Japan politics in China
I am constantly amazed by the logic the Foreign Affairs Ministry here in China applies when it comes to coverage of international events. And the most recent election of a new Prime Minister in Japan is a prime example of it.
Allow me to explain how the system works (as best I can, because after two years working in state-run media, I still have trouble figuring it out!) I know many people presume that there are hard and fast rules about what you can and can't say in the media here in China. That, however, is really not the case at all. It is widely understood that the 3-T's: Tibet, Taiwan and Tian'anmen, are sensitive subjects, with the last one being a complete no-no. But beyond these issues, and a handful of others, there are no real clear guidelines on what can and can't be talked about.
But that's not to say that there is free reign either. The ongoing protests in Myanmar are predictably untouchable. Any talk about the leadership situation in China is tantamount to dancing on the head of a pin. Beyond that, though, any and all internal and external coverage of events comes with a daily dictate from the Foreign Affairs Ministry. The leadership of said media outlet receives the information, and disseminates it to the staff. For the most part you can readily figure out what can and can't be said or asked on any given occasion as long as you have any sort of inkling of what China's foreign policy positions are. However, a recent one baffled me a bit.
While doing one of my programs on the election of new Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, I was told in no uncertain terms that the Yasukuni Shrine was not to be mentioned. This surprised me for a couple of reasons. First, when ever Sino-Japanese relations are discussed, the issue of the Yasukuni Shrine is virtually always at the forefront of the debate. Trying to talk about the two countries' relationship is like trying to talk about US politics without mentioning the war in Iraq. The second, and more confusing aspect of this is that Mr. Fukuda was the politician who spearheaded a drive about 5 years ago to create a secular memorial to Japan's war dead that would not contain the 14 Class A war criminals that are enshrined in Yasukuni. So that leads to the question of why the Foreign Affairs Ministry would poo-poo any discussion about Yasukuni in connection with Fukuda. The best guess I can come up with is that the government doesn't want to remind people about the issue. Well...little late for that now, given the long-running controversy.
Baffling is the only word I can use to describe it.
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You could remember that Chinese nationalism is mostly for domestic consumption, or at least should be for domestic consumption. The net result of pressing Japan about war crimes all these years has been overwhelming negative, in the sense that it has only made the Japanese more fervently nationalist and anti-Chinese.
In this case, I suspect the Chinese government knows that it has backed itself into an unfortunate situation, and has discovered, like with Taiwan, that the direct approach is counterproductive.
These things can change from one day to the next. What can't be said today can be said tomorrow. And sometimes the no-nos turn out to be the decision of the particular media outlet. Anyway, the Yasukuni Shrine seems to be back on the mentionable list now. But other surprising things are getting very sensitive.
Could it be that they (the CCP) don't want any 'positive' news about a Japanese leader? If Mr. Fukuda suggested a separate secular memorial not containing the class A war criminals years ago then that would be positive news about a Japanese leader, even possibly being viewed as considerate to China. The CCP doesn't want that. They want their citizens to keep hating the Japanese. They don't want ANY positive reports about Japanese leaders.
I'd rather propose that the CCP don't really have control over their nationalists anymore. They actually pun the Foreign Ministry as Sell-Country Ministry, as "external" and "sell" have both the same finals and the same intonation.
Actually, I think Beijing prefers Fukuda to Aso, and is intentionally trying to AVOID embarrassing him. Or at least until, they figure that they can't work with him either. Beijing definitely wants and needs decent relations with Japan as an important trade partner, an important source of technology and simply as a significant neighboring country.
Japan, despite being a democracy, has a nasty tendency to pander to it's extreme right wing who are essentially Kingmakers in the LDP. I think China uses the Yasukuni Shrine issue as a litmus test to determine the extent of any beneficial engagement, and quite frankly, the bar is set pretty low. I mean, worshiping war-criminals? Imagine if the German Chancellor did that!! I would think German-Israeli relations would sink a bit, wouldn't you?
I am reading an article from the Nanfang Zhoumo about Fukuda and it has the following sentence:
在靖国神社问题上，福田康夫是日本为数不多的明确反对参拜的主流政治人物之一。
But do they (Japanese) really WORSHIP these people at the shrine? Is that the proper word? I don't know, I'm just asking. I figured it was more like a form of patriotic respect w/o judgement.
"You could remember that Chinese nationalism is mostly for domestic consumption, or at least should be for domestic consumption."
Isn't all forms of natioalism for domestic consumption? how would it be any different of Japanese nationalism?
Pressing Japan about war crimes is largely different from nationalism, the former is a purely a case of morality, but often conveniently clumped with nationalism by people without greater understanding of the situation in China, Japan and elsewhere.
It has everything to do with future Sino-Japan relationships as much as the past - a criminal that does not recognize and repent for his crimes simply cannot earn the trust of his neighbors.
And how exactly is Japan supposed to betray its neighbors? South Korea is also under the American strategic umbrella, China can carpet-nuke Japan if it wants to, Vietnam is like East Asia except they replace Japan with China, the Russians are more scared of China making a land grab in the Russian Far East and Southern Siberia in order to prevent Russian re-emergence / protect Chinese interests in a post-global warming world, who am I missing?
And on similar criteria, how could you trust China, a country that does not practice any form of democracy recognizable in the West, that is occupying more than one territory with a majority non-Han population, that agitates to capture a democratically (well, somewhat), self-governed territory, that floods settlers into the Russian Far East, that is famed for rampant "human rights" abuses, that exudes...
Ya.
One afternoon, I was in the backyard hanging the laundry when an old, tired-looking dog wandered into the yard. I could tell from his collar and well-fed belly that he had a home. But when I walked into the house, he followed me, sauntered down the hall and fell asleep in a corner. An hour later, he went to the door, and I let him out. The next day he was back. He resumed his position in the hallway and slept for an hour.
This continued for several weeks. Curious, I pinned a note to his collar: "Every afternoon your dog comes to my house for a nap. "
The next day he arrived with a different note pinned to his collar: "He lives in a home with ten children - he's trying to catch up on his sleep."
I cried from laughter
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