A lot of people thought -- hoped, really -- that the Asian economic crisis would end all that nonsense about "Asian values." The region's stumbles were supposed to have proven once and for all that the supposedly "unique" features of Asian capitalism were the cause of the sickening lurch in 1997. Suitably chastened and a whole lot poorer, Asian leaders would turn their backs on the idea that there are distinctive forms of capitalism and that culture has any real role to play in economic development. (Funny, but when you put it like that, the notion of "Asian values" doesn't sound quite so absurd.)
Much to the distress of the cheerleaders for the Anglo-Saxon version of the market economy and all its cultural baggage, the "Asian values" corpse refuses to stay dead.
Unrepentant leaders in Asia cling to the idea that they can have capitalism on their own terms. They dare to claim that their economies and politics should conform to their own histories and societies. The nerve.