Just curious what your background experience is that causes you to take this stance that they are not all brain-washed automatons? Is this based on Mainland Chinese you've met in the US? Or in Mainland China?
When the Soviet Union collapsed and China became the last political power playing on the same level as the US.
You'd think that after all the recorded historical examples of populations being duped into believing some other group of people is subhuman - countless cases since the Ancient Rome to the XX century, all of them discussed on history lessons in western schools - you'd think people would be less willing to accept another round of the same propaganda classifying a whole society as inferior. It's sad that we still can't avoid that trap.
I've been to China and met Chinese people. They're normal. People, like everyone else, with problems like everyone else, with dreams and fears and passions, like everyone else.
Since when does progressivism mean "try to understand and respect other cultures, except the Chinese, fuck them"? When did that last part get added?