A Chinese View of Anti-Japanese Protests

Even though many in Japan suspected that the outbreak of large-scale anti-Japanese protests in 2005 were orchestrated by the Chinese government, Zhu Jianrong argued that this was not the case. Rather, the protests were the result of China's progress in economic liberalization as well as the arrival of the Internet age.

Zhu, a professor at Japan's Toyo Gakuen University noted that Chinese youth were "not so gullible" to be swayed into anti-Japanese activities by the Communist Party's teachings. He argued that the Chinese government itself was alarmed by the intensity of the protests. Authorities placed a curfew on media coverage and shut down several websites espousing radical anti-Japanese views.

Zhu added that leaders in Beijing sensed that if they were seen as bowing their heads to Japan, the emotionally-charged masses could quickly turn on them. A US-based Chinese professor noted that if China's foreign minister had apologized to Japan, the public would have denounced him for selling out the nation, just as Qing dynasty statesman Li Hongzhang (李鸿章) was denounced for signing the Treaty of Shimonoseki to end the Sino-Japanese War more than a century ago.

Zhu also took to task the argument that China's anti-Japanese education was to be blamed for the anti-Japanese demonstrations. He noted that such an argument ignored what was really happening in Chinese society, or more specifically, the growth of the middle class. The argument also diverted attention away from problems on the Japanese side.

"China is the biggest victim of Japan's war of aggression. Some of the weapons abandoned by Japanese forces in China remain undisposed of, and lawsuits involving women forced into prostitution and workers uprooted from their homes are still ongoing. As far as China is concerned, therefore, this chapter of history is very much in the present tense, and in this sense it is only natural for these issues to be taken up in Chinese schools," Zhu wrote in Japan Echo (August 2005).

"That said, I would point out by comparison with my own school days in China some 30 years ago, textbooks over the past decade have come to devote less space to the events of this period. And while they have continued to focus on the heroic struggles of the Communist Party, they have also continued to stress the need to distinguish between the small group of militarists and the majority of the Japanese people."

One wartime episode that had been carried in history books for decades detail the fate of a Communist guerrilla band that fought valiantly against the Japanese until only five members were left, at which point they jumped to their deaths. In 2004, this tale was removed from a textbook used in Shanghai schools, and replaced by the gold-medal performance by Chinese hurdler Liu Xiang (刘翔) at the Athens Olympic Games. In explaining their decision, officials of the Shanghai Board of Education said that wartime exploits were too old to impress today's school children.

Explaining why Chinese police had not stopped protesters from hurling stones during the demonstrations, Zhu said that this was to avert bloody confrontations that could escalate into anti-government riots. President Hu Jintao (胡锦涛) was said to have issued a directive in 2004 calling on police to restrain their use of force in dealing with public disturbances.

Zhu also explained why Yasukuni was such a sensitive issue for the Chinese.

When diplomatic relations between China and Japan were restored in 1972, Beijing waived its claims to war reparations. That was despite the fact that Japan had demanded high indemnities from China on previous occasions, such as during the aftermath of the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-95. At that time, many in China thus felt that it was Japan's turn to "pay up." Yet Mao Zedong (毛泽东) and Zhou Enlai (周恩来) ultimately decided against seeking reparations. Zhou was said to be an especially strong advocate of this approach. He had reportedly spent time in Germany as a student and had seen firsthand how the country seethed with vengeful anger over the huge sums demanded by World War I victors.

"Had China demanded reparations, the Japanese people would have been saddled with a huge financial burden, and so he instead sought a way to break the chain of hatred," Zhu wrote in Japan Echo (August 2005).

"The argument used to justify this decision to the Chinese people was that Japan's aggression against China was masterminded by a handful of militarists, who were convicted as class A war criminals after World War II, and that the majority of the Japanese people were themselves victims of these militarists' policies. For a Japanese prime minister to pay annual visits to Yasukuni, where these war criminals are enshrined along with other war dead, discredits the logic of the Chinese leadership."

Incidentally, the first foreign country to become a target of China's new nationalism was the United States following the Yinhe (银河) incident in 1993. The US Navy stopped a Chinese container carrying chemicals that could be used for mustard gas and nerve gas. The Chinese initially refused to allow inspectors onto the ship, but finally relented after a one-month standoff. No illegal chemicals were found, and Chinese anger toward Americans escalated.

Zhu concluded by saying that a lack of mutual understanding is the root cause of the problems between China and Japan. He noted that more efforts must be made by both sides. Beijing must inform the public of the official development assistance and other contributions that the government and people of Japan have made to China's modernization. And Japan should remind its people of how China had renunciated war reparations and the praise Chinese leaders had expressed for Tokyo's pacifist policy.