Archaeological Nationalism

Another fossil discovery in China, of a jaw that looks sort of like a Neanderthal's and sort of like a modern humans, triggers more claims by Chinese archaeologists that modern humans originated in East Asia. That nobody outside China takes these claims at all seriously only seems to encourage the Chinese. There are also Russian archaeologists who insist that modern humans arose in Siberia. The whole business is a reminder of how much what even experts see is determined by what they want to believe.