An upswell of anti-Japanese expressions and actions by ultra-nationalist Chinese is worsening already-strained relations between the two countries, especially as Beijing doubles down on authoritarianism and “patriotic” propaganda glorifying the Communist Party while promoting hatred of countries like Japan and the U.S.
In the latest incident, which occurred on Sept. 18, a 10-year-old Japanese boy attending a school for expatriates in the southern Chinese metropolis of Shenzhen was stabbed by a 44-year-old man, who was apprehended at the scene. The boy died of his wounds the next day, prompting protests from the Japanese authorities, who urged Beijing to take concrete steps to ensure the safety of its citizens residing or traveling in China.
There are about 102,000 Japanese nationals living in the People’s Republic of China (PRC), with nearly 20,000 of them being minors. Eleven Japanese schools are operating in the country.
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The stabbing attack sparked outrage in Japan, where media connected the incident with the broader context of anti-Japanese sentiment in China.
Many observers noted the negative impact such events would have on Japanese business activity and tourism in the PRC. Numerous major Japanese companies in China took steps to protect their staff there, such as by covering expenses for their Japanese employees to briefly return to Japan.
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Of 1,700 companies surveyed by the Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry in China, nearly half said they would be reducing or making no new investments in the country this year.
Many of the firms expressed concerns about an earlier incident in June where a Chinese man wielding a knife attacked a Japanese woman and her daughter outside a Japanese school in eastern China, and killed a Chinese woman who stepped in to stop him. Other companies cited a new PRC law targeting foreign espionage as increasing the risks of doing business there.
A person involved in Sino-Japanese diplomacy told Japanese newspaper Sankei Shimbun that “In such a situation, it’s only natural that Japanese companies feel they cannot invest [in China].”
‘Evil consequences’
While the PRC Foreign Ministry expressed “regret and sadness that this kind of unfortunate incident occurred,” it said that the stabbing was an isolated case and asked the Japanese side to stay calm.
By contrast, many Chinese people condemned the stabbing and some mourned the Japanese boy’s death by laying wreaths and leaving messages of condolence at the Shenzhen Japanese School.
One widely-shared video shows a man in Shenzhen lamenting that many Chinese had been “taught this kind of [anti-Japanese] hatred for a long time, which has led to such evil consequences.”
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Prior to and during World War II, Imperial Japan invaded and occupied much of China. Millions of Chinese died in the war, often civilians brutally slaughtered by the Japanese troops.
The Chinese Communists, then a rebel force fighting the republican Chinese government, benefited greatly from the Japanese invasion and soon took over all of mainland China following Japan’s defeat by the United States in 1945.
For decades, the Communist Party mostly ignored the history of the Japanese invasion, with Chairman Mao Zedong even thanking Japanese officials for their country’s “help” getting the CCP into power.
In more recent years, the CCP has tapped into “patriotic education,” often promoting a narrow view of Sino-Japanese relations that focuses on the country’s crimes in World War II.
According to SinoInsider, a New York-based consultancy that tracks developments in Chinese politics, economics, and foreign relations, the tragic stabbing of the Japanese boy points to the consequences of the CCP’s hate-based “red nationalism.”
“The recent spurt of violence directed towards the Japanese could be partly the result of growing frustrations as economic conditions in China deteriorate,” the analysts observed in a Sept. 23 newsletter.
A rise in violent anti-Japanese incidents and rhetoric will worsen perceptions of China in Japan and other countries, and accelerate the trend of foreign companies downsizing their investments and operations in the PRC, SinoInsider wrote. This would further worsen China’s economic prospects.
A Chinese woman interviewed by Japanese state broadcaster NHK expressed her sadness about the Sept. 18 stabbing. She also noted that many Japanese companies had invested in China from the 1980s onward, contributing greatly to China’s economic rise.
