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History Textbook was only adopted by less than one percent of relevant Japanese schools
in that year, the political disturbance they sparked was too boisterous for the Chinese
audience to ignore, especially that the Chinese are selective in absorbing information
about Japan. The right-winger’s activities have created a constant irritation and
provocation to the Chinese pubic, whose overreaction cause the Japanese to be even more
frustrated with China and less willing to accommodate its policy.
Is the “New Thinking” Really New?
During the Asian Cup soccer tournament held in China this summer, Tokyo
repeatedly protested Chinese soccer fans’ raucous booing targeted at the Japanese team.
This prompted Beijing to rebutted that, by overreacting to the behaviors of a small
number of radical fans, some Japanese media and politicians only tried to politicize the
issue. However, Beijing also urged Chinese fans to exercise self-restraint in the final
game between China and Japan, “so that we can all watch a splendid match in a civilized
manner.” But the government instructions fell on deaf ears. Chinese fans booed
throughout Japanese national anthem and whenever Japanese players controlled the ball,
and after China lost the final they started a riot that could have hurt the Japanese team
had they not been outnumbered by riot police. Chinese government handled the Asian
Cup event with its typical approach to anti-Japanese popular nationalism: maintaining an
unyielding position to Japan while restraining violent popular actions at home, sometimes
even with force.
So far the government has managed to suppress large-scale anti-Japanese mass
movements, but doing so will be less and less successful with the popular nationalism
Convention