China’s Jews
It’s too late for me to look up the reference, but I’ll give it to you the way I remember it.
In the run-up to WWII, some uppity-up in Japan’s Imperial Government got word from the ambassador in Berlin about how Hitler was scapegoating the Jews for, well, damn near everyandanything. His comment: “If only Japan had Jews!”
That came to mind reading about the recent protests in China:
Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing refused Sunday to apologize or pay compensation to Japan for violent anti-Japanese demonstrations in which demonstrators smashed windows of Japanese diplomatic and business establishments in China.
How do you say Kristallnacht in Chinese?
Granted, the Kristallnacht reference is hyperbole; Beijing isn’t about to round up the local Japanese and corral them into concentration camps. But the tune still sounds eerily familiar.
Germany had Jews, who it was claimed, secretly controlled money and production. In today’s China, the Japanese play a similar role. German Jews somehow stabbed Berlin in the back, and caused them to lose WWI. China blames Japan for not completely owning up to atrocities committed in another war. Hitler wanted Poland for historical reasons, and as a springboard to greater conquests in the East. China covets Taiwan for historical reasons, and perhaps as a springboard to greater conquests in the South.
I don’t mean to imply that China is about to get the world into another global conflict. But Beijing seems to have at least – or at last? – found its Jews.
Japan/China tensions (Updated April 18th)
Note: I am adding to previous coverage, starting from the Update below. The previous coverage is below the fold, in chronological order. The Huanxi riots are covered in another post. Update April 17th/18th * China clamped down hard on activists in Beij…
as if there aren’t enough things to worry about
If you aren’t thinking about China you should be… Taiwan is just a facade, the real target is Japan and South Korea while North Korea and Russia play the role of useful idiots. While the US is focused on the
In China’s defense, German Jews didn’t kill 50 million Germans and have prime ministers celebrating the memory of the “heroic soldiers” that did the deed. My Chinese wife’s mother was saved by her older sister covering her during a Japanese bombing raid in WWII – the sister was killed.
OTOH, China protesting anyone’s textbook editing policies is a bit silly – their textbooks still glorify Mao and don’t mention 1989, or anything else questioning the Commies. As with 1930s Germany, a people with a legitimate beef is a terrifying thing.
And those smashed-up Japanese-themed restaurants? Virtually all Chinese-owned.
But when I see stuff like this happening, coupled with the near-daily riots in the countryside, I’m deeply skeptical that China with its current leadership will be anything but a big mess for awhile.
Amazing how great minds think alike. I wrote something similar to this a few days ago
http://www.di2.nu/blog.htm?20050413a
Besides tens of millions of their own people, the Chinese killed over one million Tibetans and unknown numbers of Muslims. The actual reason for the “spontaneous” demonstrations is offered by PacRim Jim at http://www.japanorama.com/prj.html
Steve, I don’t quite agree with your analogy, because there is an element of payback here that goes back a loooooong way. (Imagine if Ireland, in the late 1700s or early 1800s suddenly became a world power — how would the Irish look on the English? it’s rather a bit like that.)
However, you are right about one thing: there is a strong element of racism and blind hatred in all of this. It’s not the only element, maybe not the dominant one, but it’s there.
Michael Ledeen argued in 2003 that China is a fascist state, possibly the first one to survive its adolescence and become the first fascist state to make it to maturity.
http://www.nationalreview.com/ledeen/ledeen200310170840.asp
Please remember that the Chinese one-child policy has meant a HUGE excess of men. Now, young men. Young, horny, spoiled (single child) men — without enough women.
China needs women.
Or glory, to compete to see who gets the few available.
Taiwan is the main target.
The World Bank needs to have a new policy to reduce, or eliminate, WB funds going to countries that are increasing their militaries.
Meanwhile, on the eastern front
There’s an old rule from the Cold War, never turn your back on a Communist. It might be time that we return to that rule, given the way the Chi-coms have been acting lately.
China’s Communists Losing It?
The recent lashing out by the Chinese leadership at a variety of foreign states seems bizarre to me. I noted in an earlier post that it occured to me it was not dissimilar to Arab tyrants blaming everything on Israel. The same thought occured to the …
I think the better analogy is how the Middle Eastern governments stir up anti-Israel sentiment to distract the populace from their own shortcomings.
Interestingly (or not), Chinese living in Indonesia are the target of racial hatred and discrimination. Like Jews in other countries, Chinese are seen as controlling all the money (reputable sources I’ve read do say that ethnic Chinese own a considerable percentage of Indonesia’s wealth), and Chinese have been the target of violent mobs as recently as the riots of 1998 that brought about the downfall of Suharto. So, the message here is, uh, that, uh, it’s always easy to blame someone else for your problems?
At the risk of putting this discussion into the absurd, I remember reading reports 15-20 years ago about the Jews of China. There were villages in China that have slightly different customs, barely remembering Judiac customs over a thousand years.
But as far a China today, this is the one place that openly disputes the concepts of the “global paradox.” China is the only expansionist government in the world today (Islam is a religion, not a government, ditto evangelical Christians).
