Yike, what a dumb statement…The hawks and the Neocons in the US are more dangerous than the Japanese.

April 5, 2005 @ 11:17 am | Comment

Which statement are you referring to?

April 5, 2005 @ 11:24 am | Comment

The statement in the photo. I noticed the same statement was used against China before also.

April 5, 2005 @ 11:30 am | Comment

Looks like the CCP is successful in brainwashing and inciting the people of South Korea into an anti-Japanese frenzy as well
protests in South Korea

April 5, 2005 @ 11:39 am | Comment

This one is from today BBCnews web site.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4411771.stm

April 5, 2005 @ 12:54 pm | Comment

Note, Hui Mao, that the Seoul protest took place outside the Japanese embassy. They didn’t go to a Japanese store and smash the windows. Big difference in protesting against the government as opposed to just destroying buildings because they are Japanese-owned. There’s a world of difference between a targeted and organized protest and the kind of random insanity we saw in Xi’an last yeare and many other places since.

April 5, 2005 @ 2:14 pm | Comment

Some interesting developments:

Eachnet, an eBay company, declares that they will only report on negative news on Japan digital products, no positve coverage (in Chinese):
http://www.vankeweekly.com/asp/bbs2/showAnnounce.asp?id=1021017

Policeman monitoring the mob closely with SONY camcorder:
http://www.vankeweekly.com/asp/bbs2/showAnnounce.asp?id=1019454

April 5, 2005 @ 2:55 pm | Comment

Richard,

I agree that a more approriate venue for a protest against Japan would be in front of the Japanese embassy in Beijing, but Chengdu is very far from Beijing and it’s just not possible for people in Chengdu to take their protests to the Japanese embassy in Beijing. Also if various internet accounts are to be believed, the window breaking occurred after store security and police tried to quell the initially peaceful demonstration and physically assaulted some of the protesters.

April 5, 2005 @ 3:13 pm | Comment

Sorry – off topic… I saw your post on Michelle Malkin’s “real” site and thought you might enjoy this:

Does Michelle Malkin use a Ghost Blogger?

April 5, 2005 @ 3:44 pm | Comment

Generally speaking, violence is bad. But in this case, a little property damage is good. It effectively shows the world how deep resentment chinese has against Japan.

This event will make it much more understandable for China to kill the UN council reform proposal.

April 5, 2005 @ 4:13 pm | Comment

If a single standard were to be upheld in UN membership, the People’s Republic of China should have been kicked out for its ongoing crime against its own people.

April 5, 2005 @ 4:37 pm | Comment

Bellevue, if I didn’t know better I might suspect that you are somewhat prejudiced against the CCP! You need a good struggle session to straighten yourself out.

April 5, 2005 @ 5:59 pm | Comment

It effectively shows the world how deep resentment chinese has against Japan.

You don’t think the world knows this already?? And hell, kicking Jews showed the world how much the Nazis resented them — the Nazis were completely sincer about this hatred and thought they were doing the right thing.

Bottom line: Ethnically motivated violence always sucks. It only contributes to a vicious circle of hatred and is unhealthy in virtually every way.

April 5, 2005 @ 6:03 pm | Comment

There is also a strategic error in all this, it seems to me. Anti-Japanese sentiment in China, which has been cultivated (not invented, but cultivated) by the CCP, is contributing to the Japanese move toward the US. A few years ago, it was still possible to think that Japan would remain neutral in a US-China showdown over Taiwan. Today, it seems rather obvious that Japan has made the strategic decision to side more clearly with the US on Taiwan and, most likely, to expect that the US will help them out if its claims in the East China sea result in any direct confrontation with China. I cannot see how this is a good thing for China. Of course, there are various reasons why Japan has moved closer to the US of late, the North Korean missile launch in 98 chief among them. But anti-Japanese outbursts in China push Japan that much more. If the CCP leadership were a bit smarter in this regard, it would be working harder to improve relations with Japan, in all ways, so as to encourage its isolation from the US, a circumstance which would support the long-term Chinese strategic goal of weakening the US position in the region.

April 5, 2005 @ 6:29 pm | Comment

Sam, your logical argument is precisely that espoused by the “new thinking on Japan’ school within China led by Ma Licheng and Shi Yinhong. These “think of the long term” scholars have been shouted down as Jap lovers and traitors. Not very encouraging.

