Tuesday, April 12, 2005

China vs. Japan This weekend[base ']s anti-Japanese demonstrations and small riots in Beijing have still not been mentioned on Xinhua (China[base ']s news agency) web pages. Also the planned boycot of Japanese goods between May 1 and June 1 was not mentioned. However, today an article appeared saying that 96% of all Chinese find the current textbooks that do not mention the Nanjing massacre (among others) an insult to the Chinese people. I sort of expected at least a mention of the current mood among students and average Chinese, but nothing at all. Chinese that I talk to are indeed very sensitive to the fact that Japan does not acknowledge the crimes it committed in China. A small remark can lead to heated discussions. But I wonder if it goes so far that they won[base ']t buy Japanese goods anymore. I think most of the young, urban Chinese that I know are too pragmatic for that. Most would probably not forego buying a Sony camera or laptop and go for a similar Chinese brand instead. If they are smart they might even argue that most of these products are produced in China anyway! Which of course is true, and therefore a boycot of Japanese goods will probably hurt Chinese more than it does the Japanese. And long-term effects could even be worse: when Japanese businesses decided to shift their investment to other countries the Chinese are even worse off. It[base ']s all about business these days in China, and that may very well be the reason that Xinhua is keeping silent. 9:31:19 AM    comment []