What consistently frustrates your correspondent is the presence of the Taiwanese flag among the flag of nations in my school's dining hall, and the representation of that same flag whenever we parade national flags. I would not protest if the flag were the Chinese-Taipei flag that is internationally recognized both by the UN, the WTO, and the Olympics.

But this is the Kuomintang flag which flies in the hearts of Taiwanese nationalists and separatists.

What bothers me most is the hypocrisy. Many of the administrators and faculty at this school berate President Bush for, among other things, violating international law in invading Iraq, protesting that he did not have UN sanction. The school and her faculty seem equally selective as Mr Bush when selecting which laws to follow. America wants her trading partners in Africa to lower all trade barriers while the US subsidizes her farmers; my school wants the United States to act multilaterally, while deciding - quite unilaterally and in utter violation of international law - that Taiwan ought to be recognized as a sovereign state.

Accusing me of projecting my political values is a logical fallacy. My political values are unimportant: I'm not advocating anything at all. I am merely pointing out that the Academy ought to follow international law as it proposes others do. I am also pointing out that the Academy need not follow international law if it does not criticize, quite rightly and justly, those who break international law in a high profile manner. Acting as the law prescribes should be the norm, high profile or not.

Civil disobedience requires the protestor to actively denounce the law as unjust, not apply it to certain scenarios and not to others. Mr Bush should have either respected Iraq's sovereignty or he shouldn't have; civil disobedience is NOT saying that Bush must respect Iraqi sovereignty while violating China's sovereignty by supporting rebellious movements. The law is either wholly unjust or it isn't; one does not deny jobs to people with purple skin while denouncing discrimination against blacks.

Hypocrisy at the state level is expected and unfortunately a part of foreign policy. One expects more from an educational institution.