With other “authority” figures, it would depend on the situation. I did once bawl out a woman in the hospital in Tianjin that handles foreigners’ health checks because she refused to recognise the health certificate I’d brought from Beijing. I was sent to the director who knew that Beijing certificates have a super-fancy stamp that needs to be held at a certain angle to be seen. Problem solved- and there was no way in hell I was going to redo my health check in that filthy dump of an excuse for a hospital. I’ve stood over my waiban to make necessary repairs to my apartment’s water supply happen faster than “in a few days”. In cases like that I don’t think it is inappropriate to throw a bit of weight around, and I have seen my wife and other Chinese do similar things in similar situations. That’s not disrespect for Chinese people, that’s sticking up for yourself.

I’d certainly never try that on anybody with legal authority, like a cop or customs officer.

You nailed it already, it is the first one (“I subconsciously see the Chinese as being weak and effeminate and easy to dominate”). It happened to many people. It is really because deep down we perceive ourselves superior to the Chinese (it might or might not be racial); because they are considered poorer, weaker, third-worldy. This is actually similar to how western colonists treated people they subjugated a century or two ago. The general attitude of the Chinese actually helps make it worse: They try so hard to court and accommodate foreigners (especially white people) as if the Chinese themselves were second-class citizens, so some foreigners in China (especially the expats) got used to the “I am your bitch” attitude and think this is how they should be dealing with the Chinese.