Otherwise worldly and intelligent officials and friendly citizens become red with rage when topics such as Tibet and the Dalai Lama, Japan’s wartime record, the Xinjiang riots and Taiwan enter the conversation. In democracies like the USA, debates evolve and governments change. In all my time in China, it was very difficult to have even a civil exchange of views on these topics with anyone in an official position. Differences of opinion on issues such as Tibet and the anti-Japanese war can be transformed in a flash into deep slights against the nation. In the words of Joseph Fewsmith, the US
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