April 5, 2005 @ 8:10 pm | Comment

Sam there is a serious flaw in your arguement. The Japanese do not base their policy decisions on the sentiments of foreign nationals anymore than the Chinese or Americans do, to think otherwise is sheer stubborness and wrong. If Koizumi were taking Chinese public sentiment into account, he probably wouldn’t be marching off on annual visits to Yasukuni. Anti-Japanese sentiments in China did not in anyway lead Japan to strategically shift to the United States, but rather these sentiments were used as ad-hoc justification to be consumed domestically for an already pre-determined policy. Whether or not the Chinese public is friendly or overtly hostile to Japan is irrelevent since they ultimately do not control the government, the communist party does. The Japanese government had long ago began anxiously witnessing China’s developement and it’s ramifications for Japan’s own position in Asia.

The communists party’s “cultivation” if you will of populist anti-Japanese sentiments in my opinion serves a dualistic purpose at present. One it allows China to diplomatically manuever and lobby indirectly against Japan’s security council position. Secondly in case it decides to confront directly and veto any reforms to the security council, it can justify it by citing domestic pressure as a reason for action.

April 5, 2005 @ 11:25 pm | Comment

Also I should say that while I concede the merits of the liberal approach to Sino-Japanese relations, unfortunately I disagree with the practical applications of such, particularly Shi Yihong’s ideas. A China-Japan rapproachment is to speak plainly impossible. While Shi argues that a more positive relationship with Japan will bring many diplomatic and strategic benefits, it does not appear that Japan is willing to reciprocate. The problem is, is that the Japanese fear Chinese power more than they do American power because China is so much closer and has a historical enmity. This leads the naturally conservative Japanese political establishment to opt for a closer relationship with Washington. While China can do some to allay the fears of a militarily provocative China, the uncertainties are essentially ingrained into the Japanese political zeitgeist and no amount of diplomatic prostrations will erase worries about China. Japan has already show than it is hostile to China’s interests and has already sided with Washington to act to “contain” China. The U.S. – China rapproachment was only possible because China at the time was much more concerned about a Soviet threat than an American one, a China-Japan thawing is presently impossible because the geopolitical landscape is completly anaethma to it. Which is why I happen to be a firm supporter of China building stronger ties with Europe. Europe (old Europe in Bushspeak) has no economic or political friction with China though it does to some degree with the United States. Consequently neither does Europe have any pressing security concerns in the Western Pacific as the United States and Japan do.

April 5, 2005 @ 11:53 pm | Comment

The fascist government blocked ALL foreign websites from my school today. And I teach at an international school with kids whose parents are either ambasadors or work for big international companies. No doubt comments such as the previous one are acceptable to CCP standards.
Imagine me as a history and geo teacher having to limit myself to Chinese sources. I teach my kids about the 3 Gorges Dam for example. If I used Chinese sources, it would be the most wonderful thing created of all time with no problems at all. By the way, I did read how the Chinese are angry that the Nanjing massacre is referred to in textbooks as an “incident”. Kind of like the Tiananmen “Incident”, no? Again, what the CCP has done TO ITS OWN PEOPLE is happily ignored so that the events of 65 years ago can be dredged up whenever it feels like it. Maybe China should face up to its own past (and, in the case of Tibet etc., present). No, I guess they’ll just put into gaol anyone who tries to do so.
One more thing that I notice here: Besides keeping its people stupid by blocking foreign sites that offer REAL news, insight and information, and giving them meaningless jobs like sitting in a lift for 8+ hours a day and sweeping the streets or standing around in a uniform doing nothing,I see a continual infantalism driving products being sold in shops. For example, buying writing paper which don’t come adorned with the kind of pictures suitable for 6 year old girls is impossible. I bought a scale this weekend and couldn’t find one that didn’t have childish cartoons decorating them. My washing machine, like everything else now, doesn’t work without these ridiculous beeping noises. Who needs this minute-long high-pitched beep to tell me its draining? You can’t seem to buy a mouse for a computer without an incessant blue light constantly on, even when the computer has been shut off, etc etc etc. Aarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrggggghhhhhhhhhhhhh…. Well, as they say, you don’t like it, leave. I’d love to. REALLY, I WOULD. But as long as I’m in love for a Chinese national who can’t leave with me, I’m stuck for the moment. I was offered a job in the Domincan Republic but, sure enough, it’s one of the few countries that recognise Taiwan.

April 6, 2005 @ 2:06 am | Comment

By the way, for those who would argue: “OK, you don’t like how people sit mindlessly in lifts all day. So what would YOU do about unemployment?” I’d reply: “You don’t need someone to press a button for you. Unless you want to keep a segment of the population demoralised. If anything, they’re a problem- a friend has to come home every night before 11 because there won’t be anyone to press that button and therefore he’d have to climb 18 flights of stairs in the dark. If you’re going to pay someone for something so worthless, provide them money to better themselves such as education. It is a ‘communist’ state, isn’t it? But then, all they’d learn is the same nonsense from Chinese sources everyone else learns. Better to keep them stupid….

