Always put youself in the other’s shoes. If you feel that it hurts you, it probably hurts the person too.
This wasn't directed at the Chinese people - it was directed at Wen Jiabao and the Communist Party. If you think of China and the Communist Party as inseparable, that's certainly your choice. But the rest of us know that China pre-existed the Communist Party by thousands of years. And China will probably continue to exist thousands of years after the Communist Party is extinct.
I've learned that many are unable to (especially after so much time on the FR). The very people who are the most ready to string up the Iraqi journalist for throwing his shoes at Bush are the most gleeful about the shoes thrown at Wen Jiabao. It's a peculiar thing about human nature: that one could put a double standard upon someone and not see it as so.