Iron Fist is one of the latest signs that Japan’s anxiety about China’s insistent claims over disputed islands as well as North Korea’s escalating nuclear threats are pushing Japanese leaders to shift further away from the nation’s postwar pacifism.
The new assertiveness has been particularly apparent under the new prime minister, Shinzo Abe, a conservative who has increased military spending for the first time in 11 years. With China’s maritime forces staging regular demonstrations of their determination to control disputed islands in the East China Sea and North Korea’s new leader issuing daily proclamations against the United States and its allies, Mr. Abe’s calls for a bolder, stronger military are getting a warmer welcome in Japan than similar efforts in the past.
“This is a very serious rethink of Japan’s security,”…
Tag Archives: demonstrations
Japan Shifting Further Away From Pacifism
Wuwang Guochi: “Never forget [China's] national humiliation”
I was in Xuzhou, a city in China’s coastal province of Jiangsu, on September 16, 2012. While walking in the largest public square of the city, I saw young people gathering from different directions. They soon formed a large crowd of a few hundred people and began to march along the main street of Xuzhou. In fact, visitors to China that weekend could see a similar scene in over one hundred Chinese cities. The anti-Japan demonstrations occurred following Japan’s decision to buy the disputed islands in the East China Sea. Holding banners and flags that they had prepared earlier, the crowds in front of me began to shout slogans. Suddenly, I heard them shouted something very familiar to me: “Wuwang Guochi!”
The English translation of the Chinese phrase “Wuwang Guochi” is “Never forget national humiliation.” It is the title of the book that I have just published. In this book, I refer to it as the “national phrase” of China. The Chinese characters associated with this motto are engraved on monuments and painted on walls all over China. For the Chinese, historical consciousness has been powerfully influenced by the so-called “century of humiliation” from the First Opium War (1839-1842) through the end of the Sino-Japanese War in 1945. The Chinese remember this period as a time when their nation was attacked, bullied, and torn asunder by imperialists.
Historical Memory in Chinese Politics and Foreign Relations | Zheng Wang
Commentary: Japan’s “theft” of Diaoyu Islands risks China-Japan economic, trade ties – Xinhua | English.news.cn
Japan’s “purchase” and “nationalization” of China’s Diaoyu Islands is putting China-Japan economic and trade ties at risk due to man-made factors.
Despite repeated protests from Beijing, Japan launched its unilateral move to “purchase” the Diaoyu Islands, which are Chinese territories, on Sept. 10 this year.
The move not only ruined the political basis for China-Japan relations, but also greatly harmed Chinese people’s feelings. It was not in line with the overall situation of bilateral relations highlighting peaceful development, and it ignited demonstrations across China.
Rocky future for China seas | The Japan Times Online
Unfortunately, however, there is a real danger that the rapid growth of the region may be threatened by growing nationalism, complicated by muscle flexing by China, which is clearly on the rise economically and militarily.
The dangers were illustrated by the recent visits, or invasions, depending on your point of view, by small groups of hotheaded but well-organized nationalists to isolated rocky Senkaku Islands (called Diaoyu by China) in the East China Sea.
Japan’s ejection and deportation of the Hong Kong Chinese sparked a patriotic outcry throughout China, with demonstrations in a dozen cities. Televised pictures of a Chinese police car being overturned and bashed by mobs in the city of Shenzhen just over the border from Hong Kong puzzled my Japanese friends until they understood that it was a Japanese car and realized how serious the situation was.
More Protests in China: China Cancels Waste Project After Protests – NYTimes.com
The outpouring of public anger is emblematic of the rising discontent facing Chinese leaders, who are obsessed with maintaining stability and struggling to balance growth with rising public anger over environmental threats.
Such protests “suggest that the middle class, whose members seemed willing to accept in the 1990s that being able to buy more things equaled having a better life, is now wondering whether one’s quality of life has improved, if you have to worry about breathing the air, drinking the water, and whether the food you’re eating is safe,” said Jeffrey Wasserstrom, of the University of California Irvine.
The protest followed similar demonstrations against projects the Sichuan town of Shifang earlier this month and in the cities of Dalian in the northeast and Haimen in southern Guangdong province in the past year.
As Assad Regime Totters, The Kremlin And Beijing Shudder – Forbes
Two other constrained dictatorships, Russia and China, want to keep Assad in power. Both shudder at a fellow totalitarian regime falling to a disorganized opposition. They will abandon him (with great fanfare) only when it is clear that he has lost. China and Russia have their own disaffected minorities, disgruntled workers, and ideological opponents. Their one-party states lack legitimacy, and they know it. They consider themselves under constant threat, fearing the single spark that brings millions to the streets. They must snuff out any spark — a lone barefoot lawyer or an 18 year old girl throwing a rock at security forces – that could conceivably ignite a Tahrir Square.
Russia and China’s one-party dictatorships face different threats. China’s Communist Party (CPC) must firefight grievance demonstrations. Putin, on the other hand, must confront direct challenges to his legitimacy.
As Assad Regime Totters, The Kremlin And Beijing Shudder – Forbes
Putin’s future in doubt in Russia – The Washington Post
No one in Russia was in doubt about the outcome of Sunday’s presidential election. Vladimir Putin’s triumph was assumed. But there is feverish speculation, and great uncertainty, about what will happen beginning Monday, when Putin prepares to begin a new six-year term. The question of the moment in Moscow is: How long will he last?
Not long, according to some of the more fevered spokesmen of the surging opposition, who predict the swelling of post-election demonstrations. More sober analysts figure the strongman and his circle might hang on for a couple of more years, provided they choose to appease a disgruntled public with political and economic reforms.