April 6, 2005 @ 2:13 am | Comment

Hui Mao,

I if the Chinese want to protest against Japan, fine. Being able to protest is an expression of freedom, but really, destroying property and injuring others?

This doesn’t help their cause, it only brings damnation and it makes the Chinese people look bad.

I thought it was ironic when I discovered that the Ito Yokado stores here in China are about %60 owned by Chinese, or so I’m told.

April 6, 2005 @ 2:50 am | Comment

“Maybe China should face up to its own past (and, in the case of Tibet etc., present). No, I guess they’ll just put into gaol anyone who tries to do so. ”

I’m sorry for you to draw such a conclusion after giving many plausible arguments.

The point is that you are mixing CCP and ordinary Chinese together. Are you suggesting the Chinese people lose the right to oppose Japan just becuase what CCP has done to them? Do you think Japan is only a threat to CCP? It’s not. You may have heard of the story about Mao Zedong saying “thanks to Japan, CCP could take control of China” to visiting Japanese.

The CCP itsel, as I undertand, does not want to chase Japan so tightly for its atrocity in the past.

April 6, 2005 @ 5:47 am | Comment

Keir, I feel your pain and I know all about bleeping Chinese washing machines!! That said, can you help get me a teaching job at your university?

April 6, 2005 @ 7:33 am | Comment

I think the point Sam was trying to make is still valid, despite Jing’s objection. I agree with Jing that Japan doesn’t base its foreign policy on the sentiments of foreign peoples … but those anti-Japanese sentiments in China are driving sentiment in the Japanese population … and that is a very powerful force indeed for shaping Japanese policy.

April 6, 2005 @ 7:43 am | Comment

To be blunt, the LDP government is oftentimes as dismissive of its own constituents as the Communist party(chinese) is. It is generally beholden only to the ultra-orthodox branch of the party and the gerrymandered rural prefectures which keep it in power. I disagree with your assessment filthy because all the arguements about anti-japanese sentiments affecting Japanese policy making fails the causality test. As I stated earlier, irrespective of public sentiment, the LDP is going to more closely realign with the United States to counter China. All the outbursts do provide, is simple political ammunition for the LDP.

April 6, 2005 @ 9:24 am | Comment

Keir, sorry to be laughing at your misery, but that post about the bleeping washing machinese and the attack of the cutes made my morning…

Maybe China and Japan could have a battle of the big-eyed cartoon characters to help settle their differences.

April 6, 2005 @ 10:09 am | Comment

No.9: but those anti-Japanese sentiments in China are driving sentiment in the Japanese population … and that is a very powerful force indeed for shaping Japanese policy.

That’s true, but it’s a two way street. IMO, the recent anti-China sentiments and actions in Japan are largely responsible for the recent rise of anti-Japan sentiments and actions in China. In the past couple of weeks, we’ve seen in Japan a new round of textbook revisions, moves on islands in the East China sea, public demonstrations demanding the severance of diplomatic ties with China, boosting about how Japan would crush China in a war, etc. etc. I don’t see where this will eventually end up, but right now, there’s a vicious cycle of anger on one side contributing to more anger on the other side and it doesn’t bode well for the relationship between the 2 countries.

April 6, 2005 @ 11:28 am | Comment

I think Jing makes a good point: no state makes its foreign policy based solely on popular sentiment. But I still believe the CCP has made a mess of this. Let’s take it back to 1984, when there were anti-Japanese protests in Beijing by Chinese students. At that point, the CCP leadership should have made more of an effort to press a more positive line on Japan. That would have been unpopular in some quarters but it would have served state interests better – it seems to me. Yes, Japan has its own problem with not living up to its WWII past sufficiently (we are having another go round on the textbook problem, no?). So, it would have taken a certain amount of foresight and political courage to take the lead. Alas, it was not to be. At the end of the day, however, the CCP, and China more generally, has just got to get over Japan. Yes, WWII was brutal. Yes, the Japanese did terrible things. Yes, those terrible things should be remembered. But, no, the past should not be continually mobilized to enlived the politics of the present (please notice: I live in Massachusetts: we do not continue to fight the Civil War up here, the way some Ameican southerners do). China needs a forward-looking, positive and proud national narrative, not the backward-looking, stale story of victimhood that seems to dominate today.

