So I've been paying attention to the crap going down in Tibet.  The situation really sucks and my sympathies are definitely with the Tibetan protesters.  The PRC government is idiotic...they think the way to deal with a problem is to suppress it, rather than to just give people what they demand.  For me it's an obvious thing.  Reading around various websites, I find it truly disturbing that there are numerous people - many who are Chinese, and some who are Westerners - who actually take the Chinese government's side.  But the arguments are easy to pick apart.

They think that condemnation against the Chinese government's harsh response in Tibet is somehow an attack against the Chinese race and culture.  They don't understand that the criticism is really about how the Chinese government can treat people like crap then get away with it, whether the people are Han Chinese, Tibetans, etc.

They defend the actions of the Chinese government as being in the interest of social order and stability.  But this just shows that the Chinese government doesn't respect people enough to be stable and orderly on their own.  In contrast, you never hear the US government talk about the American people in such a disdainful and patronizing way.  The Chinese government ultimately views the people as being lesser and lower. 

Then they try to use moral relativism reasoning - "Well, if the US can go into Iraq, then why can't China do whatever it wants?  This is yet another example of Western imperialism blah blah...trying to keep China down blah blah..."  They don't get that in a free nation, the government can be corrected by the people.  You can change your leaders if you don't like the stuff they're doing - which is exactly what happened to many elected officials in the US 2006 midterm election.  It's also going to be a big issue in the 2008 election.  And also, in a free nation like the US, when bad stuff happens, the real truth ALWAYS comes out sooner or later - it never gets suppressed by government controlled media blackouts and the like.

Although there are many aspects of Asian culture that are cool, I think this whole thing highlights a couple of shortcomings in Asian culture which are completely annoying.  I'm allowed to say this because I have an Asian background.  The first shortcoming, I find it troubling that many Chinese, and actually many Asians in general, have this weird mindset that you have to obey your superiors and seek their approval, whether the authority figure is a parent or a government official.  It really is indoctrinated into the culture in many subtle ways, whether they realize it or not.  It leads to a top-down system of authority.  People start defending and making excuses for authority figures, as a way to fit into the status quo in hopes of getting some piece of the pie.  My parents have often said that many Asians have a mentality where they look up to those with money, status, and power, and look down upon the common people. 

The second shortcoming is the total obssession with "order" and "stability", a topic I mentioned above.  It ends up as a cheap way for those at the top to justify any actions imposed upon people who are supposedly their subordinates.  Everything is done in the name of order and stability.  It actually starts in the family setting, where parents feel like they are allowed to force their kids to go into certain careers for the sake of "stability".  On a political level, a government like China's regularly states that it imposes rules and laws for the sake of "stability".  As far as I'm concerned, this way of thinking is backwards.  It ultimately treats the country's people or the family's child as being lower and lesser, and incapable of deciding what's best for themselves.  And I'm not talking about a two-year-old toddler - I'm talking about teenagers, adults, and groups of mature people who can make their own decisions.  The real way of stability is the other way around, where the government listens to the people and the parent listens to the child.  It's just healthier that way.

Hopefully one of these days Asian culture will wake up and become more progressive.  We'll see.