But double standard is something felt by everyone, even those in the non-Western world, but its just in a different area. It may not be in the area of race, like Westerners, but in the area of say, power. Whether it be economic or military.
One only has to look at the reaction of the West when the Chinese puts a satellite into space vs the Russians. The Chinese are viewed with much more suspicion when putting a satellite into space than the Russians.
So, political correctness is felt by all, but just in different areas.
And when you say:
It can’t afford to get uppity.
A more accurate statement would be:
China can't afford to get TOO uppity.
She will be the economic center of Asia, for sure, and to a lesser degree, even the world as she will soon surpass the US in GDP. But this strength can only occur in peace time. Projecting beyond peacetime strength, then you get into an area where other nations can begin to form alliances.
And as you said, China is surrounded by potentially powerful countries, Russia, India, Japan, etc. And they can form alliances in times of war. Not to mention Europe and the US coming on board. The best example of this is during World War II. Germany was and still is the most powerful country in Europe. But when it went into war time mode, all the countries united against her. Today, in peacetime, Germany still carries, quietly, more influence than any other European country, including Russia.
Getting back to Asia and racism, I would say, racism, in the traditional sense, might be a bit strong of a word, though not entirely inaccurate. I would say a better term would be they are cultural centric. Meaning, people in, for exampe, China, would simply see their culture as better than others. And same with Japan, Korea, etc. And their ways better than others while still respecting the individual of others to certain degree. But reserving the right to say things about other cultures or races that would be deemed politically incorrect in the West.
I think we are on the same page, but I slightly disagree with you to a certain extent, because I don’t think the racism is just limited to cultural superiority or thinking that one culture is superior to another, but there is outright de facto and institutionalized racism(jingoism?) as a matter of law and in business.
The cultural stuff I don’t really care about.
I don’t really care about people’s private prejudices or preferences.
For example, I have Chinese friends and I know their families want them to marry other Chinese. I don’t care. And I know every Asian country as the equivalent of the “N word” for white people. And that doesn’t bother me much either.
However, I know as a White American I won’t be treated equally under the law, that I won’t have my contracts enforced, that I will be discriminated against in the justice system and by the bureaucracy, that I have to deal with racism in terms of preferences based exclusively on race and nothing else, that I will never be able to own land, or own 100% of my business without a local partner. I have been cheated just because I was white and I had no recourse. You just have to bite the bullet.
In the US, if Americans did that to any foreigner, even to illegal aliens, they could be sued and lose every penny.
The irony, of course, is that is not exclusively a race thing, because not all Asians are treated equally either(eg Japan and Korea, Thailand and Cambodia, Singapore and Malaysia, China and Vietnam), but it is a more jingoistic characteristic I have seen in every single Asian country, except Singapore, which is basically a Western county with Asian people living there.