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The Chinese government, taking a well-deserved break from its exhausting pick-pocketing spree of Pacific islands, has turned to defending its own right to sovereignty: the right, that is, to act like a jerk in the privacy of its own country without suffering the indignity of other countries accusing it of acting like a jerk.

As people outside China’s borders observe the demonstrations rising within them, China is forced to argue with many parts of the world about many things that it thinks it shouldn’t have to talk about at all. Things like whether Hong Kong police are entitled to tear-gas peaceful protesters, and whether those protesters and other citizens are entitled to choose their representatives. But for all their disagreements, Beijing and its sovereignty-hating critics tend to agree on this: the protesters of Hong Kong seek a very particular type of democracy, and it can be calledWestern-style democracy.