Swastikas on the French flag, and threats against the Japanese
Chinese protesters are turning up the heat on France over the torch protests which happened in Paris. As the picture to the right shows, protesters painted a swastika on the French flag, and wrote that Joan of Arc was a prostitute.
The bezdomy ex patria blog writes:
Perhaps not the best way of communicating your ideas to the French people. It's not hard to imagine how Chinese people would react to having symbols of their World War 2 occupier added to China's national flag or the moral integrity of China's national heros slandered. Somebody needs to relearn that "do unto others" principle- and no, it does not end with "....before they do unto you".
A commenter on the previous blog pointed us to the photo (from Japan Probe) and this article in the Daily Yomiuri, which claims torch protests in Japan could draw even a more vile response from China:
"Reaction [in China to protests in Japan] would be huge in comparison to the reaction against protests in France," in which Web sites called for a boycott of French products sold at Carrefour stores, an international issue expert said, pointing out that negative feelings toward Japan remain strong in China due to historical issues.
A man in his 30s who runs a Web site that is popular with many Chinese "patriots," told The Yomiuri Shimbun, "Chinese people won't forgive [Japan] if the Japanese do the same things as the Americans and Europeans, such as making distorted reports about the Tibet issue."
With Japan and China's conflicts in the recent past, no doubt protests along the Japanese torch route would lessen the attention paid to France.
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Things are going from bad to worse. Where was that picture taken? I can't imagine it was on the streets of Paris - the Banlieue Boys might have lodged a protest of their own.
When can this madness end?
Let the fire burn!
The Japanese shrine where the torch was supposed to start its run has refused to allow access to the procession. And we'll see how the blue and white goons and thugs that constitute the "harmony team" from Beijing react to being kept out of the torch procession.
I heard there's another shrine in that country which has offered to start the relay...
Hey Balboa... the photo was taken somewhere in China, according to the source (linked above).
That's what I thought. No way they'd get away with that in Europe.
Wow... they are really a bunch of nationalistic sheep aren't they? Like Balboa said, they can get away with a lot, but this won't go over well here in Europe. Not at all.
I suppose it's not very surprising that I just read that in my country (Netherlands) bookings for trips to China this summer are down by 40% compared to last year "for unknown reasons."
I can think of a few.
Did anyone else notice that "Free Corsica" was written on the bottom of the French flag? Wow, they really hit the nail on the head there.
The Games are ruined before they've begun.
I understand that during the recent NPC meeting during the Tibet protests that representatives of several foreign law firms in Beijing gave speeche to the NPC singing the praises of China's legal system. One of the representatives was from the French law firm Gide. Go figure!
really sad to see the torch relay turning into this situation. I can only say that people who have such extreme hatred towards France are a very small portion of us. Most people just refuse to go to Carrefour for these few days. And many people also know that this boycott has to end sometime, as long as we see some effects in the Europe.
Just as you guys have always said how Chinese are brain washed, in this issue, I seriously think many Europeans are not objective at all and do not really understand the problem while protesting on the streets and shouting at Chinese students.
What we want to see is Europeans face Chinese history and leave the arrogance aside.
Anyway, I dont wanna see the hatred growing like this.
Protesters could perhaps have chosen to get their point across in a better way, but then the French were advocating the splitting up of China. How would French feel if Chinese were publicly demonstrating in Beijing for the dismemberment of France and handing the Alsace-Lorraine region back to Germany? Or how would Australians feel if the Chinese had supported Aboriginal activists to declare the Northern Territories independent of Australia? How would Americans feel if Chinese demanded that New Mexico, Texas and California be handed back to Mexico? In fact imagine the outrage of Europeans if China made any comment at all on the affairs of any European country.
So the anger of the Chinese is justified.
Mongol Warrior,
In my opinion, your point tidily sums up exactly what is wrong with this situation.
You ask how France, Australia, the US, etc would "feel" if the Chinese supported... (no need to repeat your question - the emphasis is on the word "feel").
Maybe some shouting would be done around the UN table. Maybe, just maybe, a few diplomatic complaints would quietly be lodged. You might even get the likes of Jack Cafferty spouting off.
But, I am pretty certain that you would not see the level of misguided drum beating and outrage that we're seeing from otherwise intelligent Chinese people today. I'm pretty sure that a lot of people wouldn't care.
Why? Because people in the "west" are generally less sensitive to this sort of thing than you are, i.e., it is not so easy to "hurt the feelings of" the x people, the y people or the z people. (While I'm on that, "hurt the feeling of the Chinese people" is about the most ridiculous piece of rhetoric on the planet).
Unless the Chinese were lining up troops on the border to aid the renegade regions' efforts, most people could not give a flying one what the Chinese thought or said about their "internal affairs".
Now I am from neither France, Australia nor the US, and I cannot speak for citizens of those countries, or indeed my own. This is just my opinion, and it could be completely wrong.
Mongol Warrior,
In my opinion, your point tidily sums up exactly what is wrong with this situation.
You ask how France, Australia, the US, etc would "feel" if the Chinese supported... (no need to repeat your question - the emphasis is on the word "feel").
Maybe some shouting would be done around the UN table. Maybe, just maybe, a few diplomatic complaints would quietly be lodged. You might even get the likes of Jack Cafferty spouting off.
But, I am pretty certain that you would not see the level of misguided drum beating and outrage that we're seeing from otherwise intelligent Chinese people today. You would certainly not see masses of people walking through the streets waving Chinese flags with Imperial Japanese insignia or worse. I'm pretty sure that a lot of people wouldn't care.
Why? Because people in the "west" are generally less sensitive to this sort of thing than you are, i.e., it is not so easy to "hurt the feelings of" the x people, the y people or the z people. (While I'm on that, "hurt the feeling of the Chinese people" is about the most ridiculous piece of rhetoric on the planet).
Unless the Chinese were lining up troops on the border to aid the renegade regions' efforts, most people could not give a flying one what the Chinese thought or said about their "internal affairs".
Now I am from neither France, Australia nor the US, and I cannot speak for citizens of those countries, or indeed my own. This is just my opinion, and it could be completely wrong.