Why is China building amphibious assualt ships and submarines? There is only 1 possible target – Taiwan. Let’s call them what they are, warmongers.
Or war, if only to kill off as many excess men as possible.
Unfortunately I can’t remember where I read this — but it was mentioned somewhere that this round of anti-Japanese fervour was whipped up by the Chinese government in response to Japan issuing a development licence for an oilfield claimed by China.
All this history/apology stuff may just be a cover for a dispute that is fundamentally over seabed resources.
It’s worth pointing out that anti-Japanese demonstrations took place not only on the Mainland, but also in Hong Kong, where freedom of speech and assembly are still well-protected, and the local government hasn’t done much, if anything, to whip up anti-Japanese hysteria.
While the PRC may have its own reasons for getting its subjects to vent their anger at Japan, we should recognize that most of this anger really is heartfelt. I think a lot of it stems from the fact that, even though Japan lost the war, China never got to truly exact revenge on the Japanese. Had it been the Chinese who had nuked two Japanese cities, devastated many others through firebombing, and proceeded to occupy Japan for several years, I don’t think you’d see this kind of hatred, even if the Japanese never made a formal apology and Japanese officials continued to visit a war shrine.
Or maybe the heartfelt anger actually comes from the fact that millions of Chinese were killed by the Japanese (regardless of any desire for revenge). Some of whose officers actually had beheading contests in China (ever hear of the Rape of Nanking?). Now Japanese textbooks make no mention of this, while Class A war heroes have shrines there that are visited by Prime Ministers. Not that the reason why the protests started is because of textbooks. It’s because Japan recently said it would support Taiwan if there was a conflict (caused by China) and wants to join the Security Council of the UN.
To address some of the other posts:
- Countries throughout Southeast Asia have Chinese minorities, which are often the wealthy, market dominant minority in places like Indonesia, Malaysia (pre-Bumiputera), and the Philippines.
- There are rumors that China is “getting” women from Burma (China is Burma’s only friend and investor) and North Korea.
- As for Taiwan, that’s an issue to big to tackle on an unrelated post. But it’s not as clearly defined as some people on this post make it seem. For one, we (and the majority of the world) don’t recognize Taiwan as a separate country, nor do the majority of Taiwanese citizens want Taiwan to become an independent country.
One of the the most important factors of China-Japan (and, in general, Asian) relations that hasn’t been mentioned yet is economics. That may be the one factor that prevents war. It’s certainly the reason that China has no intention of leveling Taiwan.
SJ, the Japanese did awful things to American GIs as well (remember the Bataan Death March?), and the death rate for American POWs in Japanese camps was almost 20x that of their death rate in German camps. But do you see the US demanding an apology? We don’t care to, because of how the war ended.
Most Japanese textbooks do cover the Rape of Nanking and other wartime atrocities. The textbook in question is used by less than 1% of all Japanese middle schools. And Class A war criminal make up a very small fraction of the war dead at the Yakusuni Shrine. From what I understand of it, the shrine is the Japanese equivalent of Arlington Cemetary. Given that many of those enshrined there fought in a deeply unjust war, you can argue that it’s insensitive for Japanese politicians to visit the place. But doing so doesn’t mean that they’re going out of their way to celebrate war criminals.
As for Taiwan, the reason why a majority of Taiwanese don’t support declaring independence is because they fear an attack from the PRC if they do. Remove the threat of attack, and I think a majority would almost certainly be in favor of it.
Dr. Seuss had the same idea.
SJ, the Japanese did awful things to American GIs as well (remember the Bataan Death March?), and the death rate for American POWs in Japanese camps was almost 20x that of their death rate in German camps. But do you see the US demanding an apology? We don’t care to, because of how the war ended.
This goes far beyond POWs for Asians. There is a long history of abuse suffered at the hands of the Japanese.
Also, we won the war. China didn’t. They benefitted from our winning it. A bit of a difference.
Most Japanese textbooks do cover the Rape of Nanking and other wartime atrocities. The textbook in question is used by less than 1% of all Japanese middle schools.
That same textbook became a national bestseller selling over 600,000 copies. Plus, because of its influence and the influence of powerful right-wing factions in Japan, even ‘mainstream’ textbooks are starting speak less of the atrocities and more of Japan’s sacrifices.
And Class A war criminal make up a very small fraction of the war dead at the Yakusuni Shrine. From what I understand of it, the shrine is the Japanese equivalent of Arlington Cemetary. Given that many of those enshrined there fought in a deeply unjust war, you can argue that it’s insensitive for Japanese politicians to visit the place. But doing so doesn’t mean that they’re going out of their way to celebrate war criminals.
Considering that the shrine itself glorifies WWII and calls the convictions of the war criminals unjust, I would say there is a good case to be made for staying away from it.
Japan’s emperor certainly doesn’t visit the shrine since the war criminals were deified there.
Finally, it is nothing like Arlington.
There is still a lot of deep animosity in parts of Asia towards Japan. Japan needs to figure out a better way to deal with its neighbors than it has. Considering how much they want to be on the Security Council, it would be nice to see them be able to settle their local problems before letting tackle some larger ones.