"I guess my point in all this is that we really don't know what...

"I guess my point in all this is that we really don't know what is good or bad for the Chinese and we keep looking at the Chinese through our western eyes and using western paradigms to make us feel good about ourselves"

Mate - those days are well and truely over - we have aussie chinese, aussie's who speak and who have lived in China for many years etc ... Japan, Middle east etc you name it - Australia has experience ! This old cliche of "the West don't understand us " is a cop out !!! and an easy way to get one's own way !! Cultural differences are most definitely there !! but don't understand - well maybe 30 years ago - not now !!