In the minutes after former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe was shot this month, there was an outpouring of concern and outrage by leaders from around the world.
In China, however, there was a torrent of messages on the internet of another kind. “I hope the gunman is OK,” declared one. Another popular meme read: “President Kennedy visits Shinzo Abe.”
As tens of millions of Japanese waited for news of Abe’s fate, some in China called his attacker a “hero” and others sent their “warm congratulations”.
After the 67-year-old’s death was confirmed, owners of some small Chinese restaurants and car yards offered discounts to mark the “happy” occasion.
The messages were callous and offensive to many observers and highlighted a deep strain of anti-Japanese sentiment that has lingered in China for decades following Tokyo’s brutal invasion last century.
Even though Beijing’s political leaders, state media and censors appear to have intervened to moderate the response, the episode was a clear reminder of the patriotic mobs that can dominate China’s internet.
Yaqiu Wang, a senior China researcher at Human Rights Watch, said it was “understandable’’ that Chinese are still troubled by atrocities such as the Nanjing massacre, as well as Abe’s visits to the Yasukuni Shrine, which honours Japan’s war dead, including some convicted war criminals.
But celebration of the former prime minister’s assassination still “speaks volumes of the degree of toxicity of China’s nationalism — which the Chinese Communist party only has itself to blame”.
“In the minds of those who celebrated his death, Abe was not a human being who was tragically killed but a symbol of unremorseful Japanese imperialism,” she said.
“Over the long term, directing Chinese people to hate an external enemy serves the function of distracting them from scrutinising the CCP’s own failure in governing the country.”
In statements reported by Chinese state media on July 9, the day following the shooting, President Xi Jinping offered condolences, saying he and Abe had “reached an important consensus” on relations. And he expressed hope for “good neighbourly, friendly and co-operative” ties with Fumio Kishida, the prime minister.
According to Henry Gao, a China expert at Singapore Management University, Beijing recognises that citizens’ “hatred” for Japan can spiral out of control and “become dangerous”.
But Gao believes that the latest burst of nationalism reflects the “true beliefs of many people” in China.
“Official propaganda has been instilling hatred of Japan due to its world war two crimes and the image of Japan as an enemy has taken firm hold in most people’s minds, despite the large amount of aid and investment Japan has provided to China since the start of [China’s] reform period,” he said.
Despite Xi’s statement, in the days following Abe’s death the Global Times, a nationalist tabloid, used the assassination to highlight flaws in Japan’s economic and political systems.
“Although Abe had been the longest-serving Japanese prime minister, there are mixed opinions on him in Japan, and anti-Abe public opinion always existed, including dissatisfaction with the widening gap between the rich and the poor caused by Abenomics, and disgust with his forced adjustment of military and security policies,” the paper quoted Xiang Haoyu, a research fellow at the China Institute of International Studies, as saying.
The contradictions between some of the ghoulish online rhetoric, Xi’s message of condolence and the state media needling, revealed the delicate balance Beijing has had to strike against the backdrop of rising pressure from the US, Japan and other allies against China.
“Beijing has an interest in not letting nationalist sentiment get out of hand in a way that would undercut its foreign policy, in particular, its interest in easing tensions with Japan,” said Jessica Brandt, a foreign policy and technology expert at the Brookings Institution, a US think-tank.
“What’s interesting in this case is that at least one senior figure, [former Global Times editor] Hu Xijin, came out right away to try to tamp down some of the fervour, and the foreign ministry and state media coverage have really played it quite straight.”
She also pointed out that while there is “clearly” a wave of nationalist sentiment, it remained difficult to get a representative picture of China’s public mood just by looking at online comments.
The legacy of conflicts and atrocities has continued to drive deep cultural and political fissures between East Asia neighbours. For years, tensions have not only simmered between Japan and China, but also between Japan and South Korea and Taiwan and China, occasionally boiling over into political controversies and sparking protests and consumer boycotts.
China’s latest nationalist flare-up was unlikely to cause irreparable damage to ties between Tokyo and Beijing, experts said.
But some are wary of the role such episodes could play in stoking future clashes, especially given Beijing’s increasing military assertiveness in the region and uncertainty over whether Kishida will push ahead with revising Japan’s pacifist constitution, an ambition long held by Abe.
“If Japan changes its peace constitution and starts to encourage militarism, then things could change,” Gao said.
Additional reporting by Arjun Neil Alim in Beijing
Source: Economy - ft.com
