The Star Trek Ethnic Stereotype Equivalency Guide by hatless is onto something, but why waste your time critiquing Star Trek when it's being effectively killed off by Paramount? Let's talk about George Lucas, since his work is still attracting new viewers.
Star Wars, far more than Star Trek, puts aliens in roles that once belonged to non-European humans. On the other hand, Lucas is consciously trying to emulate the fell of old movie serials--so it isn't surprising that their character types show up. Sure, the bad guys in Phantom Menance sound like Japanese from old movies about World War II--but then, the Imperial bad guys from the first trilogy sound like Germans from WWII movies (that is, they have British accents). So really, Lucas is just following the conventions of his genre. The same logic explains Jar-Jar Binks. (By the way, people, how do you expect Everything to become sentient if you talk about Jar-Jar without linking him to stereotyping?)