In the 1980s and early '90s, Japan seemed poised to overtake the United States. I remember "Japan-bashing", and concern there was too much Japan-bashing. But by and large, there was the sense Japan deserved its success. Their education system was better, it was thought; their people worked harder; we Americans had been caught lazy and short of discipline. One remedy was karate class for your kids.
Whether any of that was true is almost irrelevant. Discipline is a virtue, and karate practice hasn't ruined too many children.
Today we face a similar situation with China, and there is plenty of China-bashing. But I see little concern about the China-bashing and no reflection on why China has been able to do so well.
Instead, we say China is evil. Their government isn't a "democracy", in whatever watery sense of the word. Our own government is supposedly led by a fascist who was elected by a minority of voters, but at least it's democratic. We're told human rights are violated on an industrial scale in