Too soft on China  Shame on Benita Ferrero-Waldner and Peter Mandelson for calling to reframe the EU-China trade relationship without criticizing Beijing's stepped-up detention and conviction of Chinese lawyers and writers tackling China's endemic corruption, pollution and property theft ("A new way to do business with China," Views, Oct. 23).  President Hu Jintao's selective powerplay against Mayor Chen Liangyu of Shanghai only underlines Beijing's usual wink-and-nod at corrupt cronies not challenging central authority.  For EU officials to ignore the worsening repression of China's home-grown conscience is just the same old way to profit from China. Dinah Lee Küng St. Cergue, Switzerland The UN and religion  Regarding the article "You gotta have faith at the UN," by Azza Karam and Matthew Weiner (Views, Oct. 24): While it is technically true that the United Nations lacks a comprehensive strategy for understanding and engaging religion, it should be reminded that there is no legislative vacuum in the field.  On Nov. 9, 2001 the UN General Assembly adopted by consensus a Global Agenda for Dialogue among Civilizations. It emphasized the need to respect the richness of all civilizations and to seek common ground among them in order to address comprehensively common challenges facing humanity. It called upon all states to exert their utmost efforts to ensure that religious sites are fully respected and protected. Ioan Voicu, Bangkok The best man for the job  Your news story "As angst over Iraq grows, so do reassurances from White House" (Oct. 24) states that President George W. Bush gave the Iraqi prime minister, Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, "assurances that the United States had no plan to remove him."  How could it be otherwise? Didn't the White House trumpet the prime minister's selection as a triumph of democracy? Isn't Iraq a sovereign state, not to be undermined by a foreign power?  Just what criteria for democracy does Bush have in mind for that part of the world? "Do a bad job and we throw you out"? By that measure, he himself might be removed from office. William Lyon, Madrid Muslims in Britain  Your report "A glimpse of limits to tolerance" (Oct. 23) puzzled me. "To be accepted," the article says of Muslims in Britain, "they need to assert their presence, yet in doing so, they fall afoul of pressures to conform to the standards of the non-Muslim majority."  I am an Englishman living in France. Should I assert myself by refusing to comply with the laws and conventions of the French state? Should I assert myself by wearing a pin-striped suit with bowler hat and carry a furled umbrella at all times?  Should I assert myself by refusing to speak to the majority population, even to exchange "Bonjour"? Should I assert myself by demanding that the French state, and the vast majority of the French people, change in any way I demand?  Of course not! I have adapted to France and the way of life of the vast majority of French people. If I could not do that I should have got out of France years ago. David Keen Courseulles-sur-Mer, France To the voting machines  America's election organizers don't seem to know that wise old saying about stopping digging when you're in a hole ("America braces for chaos in voting," Oct. 20).  While they struggle to make electronic voting machines work, here in Britain voters use a pencil to mark an "X" on a paper ballot. Teams of volunteers count these by hand at the precinct on election night and by bedtime we know the outcome of a national election.  Apart from pumping public money into the coffers of voting-machine manufacturers, it's hard to see the benefits of the high-tech alternative. Dan Thisdell, Egham, England