Little History of Unifying

---

Your paper reported that Chinese President Hu Jintao "has begun to play down China's long-standing vow to recover" Taiwan by force if necessary ["China Easing Its Stance On Taiwan; Tolerance Grows For Status Quo," news story, June 15]. That makes this a good time for Americans to stop referring to China's annexation of Taiwan, as your article does, by the misnomer of "reunification."

The Taiwanese people originally came from a different ethnic group than the Chinese and lived independently of China for more than 1,000 years. Indeed, the Taiwanese were conquered by the Dutch before they were ever conquered by the Chinese, and when Chinese rule finally came, it lasted only 200 years before it was replaced by Japanese rule more than 100 years ago.

China has less historical claim on Taiwan than Russia has on Ukraine -- the historic birthplace of Russian civilization -- and Americans would never endorse Russian annexation of Ukraine by referring to it as "reunification."

-- Richard Joffe

New York

A Hungarian Slighted

---

The headline on the obituary for Gyorgy Ligeti ["Austrian Composer," June 13] was both insensitive and misleading.