IT WAS 'PUBLIC Morality Day' in China on 20 September, and The People's Daily, the Communist Party's mouthpiece, extolled what it described as a new, nationwide enthusiasm for clean and civilised language, the elimination of bad habits and the prevention of public disease.

In Taiwan, no less weighty matters brought people out onto the streets. Separate protests were staged outside the presidential palace in Taipei by those who advocated and those who opposed the idea that the government should change the island's name from 'the Republic of China' - a moniker sacred to