April 6, 2005 @ 8:28 pm | Comment

In response to Richard’s query, if anyone wants to teach Geo to grade 12 ex-pat kids in Beijing, contact me and I’ll get them a job. The school is pushing me to stay because they won’t apparently be able to find a suitable replacement for the senior clas next year.

April 6, 2005 @ 10:01 pm | Comment

Keir, I have my TESL certificate as well as a Master’s in Journalism from NYU. Do I qualify? Is it an all-day job or just a few hours a day? I’ve been thinking about this ever since I got back from Yunnan. It sounds like such a blissful life, teaching and contributing.

So what’s the downside? 🙂

April 6, 2005 @ 10:07 pm | Comment

Sam,
please notice: I live in Massachusetts: we do not continue to fight the Civil War up here, the way some Ameican southerners do).

I notice that most Yankees still think they are better, superior than Southerners. Most people from the Northeast detest people from Texas for example. (part of it because of Bush)

April 6, 2005 @ 10:31 pm | Comment

Richard,

Are you serious about moving back to China? How about your family in the US if you don’t mind me asking?

April 6, 2005 @ 10:33 pm | Comment

I came here to teach Geo thinking it was just an excuse to teach English to Chinese students, not knowing it would be to international students under the IB programme. Trust me: anyone can teach. I majored in history and only ended up teaching the subject after an entire semester had passed by with the teacher having passed onto the students the following:
i. Hitler and Stalin had been bank robbers before becoming dictators
ii.communism spread south to Siberia via the Ukraine
iii. Jimi Hendrix recorded a Vietnamese War protest song in 1983
iv. Hitler had put men inside his V1 and V2 rockets that he sent to London. When a student asked him if it was to steer the rocket, he replied “Nah; they just told them where they were.” I would have thought that the KABOOM would have been sufficient.
v.All the planes flying in WWII were made of wood except for their engines which were super-glued together
vi.Vim Diesel, noted Hollywood actor and proclaimed America’s most eligible bachelor by some source or other, is also the inventor of the diesel engine.
vii. Germans discovered the jet rocket under a stone in Mexico.
viii. “Stalin Was Not A Bad Man, because as my momma told me, never judge a man unless you walk a mile in his shoes.” Of course, it’s such reasoning that Mao is considered 70% right and 30% wrong, and now has his image on every bank note. Having been responsible for the deaths of 30 million people during the Great Leap Backward (beating Hitler and Stalin’s crimes against their own countrymen together, and in a mere 3 years), that would mean that for every million he killed, one mark was deducted from his report card. And that doesn’t even take into consideration the Cultural Revolution.
ix. No, he told a student; The Soviet-Afghan War could not be considered part of the Cold War because it took place in 1993.
x. He announced at the beginning of one class that they would learn about every world revolution since 1895, including the Italian civil war which he must have thrown in as a bonus. “How many world revolutions do you think there’ve been since 1895?” he put to his students. “60” replied one. “No!” he responded forcefully. “320?” asked another. “I don’t know.” Such a line of questioning was often adopted in his class. For one class he felt the need to introduce the topic of the Hubble telescope before showing a Discovery Channel documentary about it. “Do you know how much it costs for the Hubble telescope to take one photo? Millions! To get one photo developed costs thousands, and you need NASA’s permission.” He then proceeded to take his time showing various photos supposedly taken from Hubble. when they came to the Crab Nebulæ, one of the students exclaimed “Hey! Isn’t that from the cover of the Stone Roses album?” “Yep!” replied the professor. “Does that mean every album they put out they had to pay thousands of dollars to NASA?” He remained silent.
Churchill wasn’t an alcoholic. He was a workaholic. etc etc etc
That’s just the tip of the iceberg… I’m writing a book just on him now.

April 7, 2005 @ 7:51 am | Comment

Keir, very funny — but did you like teaching? Should I go to your school and teach?

April 7, 2005 @ 7:58 am | Comment

“Trust me: anyone can teach.”

Keir,

That is not a good sign when you said that. I just have a bad flashback. Decades ago, I went to an English language school employing foreign teachers in a city in Taiwan. My first English class was a nightmare, our “teacher/turor” was a punk in his early 20s. The first class was “teaching” or rather having conversation about Marijauna, the high feeling and psychedelic. I didn’t mind learning about foreign culture, but he was also a dull teacher. It was a small class about 8 people, there was supposed to be discussions between teacher and students, but when a student asked a question, he would not respond. Finally, he stopped in the middle of the classs and started literally flirting with a girl and asked the girl out in front of everyone else. Anyway, the second teacher was much better, an older man (an engineer) who actually taught the daily English usage. The man was much more educated and responsive to questions.

