Thursday, April 21, 2005
China and Japan: the textbook wars
I cannot believe that a reprinted text-book could be the making of a diplomatic incident. One can see it now: WWI began with the shooting of the Crown Prince of the Austro-Hungarian Empire by a Serbian nationalist, WWII began with the rise of Nazism and the invasion of Poland. The Sino-Japanese War of 2005 began with an argument of a school textbook.

Maybe the Japanese Government has reacted with insensitivity and has not matched contemporary Germany in facing up to atrocities in the past. But the Chinese leadership's attitude is no less disingenuous. Its suppression of dissent and public demonstration in opposition to the government is brutal and total, yet it is willing to tolerate and it seems, surreptitiously support, public action against Japanese interests in China.

I am not sure that the Japanese government should be the ones to point this out to them, but it seems that at the moment so many want to be China's trading friend, that no one else dare say it.

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