China’s protests and harassment of Japanese people and business owners continue to remind the world of Kristallnacht. This is receiving broad coverage, so I’ll just link to some of it:
2 Japanese students beaten up at Shanghai restaurant
Two Japanese students were beaten at a restaurant in Shanghai on Saturday night and sustained injuries, the Japanese Consulate General in Shanghai said Sunday. The students were beaten with a beer mug and an ashtray by an unknown number of Chinese, consulate officials said.
Riot Police Called In to Calm Anti-Japanese Protests in China
Mass demonstrations here against Japan turned unruly late Saturday afternoon, with scattered vandalism and confrontations with the riot police intensifying what began as a fully legal and generally peaceful student-led protest.
Several hundred protesters tried to storm the residence of the Japanese ambassador in Beijing, hurling bottles and rocks into the walled compound before riot police broke up the confrontation, witnesses said.
Crowds defaced billboards advertising Japanese electronics products, shattered windows at a Beijing branch office of the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, and threw rocks into a Japanese restaurant, but thousands of ordinary police and paramilitary units in full riot gear kept the violence from spreading.
The New China News Agency estimated that 10,000 demonstrators joined a march calling for a boycott of Japanese goods in Beijing’s high-tech and university district earlier Saturday, making it one of the largest protest events authorized by the Chinese government in years.
Subsequent gatherings at the Japanese ambassador’s residence and the Japanese Embassy appeared to have been organized without official approval and were considerably more tense, with the police closing off many roads and busing in reinforcements to maintain order.
The violence prompted an official protest in Tokyo by Japan’s vice foreign minister, Shotaro Yachi, who asked the Chinese minister to Japan, Cheng Yonghua, to strengthen security, Reuters reported, citing the Kyodo news agency.
Resentment against Japan runs deep in Chinese society, with an overwhelming majority expressing the view that Japan has not fully atoned for its World War II-era aggression against China. Even minor disputes can provoke mass discontent, especially when the government sends signals, as it has in recent days, that it will allow some public political expression.
I’m certainly no expert on the subject of Sino-Japanese relations, but this is just embarrassing. Who but the most reactionary pro-Chinese would support this kind of violent reaction to a relatively minor dispute? The government and the people involved should be ashamed.
The textbooks are, as mentioned here before, minor and little used. Yes, it is true that Japan tends to gloss over its history. But all I see here is a bunch of misdirected rage. The Chinese people need to recognize who the real enemy is. Whether it directly encouraged the protests or not, the CCP indirectly did so with its openly anti-Japanese education and propaganda.
What I worry about most is the possibility for this kind of activity to turn into a more permanent souring of relations between the two countries. Unfortunately, neither side seems willing to give any ground on the major points of contention: textbooks, Senkaku, Japan’s UNSC bid, or what have you. But that’s not to say that relations will inevitably continue down the path they’re heading. There needs to be a face-saving solution. I’ve got it: Japan and China can agree to write each other’s history books! Just imagine — the Japanese would be so filled with shame at their atrocities that they’d all commit seppuku in class, and the Chinese would learn about nothing but Romance of the Three Kingdoms.
I always appreciate a good Chris Rock reference.
Please, “Krystallnacht” is way way over the top. Talk about drama queens.