April 7, 2005 @ 11:05 am | Comment

Are you serious about moving back to China? How about your family in the US if you don’t mind me asking?

The family issue is the only thing keeping me here (the “family” being one other person, and two cats). I want to go, my SO won’t even consider it. I would go back today if I could, God knows why. For all the torment, my life seemed more meaningful when I was there.

April 7, 2005 @ 11:06 am | Comment

(I just finished reading the rest of your post. OMG, how wonderful! Remind me of Jack Black in School of Rocks… LOL)

April 7, 2005 @ 11:18 am | Comment

JR:
Here’sa story about the bio teacher last year:
One day this little Mongolian punk (only kick to have been kicked out of the school) was asked by the Serbian ambassador’s daughter to go to the embasy and pick up something she left. So he brought his friend Peter, the Bio teacher who showed films in class and had a button he’d press to show cell division on the screen as soon as someone knocked. Together they went and Peter noticed they had the car keys and decided to take the ambasador’s car out for a joyride. When they brought it back it was scratched and had allkinds of junk in the back. Not surprisingly his contract wasn’t extended (noone is ever fired). So his girlfriend who works for CCTV comes to the school screaming YOU CAN’T FIRE HIM! i’M GOING TO BE THE MOTHER OF HIS KIDS!!!!!!! to which the Headmistress answered “but surely you know he’s married and has 3 kids back in the Philipinnes….”
Trust me,I have plenty more.
Richard- I’d offer you my geo job, but my girlfriend wants to stay another year to get a teaching degree before to try to go somewhere, so I might as well stay here. But yes, anyone can teach ambassador’s kids at my school. Noone knew if I knew what I was doing (I certainly didn’t, and there was none who I could talk to) until July 6, when the results of their finals came back from Europe.

April 7, 2005 @ 5:08 pm | Comment

sorry for all the spelling errors above; I’m late for work

April 7, 2005 @ 5:16 pm | Comment

Great stories. Let me know if anything opens up at your school.

April 7, 2005 @ 5:20 pm | Comment

Richard;
Well, if you’re interested just send an email to the school (Headmistress’s email is china@ibo.org) and tell them you know me and are interested in any vacancies; there may be lots I don’t know about (I hear rumours about people being pushed). Do it before the July the 6th- I’m indespensible to her right now but that might change if the marks that come in aren’t what we hoped…Certainly there should be something for teaching English, and our Junior programme is always looking for staff. If there’s something in particular you’re keen on, tell me and I’ll put in the word. How’s your economics…..?

April 8, 2005 @ 1:58 am | Comment

Keir, let’s move this into email; I’ll try to write to you today. Can’t thank you enough for the information.

April 8, 2005 @ 9:45 am | Comment

It certainly does sound like a fascinating place to teach at Keir. I’d love to hear more such gossipy stories – of teacher’s tales!

Regards,
Mark Anthony Jones

April 12, 2005 @ 4:10 am | Comment

RE: A seat for Japan in the Security Council of the United Nations? NO! for the continued existence of humanity.
Japan does not deserve to be a member of the highest body of the countries of the free world. otherwise, we the citizen of the free world will experience another sneaky attack at Pearl Harbor, the Rape of Nanking will occur all over again, and the Murder of the Filipino free world fighters at Bataan will happen again. We do not want atrocities and murder! Japan is the enemy of the and of humanity. Forever it will be because it is in their inborn nature to conquer the world and rule mankind? Japan killed women, children and babies with their fixed bayanets. Toss them in the air and catched them with the fixed bayonets to get rid of evidence of crimes against humanity. thank you. acc

April 14, 2005 @ 8:24 pm | Comment

RE: Japan to become member of the Security Council of the United Nations – NO! AND regarding RE-MILITARIZATION of Japan – NO! The free world says NO more another sneaky attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese bombers; NO more another Rape of Nanking by the atrocious brutal uncivilized rapists Japanese soldiers of WWII; No more another killing and murder of the Filipino freedom fighters of WWII at Bataan. The peaceful world has learned its lesson from the monstrous Japanese attacks and crimes against humanities. It is in the inherent inborn nature of the Japanese people and Japanese goverment to conquer the world and to rule the people. We the free world will not approve
for the Japanese to become member of the Security Council of the United Nations. Thank you for listening, peace-loving people of the world.

April 15, 2005 @ 3:56 pm | Comment