[nashashmi]

Being foreign born myself, I can see this pretty easily. When you have an external enemy outside of this country, the entire country will unite in that cause even in the endeavor to create very powerful weapons. (Think US affinity for nuclear proliferation during the cold war.) Few will pause to think that such weapons will be used against the best of our own people.

And that is the mentality difference between the US and China. US (having no real enemies) citizens see development of these weapons as potentially being used against its own citizens. Whereas Chinese citizens sees these weapons being to protect themselves from external threats.