Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Playing the Nanking Card

There is no doubt that Japanese forces committed massive atrocities in the Rape of Nanking in 1937.

But given that the Peking government's body count of Chinese victims far exceeds what Japan did, I find it hard to stomach the cynical exploitation of that incident (and others) to bully modern and democratic Japan:

Japan's Prime Minister Naoto Kan urged Beijing on Monday to guarantee the safety of Japanese companies and citizens, as a wave of rowdy protests in China sparked by a territorial row entered a third day.

As many as 1,000 anti-Japanese demonstrators took to the streets of Wuhan, the capital of China's central Hubei province, on Monday, chanting slogans to vent their anger at Tokyo amid a heavy police presence, witnesses said.
China turns these protests on and off to suit their political needs. While it is surely possible that these particular demonstrations are not government instigated, China has responsibility for even rogue protests given past manipulation of public anger.

One day, China will be propelled to war because they lack the power to resist the popular xenophobic anger that Peking stokes to maintain control and push Japan around when they feel the need.