Can anyone seriously argue that Chinese treatment of Tibetans, who have not been subject to either genocide or ethnic cleansing and of whom the vast majority continue to live on their ancestral lands, compares unfavourably with the treatment accorded to Native Americans by the European settlers in North America or the treatment accorded (and continuing to be accorded) to the indigenous Palestinians by Zionist settlers in Palestine?

Can anyone seriously argue that it is even in the same league of evil and injustice?

Furthermore, how reasonable is it to hold China responsible for the human suffering resulting from multiple separatist insurgencies and governmental counterinsurgency measures in the Darfur region of Sudan (because China invests in Sudan's oil industry?) while not holding America and its Western collaborators responsible for the far worse human suffering resulting from America's invasions and occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq and America's unconditional financial and diplomatic support for Israel's occupation of Palestine?

If the Chinese feel that the current anti-Chinese frenzy in the West has its roots in jealousy at China's 12 per cent annual economic growth rate and its increasing success in all aspects of world affairs, seasoned with ample doses of racism and hypocrisy, this would not be an irrational appreciation of the situation.

At least with respect to its role in world affairs, China has proven a rather gentle and benign dragon in recent decades, focussed on improving the economic conditions and quality of life of its people rather than on military aggression or full-spectrum domination over mankind and the planet, even while its strength and potential power have been growing exponentially.

Seeking personal emotional satisfaction or domestic political advantage by gratuitously sticking pins in the Chinese dragon is unlikely to prove a wise course of action.

Hypocrisy Over Tibet