Chinese Lives Matter

China began a program of nationalist, anti-Japanese education in the 1990s.

In August 1994, the Chinese Communist Party set up an educational platform based on anti-Japanese, patriotic-Chinese principles. In the following year, 1995, it launched a patriotic campaign celebrating the 50th anniversary of the armistice of the War. In educational and public policies, the Chinese Communist Party used antiJapanese, patriotic ideology, which also became its raison d’etre. The Chinese Communist government was in a difficult situation. It was no longer able to assert its validity by maintaining the Marxist idea of human liberation, and so the Chinese Communist Party finally came to the conclusion: in order to convince the people of its
validity, its last resort was to emphasize that the patriotic Communist Party saved China from the militarist Japanese aggressors.

The propaganda worked. There were the major anti-Japan riots a few years ago, and smaller national protests in the early 2000s. More than a decade ago I heard college students say very hateful things, such as "I hope to wake up one morning and hear the island of Japan has sunk." Students were very animated and angry when the protests were rolling.

A couple of years ago, you could turn on the TV in China at almost any hour and see an anti-Japan TV show, ranging from spy dramas to Chinese soldiers killing Japanese soldiers with kung fu special effects reminiscent of the 70s and 80s. It became so absurd and vulgar (one girl split a soldier in half, head to toe) that there was a backlash. China cracks down on over-the-top anti-Japan dramas

But Chinese viewers have taken to social media to complain about the ridiculous plots in the anti-Japan dramas, including one show in which heroic Chinese split Japanese soldiers in half with their hands, something shown in graphic detail.

Another features a Chinese archer who can shoot multiple arrows in just one shot, killing several Japanese soldiers at the same time.

"The anti-Japan war is a great act of heroism performed by the Chinese people against the invaders, and is a valuable resource for film and television creativity," television watchdog official Wang Weiping told the official People's Daily.

"Recently some of this creativity has shown a lack of seriousness, creating lots of nonsense, not respecting history and being overly entertaining which has had a bad effect on society which must be corrected," Wang added.

I don't know if it is still the case, but up until I left China you could turn on the TV at almost any hour and see an anti-Japan program.

What's remarkable is how much this is paralleled by the U.S. government's propaganda aimed at African-Americans and other minorities.

The Chinese inculcated the youth by teaching them about WWII atrocities as if they happened yesteday, just as the American propaganda arms teach about white historical crimes as if they happened yesterday. A friend of mine was in a slavery exhibit a few years ago, and he overhead a black teenager say, "I @#%ing hate white people." Today, the BlackLivesMatter movement has led to the death of several police officers and race riots have erupted in several cities. Recently, some people have called BLM a hate group and some even wonder if it could be prosecuted under federal law, which has statutes against publicly calling for murder. A recent headline: BLACK LIVES MATTER SUPPORTER ARRESTED FOR ‘KILL ALL THE WHITE PEOPLE’ TWEET.

The NYTimes has the editorial in support of BLM: The Truth of ‘Black Lives Matter’. The article doesn't open with a defense of current events, but an appeal to history. Although the editorial mentions a couple of recent events, it is mostly a history lesson.

Efforts to portray the movement as inflammatory or anti-white ignore the long history of racism and violence against blacks in America.

Earlier in the week, the NYTimes ran an article on China's anti-Japan propaganda. China's Leadership Fans Smoldering Antipathy Toward Japan

By administrative order, dramas about resisting the Japanese wartime enemy will fill Chinese TV channels this week as China celebrates — including with a massive military parade — the victory over Japan 70 years ago.

Combined with pervasive patriotic education that goes to great lengths in detailing Japanese atrocities, the order on programming from Sept. 1-5 ensures that the Chinese public — generation after generation — always remembers the country's past humiliation as well as the bitter but valiant efforts to resist the Japanese.

"We are reminded of the war against Japan so constantly that I have developed an inherent antipathy toward Japan," said Cong Yuting, a 26-year-old teacher from the northeastern city of Dalian.

In America, the NYTimes and major media outlets play up every killing with a white perpetrator and black victim, distorting the reality of crime and police shootings in America. The result are similar attitudes towards white Americans and police among African-Americans.

Japan's apologies — perceived to be less than wholehearted — and its leaders' ambiguous stances are often blamed. Recent moves by Japanese leaders to change the country's constitution to allow Japan's military a greater role have added to China's perception of Japan as militaristic and unrepentant.

But Beijing's propaganda machine also has been a factor, overshadowing in many Chinese minds the fact that for more than a half-century after the war, Japan has been one of the world's more pacifist countries, not to mention generous to China with aid, especially infrastructure loans in past decades.

"Constant brainwashing since day one in the education and mass media systems has played a key role in building and keeping alive these strong anti-Japanese sentiments," said Jean-Pierre Cabestan, professor of government and international studies at Hong Kong Baptist University. "Larger segments of the Chinese society seem to really believe that the Japanese are still very militarist and nationalistic."

That is almost a perfect description of America, where mass media and schools focus on racism in the past to keep alive strong anti-white and anti-police sentiments.

Patriotic education is mandated in Chinese schools, and students often go on field trips to sites highlighting atrocities of the Japanese invaders.

The propaganda is intended to strengthen one-party rule, enlist solidarity against a common external boogeyman and distract the public from thorny domestic issues, Cabestan said.

Race has been the dominant issue for almost three years running now and identity politics has come to dominate in America, while the economy languishes.

Some Chinese scholars insist that it is Japan's failure to adequately apologize for its brutal colonization of much of China starting in 1930s and its wartime brutality that is the core reason for continued anti-Japanese sentiments.

"As an aggressor, Japan has not apologized, so how can you expect China, as the victim, to be tolerant and forgiving?" said Huang Dahui, director of the East Asia Studies Center at Beijing-based Renmin University. "How can the victim have closure when the perpetuator has not expressed genuine remorse?"

As in America, a victim mentality demands that people with no connection to events of the past, nonetheless apologize or accept punishment for the sins of 50, 100 or 200 years ago.

Asked if China has gone overboard in constantly propagating war history, Cong paused and said, "It's hard to say. I don't think it's a bad thing. If we don't do it, those born in the 1990s, 2000s or even those in 2010s won't know this part of history."

They say those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it, but those who live in the past are doomed as well.