I think if you asked a protestor, he'd tell you that the Chinese need to show Tibet "cultural sensitivity" before he starts caring about showing the Chinese any.
Well, I'm sure that that's how the violent protesters saw their actions.
It's a typically Western POV- "I, the individual, wish to register my protest against the Government of another State, and my actions are therefore moral, if not legal."
In China, that comes across as anarchy, which is the one thing that almost everybody in China has a great fear of.
You've gotta understand, people... the Chinese culture has a deep-seated fear of anarchy, because of its roots in rice-planting culture and collective behavior, their experience under the European colonial powers and the Opium War disasters, and of course their constant struggles with their peasant farmers, who are gradually being squeezed in various ways, and often are on the edge of rebellion.
China has dozens of internal confrontations a month, between mainly peasant folks who are getting uprooted economically by the changes taking place, and the Chinese authorities, who are hoping that the wealth spreads downhill, fast.
China's small middle class, which knows its survival depends on the generational changes being made, is very scared about anything that might set off another horrific revolution. Remember, while they're still "Communists" in theory, in reality, most of the educated folks realize that Communism was a giant failure... but changing to a more capital/socialist dynamic is very hard.
The protests would have been far more effective if the protesters had silently lined the streets, and at a signal said some slogan, while otherwise appearing composed and orderly, or by building a monument to the Tibetan cause, or by going on hunger strikes, or by signing their name onto a giant banner, etc., etc., etc. Violent actions by a few, countenanced by the many, sends exactly the wrong signals to the Chinese, because in their culture, if you're going to be violent, you'd better have collective opinion on your side. The countries that let this happen without really doing much about it (France really took the cake on this, imo) just paint all of the West in the worst light, as barbarians who just happen to have the best weapons.
Here in the West, we celebrate individuals, like Dr. Martin Luther King, for standing up in front of huge protests and giving awesome speeches. In China, Dr. King would probably antagonize most people, and if he gained any followers, they'd be locked up anyhow. I think it's fascinating that so few people over here realize that the Chinese are much more worried about movements like Falun Gong, which is designed to create change through social activity, instead of confrontation... those kinds of thing have a great deal more impact on their culture.
