The riot by Chinese students in downtown Seoul is over, and now the consequences are coming out: the students will, indeed, be deported (hat tip to the Marmot).
As many, many Chinese (including a commenter on this site) has pointed out, the tactics of the kids might have been overboard, but they do love their country. I sympathize. Mass deportations are hard to swallow.
You can love your country like you love your wife, but if she talks you into killing her rival at work, you gotta go to jail. And if you riot in another country's capital freakin' city, you gotta get your butt sent home.
Unfortunately, this looks like it's playing itself out across the world. Patriotic Chinese, the sons and daughters of an elite who can send them abroad, who have been educated strictly according to the party line, who have never seen examples of peaceful civil disobedience, are finding out the hard way what the world really thinks about the Chinese government, and now about the Chinese people.
Trying not to look down my nose on a 1.3 billion people, I will say that this is about political maturity, and it's something most countries have to go through. The US went through it during the civil rights era. India went through it during colonialism. Korea went through it before the 1988 Olympics, and is probably still working through it (they do play rough over there). Maturity comes as protesters are shown the consequences of their actions.
And given that South Korea is a much smaller country very uncomfortably close to China, and far away from its only ally, a firm response is probably necessary to keep them from opening themselves to more abuse from angry Chinese kids.
The kids will learn, eventually. But only if they're punished.
A full freakin' novel!
