Compounded error

On my return from a research trip to China, I dutifully read through the accumulated back issues of Times Higher Education. My gratification on seeing that you had published my letter (30 July) correcting the death date given for Chairman Mao was quickly followed by dismay. Your editing reversed the dates I gave, thus making me appear to repeat the original error. May I reiterate, Mao died in 1976, not 1979.

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