points. Even for specialists examining a narrow theme the task will be formidable. No other century in the history of mankind has witnessed such dramatic and revolutionary changes in science and technology with such far-reaching consequences as has the 20th. Even in the area of political history, which is the broad subject of William Pfaff's book, events seem to develop so rapidly that one has sometimes to revise one's opinion from day to day. Witness the recent happenings in the Soviet Union and China.