To those who smugly scorn China's relative poverty (eg a spoof apology that China is a third-world economy, another apology for America taking China seriously for the past 20 years), and who think a solution is to boycott Chinese exports:

In my own travelling in the states (California, Oregon, Illinois, Alaska) I was sometimes in stores where it was impossible to find goods that had not been made in China. In other words, cheap Chinese labour is funding the American way of life. I am delighted that this is so. It means the Chinese economy is expanding at a phenomenal rate, while the US economy is languishing at best. This is good, because in its own tiny way it will help reduce the disparity between a rich nation and a poor nation. And for all that Mousethief and others think America can pull China into line just by exerting economic pressure, it ain't so any more. America's trade with China is massive, and the benefits go both ways. It can't be turned off at will.

Someone questioned the value of apologies by citing (inter alia) British appeasement of Hitler. That line itself is open to question. Although my heart is nearer communism than fascism, I am aware with hindsight that the Soviet Union was not communism, and I am coming to think (again with hindsight) that Britain might have appeased Hitler further, even joining forces with Hitler against the USSR. Under that scenario there would be millions of Jews in Madagascar now, but at least they would not have been gassed. Europe would have been spared much devastation, America would not have become the pre-eminent world power, and would not have reaped the benefit of European science in weapons research etc. And of course, many millions of Russians would not have died at Stalingrad etc.