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As your correction makes clear, Mao Zedong died in 1979, not 1976 ("From where I sit", 9 July). It is a rather comforting reflection of how much China has changed that your correspondent, Hong Bing, an associate professor at Shanghai's Fudan University, could make such a mistake. When the chairman loomed larger in China's consciousness, everyone would have known when he died, however they felt about him.

Delia Davin, Emeritus professor of Chinese, University of Leeds.