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Generational Dynamics Web Log for 09-Apr-05
Thousands of Chinese protesters hurl bottles at Japan Embassy in Beijing

Web Log - April, 2005

Thousands of Chinese protesters hurl bottles at Japan Embassy in Beijing

Anti-Japanese feelings in China and Korea have been erupting for weeks.

On Saturday, 10,000 stone-throwing protesters smashed windows at the Japanese embassy and Japanese-owned businesses in Beijing. It's not known who organized what is called a "patriotric rally" protesting Japan's actions prior to and during World War II, but notices appeared on Chinese internet bulletin boards, and the rally appears to have been sanctioned by the Chinese government.

This is only the latest in the series of expressions of anti-Japanese sentiments that have been building in intensity since last month, when Korea protested Japan's claim to the the tiny Dokdo/Takeshima islands.

Before last month, relations with Japan had seemed to be ever-improving, and 2005 was named as "Korea-Japan Friendship Year."

However, the protests over the islands seem to have aroused strong feelings among the Chinese and Japanese people. Before that time, public anti-Japanese sentiments were expressed on bulletin boards, but rarely in any overtly public way. The islands controversy seems to have "made it OK" for the Chinese and Koreans to express their fury overtly.

Other protests that have occurred are the following:

A number of major Japanese and Korean cultural exchanges have been canceled.

In China, there have been several weeks of nationwide street protests, online petitions and boycotts of Japanese goods.

The Koreans and Chinese have been condemning the Japanese for whitewashing history in its new textbooks, and ignoring Japanese atrocities in the 1930s and 1940s.

The Koreans and Chinese are vehemently protesting Japan's campaign to gain a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council.

From the point of view of Generational Dynamics, this provides a classic example of how genocidal crisis wars begin. Older generations of people suppress their hatred and fury in order to avoid a repeat of the horrors of the previous crisis war. Younger generations, with no personal memory of those horrors, lead the way in letting these feelings bubble to the surface.

A new generation of young Chinese professions have been actively campaigning against Japan.

One of them, Lu Yunfei, webmaster for the web site http://www.1931-9-18.org, organized an online petition that received 830,000 signatures in the last two weeks protesting Japan's campaign to gain a UN Security Council seat. "It is Japan that has stimulated our national pride," says Lu. "They have never taken seriously their actions during the war and they continue to teach their children lies." [1931-9-18 is the day that Japan invaded China.]

If you use the Google language translator on Lu's web site home page, the rough translation gives some additional protest information: protest Japanese control of the Diaoyu Island lighthouse; protest the Nanjing massacre of 1937, where hundreds of thousands of civilians were murdered; protest Japanese encroachment on East China Sea; protest the issuance of the song, "Taiwan, my brothers," which promotes a Japan-Taiwan alliance against China.

As we've been reporting for months, the tension in the North Pacific is growing on a daily basis. China has passed an "Anti-Secession Law," that legalizes a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. North Korea is mobilizing for war, and is refusing to attend nuclear non-proliferation talks.

North Korea in particular is adopting an increasingly hardline stance on talks. According to Selig Harrison, an analyst at Washington-based Center for International Policy, "There has been a major policy shift in Pyongyang in recent weeks. The hardline elements there are riding high, the army has increasingly asserted its control over nuclear policy. Now North Korea is not prepared to discuss dismantling its nuclear weapons until complete normalization of all economic and diplomatic relations with the United States."

Generational Dynamics predicts that North Korea will start a war to reunite South and North Korea under North Korean control, that China will start a war to return Taiwan to Chinese control, and that China and Korea will get revenge against Japan for the latter's actions prior to and during World War II. These wars could begin next week or next year, but they're coming with 100% certainty. (09-Apr-05) Permanent Link
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Generational Dynamics Web Log for 09-Apr-05 Thousands of Chinese protesters hurl bottles at Japan Embassy in Beijing

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Generational Dynamics Web Log for 09-Apr-05
Thousands of Chinese protesters hurl bottles at Japan Embassy in Beijing