…is that it blinds people to the fact that other people have other values. And so it is with the Chinese single-minded obsession with the economy über alles. From the International Herald Tribune:
[A Chinese political scientist from Tsinghua University] added that Beijing’s leaders were probably also mystified at any suggestion that their policies [in Tibet] have been unfair.
"They think they are doing something right, something good, because they give a lot of financial aid to the Tibetan region," he said.
Speaking of blindness (tone-deafness, actually), how about this quote from Zhang Qingli, Communist Party Secretary of the Tibet "Autonomous" Region:
"The Central Party Committee is the real Buddha for Tibetans."
The State is God. I’d say that’s about a hundred times more offensive than any of the Danish cartoons – and I’m not a Buddhist.