Regarding Brahma Chellaney's Jan. 6 article, "China wants it both ways": It saddens people like me of Indian descent to see people like Chellaney write as if they were clinging to feelings of "brown-man inferiority" long after the fall of colonialism and the decline of the British Empire.
The Chinese have lived up to their reputation as wily Orientals. Although the Chinese also suffered from exploitative Western and developed countries — whose current economic foundation was built with colonial wealth plundered from victims — they have moved on and learned from the West. They are now beating the West at the West's own game by having it both ways, using their own leverage. But unlike the West, they are not stealing from anyone.
People like Chellaney seem to think that unschooled and barefoot Indian and Chinese peasants have no right to a better life. His ideas are as outdated as his Western counterparts'.
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