The bubbling turmoil within the china/japan relationship…what is happeneing? Would china risk capital flight? would Japan risk war/asset freeze? you will find out…on the next episode of when “chaptas go wild”.
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PD - they have been pulling hair for a long time. It'll blow over, neither can afford a fist fight.
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Shhh..Minah..let's dance..I wonder who will play JIm J Bullock's character? I am thinking Jingbao.
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Japan has repeatedly apologized to China. It's clear that China has serious issues (read lack of freedom) if protesting what's lacking in Japanese text books is so popular.
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Only in china you can regulate protests to the degree where you enforce on one stone throw per person. :)
Actually this is a much larger issue around oil exploration and all this rehashing of the nanking massacre is a pretext for driving up jingoistic frenzy.
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^ Really? You got any predictions on what is to happen?
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That and trying to stop Japan from getting onto the Security Council.
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China is just experiencing what Japan experienced in the 1930s.
Sudden economic growth creates a change in society. In the case of China today and Japan in the 1930s, such a change in society results in a swelling of nationalism.
The outcome will be... interesting.
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^ No, it is very difference growth patterns.
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lol
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China rejects calls for apology
Shenzhen marchers demanded a boycott of Japanese goods
Beijing has no reason to apologise over a wave of anti-Japanese protests, Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing has said.
His Japanese counterpart, Nobutaka Machimura, had gone to Beijing seeking an apology, but Mr Li said the real issue was Japan’s wartime atrocities.
Protests have continued in Chinese cities - with 10,000 people marching in Shenzhen, in the south.
Japan has approved schoolbooks which critics say whitewash its wartime past.
The Chinese are also protesting against Japan’s bid for a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council.
“The Chinese government has never done anything for which it has to apologise to the Japanese people,” Mr Li said during talks with Mr Machimura.
Be vicious towards Japanese devils!
Protesters’ banner outside Japanese consulate, Shanghai
In pictures: Protests grow
“The main problem now is that the Japanese government has done a series of things that have hurt the feelings of the Chinese people on the Taiwan issue, some international issues including human rights, and especially in its treatment of history.”
A Chinese government spokesman, quoted by the official Xinhua news agency, said the protests were caused by “Japan’s wrong attitudes and actions on a series of issues such as its history of aggression”.
On Wednesday, Japan further angered China by issuing drilling rights for oil and gas in a disputed area of the East China Sea.
Street anger
The Communist Party newspaper People’s Daily has called for the public to “maintain social stability”, on what is the third consecutive weekend of anti-Japanese protests in China.
In Shenzhen, tens of thousands of people protested on Sunday, waving banners calling for Japan to apologise for its wartime past. Some threw bottles at shops selling Japanese goods. Others kicked Japanese-made cars.
TENSIONS RISING
Press review: War of words
Your views: Textbook row
One group of protesters set fire to an image of Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.
In north-eastern China, up to 1,000 protesters marched on the Japanese consulate in the city of Shenyang.
Smaller protests were reported in the southern cities of Zhuhai, Dongguan and south-western Chengdu.
On Saturday thousands of protesters stoned the Japanese consulate in Shanghai, while peaceful marches took place in the cities of Hangzhou and Tianjin.
Correspondents say the scale of the disturbances is unusual for China, and indicates tacit official support for the protesters.
Row over history
Japan-China relations are at their worst for decades, says the BBC’s Charles Scanlon in Tokyo.
Chinese views on Japan
In pictures
Analysts say a bold gesture from either side may be needed to break the downward spiral in relations, but that may not be politically possible in the current climate.
The protests were triggered by Japan’s decision to approve eight school textbooks which critics say gloss over the country’s actions before and during World War II.
Among the issues causing outrage is the description of the Japanese army’s massacre of between 50,000 and 300,000 civilians in the Chinese city of Nanjing in 1937 and 1938 as “an incident”.
Tokyo says private companies, not the government, were responsible for the texts, and that it is up to individual school districts to decide which books they use.
Only about 18 schools will be using the textbooks.
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Um no. They have never officially apologised until just now. Japan has tried to appease the Chinese through tremendous amounts of ODA, investment and trade deals. An official apology from Japan entails reparations, similar to what Germany had to face post ww2.
China is playing mind games, it has the economic strength now and is trying to figure out its political stance in East Asia. This may be good for balance of power in East Asia. What will happen to the US though.
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Um yes.
List of war apology statements issued by Japan
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This is about Taiwan. China is providing a distraction to isolate and freeze Japan so that Japan cannot support Taiwan publicly or militarily. Hong Kong is assimilated, Chinas next big prize is Taiwan.
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UTD, Japan has indeed stated over and over its regrets and sympathies for the past, however, they have not admitted to half the atrocities that they have committed. In international politics, when a nation ‘apologises’ they are expected to pay reparations, which has still not happened. By merely mouthing the words “zanen dessune” (its a pity/unfortunate), they are not making a formal apology. A formal apology, which the Chinese would accept, would mean extensive monetary compensation.
China’s ambassador to South Korea, Li Bin, said"Mr. Koizumi is bringing out an old apology that has been repeated many times over the past 10 years, every time Japan had to repair diplomatic relations with Asian neighbors,'' said Shinichi Arai, professor emeritus at Surugadai University. The problem is that only the words were repeated, but Japan has never done anything to prove it really regretted its past.‘’
Also, if Japan was really sorry why would Koizumi keep visiting the Yasukuni shrine?
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He is paving the way for the emperor to vist the shrine.
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Tiananmen Square, Tibet, the famine caused by 'the great leap forward', are lessons about these events being taught in Chinese schools? Has China apologized for them?
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^ Does one often apologise to themselves UTD?
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It simply shows what hypocrisy of the Chinese government. They complain about Japan whitewashing history while they themselves do it in a much more extreme manner. And no country has the right to commit crimes against humanity in another country or in it's own. As it's been said this issue has been turned into a spectacle soar by the Chinese to keep the Japanese out of the UN Security council and coincidently collides with discussions on oil exploration.
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You're right UTD, I wasn't trying to defend China's position. You know one wonders why there are thousands of Chinese students in Japan, considering how much they hate the Japanese.