I think both sides feel vaguely insulted

From a New York Times article about black Republican Senate candidate Michael Steele:

Joe Trippi [a Democratic political consultant] paints a sort of developing nightmare for his party. "The Republicans are like the Chinese — they think in terms of like a 50-year plan," Trippi, who was an architect of Howard Dean's 2004 presidential campaign, told me. "Their goal is permanent realignment. What we have in Maryland is a national strategy against a party that is not strategizing at all."

I'm not sure who'd be more outraged - Republicans being likened to the Chinese, or the Chinese being related to the party of Lincoln.