Sinomania!

Less than a year ago a months old protest by unhappy villagers in Dongzhou county, Guangdong Province, China, was ended by police action. As the protesters clashed with riot police, shots were fired and there were fatalities. The news of this incident was quickly broadcast throughout the American press, first by the US Government founded and supported "Radio Free Asia," followed by smaller syndicates of conservative and anti-China newspapers, and then -- days later -- picked up by the major dailies once their Beijing bureau chiefs got confirmation that something had happened (details were always sketchy) and they could be roused from their favorite restaurants and nightclubs.

For days headlines screamed about the horrors of Beijing's "killer cops" and "Tiananmen China." I argued that the riots needed to be seen in a historical perspective as they were economic born, similar to the "Memorial Day Massacre" in Chicago during the Great Depression.

On Friday (October 27) an American journalist from Indymedia.org was killed by Mexican riot police. For days Mexican federal officials with tanks, helicopters, planes, and plain-clothed armed thugs (as opposed to county and provincial level police in the Dongzhou protests) have battled protestors in Oaxaca, Mexico. The riots continue. But where is the widespread condemnation? Where is the outrage about human rights and abuse of state power?

Because Mexico is America's "backyard" (informal colony) their is no protest nor national news stories. Only the hollow echo of a double standard.