In last week’s leader (“Unethical foreign ­policy, 7 December), you propose it to be ­unethical to trade with China without loudly stating that we disapprove of its human-rights record. This implies logically that we should do the same with other countries with ­comparable records. This would include Russia, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Syria, most Gulf states, Israel, Burma, Indonesia, Iraq, Afghanistan and others, in addition to Sri Lanka, Iran and North Korea. How can we influence others to change, if we just piously tell them that they are wrong, rather than building relationships with them and trying to convince them that our way is better? Trade is good for both sides, promotes personal ­contacts and enables us to exert some ­influence, surely a more Christia