I think it's important to understand the Chinese perspective on this issue, if only to see why they do these things. Start with this: http://www.nytimes.com/20

I think it's important to understand the Chinese perspective on this issue, if only to see why they do these things. Start with this: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/15/world/15aid.html?pagewanted=all http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/15/world/15aid.html?pagewante... U.S. Groups Helped Nurture Arab Uprisings Even as the United States poured billions of dollars into foreign military programs and anti-terrorism campaigns, a small core of American government-financed organizations were promoting democracy in authoritarian Arab states. ... The United States’ democracy-building campaigns played a bigger role in fomenting protests than was previously known, with key leaders of the movements having been trained by the Americans in campaigning, organizing through new media tools and monitoring elections. ... Today the work of these groups is among the reasons that governments in turmoil claim that Western meddling was behind the uprisings, with some officials noting that leaders like Ms. Qadhi were trained and financed by the United States. Diplomatic cables report how American officials frequently assured skeptical governments that the training was aimed at reform, not promoting revolutions. and then this: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703560404576188981829658442.html http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405274870356040457618... Is China Next? Over the course of three short months, popular uprisings have toppled regimes in Tunisia and Egypt, sparked a civil war in Libya and created unrest in other parts of the Middle East. They also have raised a question in many people's minds: Are all authoritarian regimes now threatened by this new democratic wave? In particular, is China, a rising superpower, vulnerable to these forces? Whether or not you believe the Arab Spring actually resulted in good outcomes, the salient fact is that US funded groups started the revolutions and prominent neocons (like Fukuyama in that WSJ article) were/are calling for similar actions in China. This is why the Chinese government feels that it is under attack by the United States, and it does not see a line between NGOs, the NYT/WSJ, and the US government, which they believe are working in concert to discredit their leaders and foment violent revolution in the name of democracy, as they did in the Middle East. Is this paranoid? Well, it's now hard to gainsay the USG/NGO connection given those articles, and in general even the NYT does tend to side with the USG against China or Arab regimes (most famously with Judith Miller). From this worldview, China thinks of this as a conflict between one of their intelligence agencies and one of ours. It's not obvious that they are wrong in that assessment.