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NEWS & LETTERS, May-June 2005Our Life and Times by Kevin A. BerryChina tensionsChinese demonstrators staged militant protests in Shanghai and other cities, for two weeks in April, against Japan’s continuing denial of its war crimes during World War II. These involved massacres, mass rape, sexual slavery, forced labor, and biological experiments on human beings. However, under Japan’s conservative government, the newest school textbooks have reduced rather than increased the coverage of these war crimes, passing them off with euphemisms such as "incident" instead of "invasion." Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has also been making an annual visit to the infamous Yakushini shrine, where several convicted war criminals are buried. The new Chinese protests were far from spontaneous, however. They were orchestrated by the state, and have more to do with today than the past. China is hoping to take over Japan’s position as the leading economic and military power in Asia. It opposes the idea of admitting Japan to the UN Security Council and was outraged when Japan joined with the U.S. in a pro-Taiwan statement. For its part, Japan announced that it wants to change its postwar pacifist constitution, allowing it more leeway for military action abroad. China has also shored up its ties with India, its second largest trading partner. During an April visit to India by Wen Jibao, the leaders of these two fast-growing economies pledged to increase trade and moved toward solving their longstanding border disputes. India agreed publicly that Tibet is part of China, while China hinted that it might support an Indian bid to join the UN Security Council. Many have suggested that the Chinese government is also using the anti-Japan protests to defuse social tensions at home, of which there is no lack. Just as the anti-Japan protests started, tens of thousands of people staged a brief uprising in Huaxi, a village in Zhejiang Province. This occurred after police attacked a group of elderly villagers, who were protesting against severe pollution. "The air stinks from the factories. We cannot grow our crops," one villager told the press. Corrupt local officials refuse to do anything because they own shares in the factories. When rumors spread that police had killed two elderly women, thousands took over the village, forcing officials to hide in a school. Also in April, some 2,000 retired soldiers demonstrated for two days in Beijing to protest their meager pensions. A few months ago in Sichuan Province, thousands of protesters burned government buildings and vehicles after a wealthy official threatened to kill a porter who had accidentally bumped the official’s wife with the load he was carrying. The risk for the regime is, rather than defusing these tensions, the anti-Japan protests could turn against targets closer to home. |
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