CHINESE DISCOVERED AMERICA BEFORE COLUMBUS?

[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4609074.stm|An article] I stumbled across last week at News.BBC.co.uk reports on a 1763 copy of a map first drawn in 1418. The catch? It's from China and it includes the Americas-- and Africa and even Europe, though the UK is missing :)

The idea is that this Chinese admiral guy (who was also a eunuch--don't know why that's relevant) is said to have discovered America first.

The map still needs to be carbon-dated to make sure it's acurate, but it's still interesting. What's also interesting is how the article ends:

But for some, this would still not make the Chinese admiral the first modern discoverer of the Americas, as they believe that Viking Leif Eriksson sailed to north America in the year 1000.

I LOVE that--the first "modern" discoverer? 1000 AD is your idea of "modern," Mr. or Ms. BBC News person?

When are we going to WAKE up and admit that the Native Americans were the first to discover the Americas???

Why must we cling to this idea that the Americas were discovered at all? All using the word "discover" does is further dilute the claim that Native Americans had for the land before us white folks got here.

Another important thing to note here is that while we Europeans saw the "primitives" and exploited them to death (quite literally) the Chinese and even the vikings did not. Granted, the vikings are European, too, but I don't think they, or the Chinese had capitalism driving them.