The bellicose bluster between China and Japan continues to grow more heated, with two armed Chinese surveillance vessels circling the disputed Diaoyu islands and the Foreign Ministry in Beijing saying that long gone are the days when the Chinese nation was subject to bullying and humiliation from others.
On Wednesday, an editorial in the Communist Party-controlled Global Times newspaper said Chinese anger of more than a century toward Japan was awakened on Tuesday with the Japanese government’s purchase of the islands from a private Japanese owner. Beijing insists the sale is invalid, of course, because the islands, while they are physically controlled by Japan, are Chinese territory.
The Global Times, with several references to lingering bitterness over Japanese depredations during World War II, said it appears inevitable the two sides will be overwhelmed by hatred again now that more conflicts can be expected.
Images of Wednesday’s front pages from a number of Chinese newspapers have been collated (with translated headlines) by China Digital Times, with stories denouncing Japan and claiming the islands as Chinese territory. The state media, it appears, is fully on message.
Overseas Chinese are on the case, too: Anti-Japanese protests broke out Wednesday here in Hong Kong, in Bangkok and Taipei. (Taiwan also claims the islands.)
One phrase in the Global Times editorial on Wednesday stood out the need for China to protect its core interests as Sino-Japanese relations sour.
The term core interest might sound like simple editorial boilerplate or a harmless diplomatic cliché, but it has taken on an increasing importance for Beijing since it first began appearing in official communiqués 10 years ago. Raising the Diaoyu/Senkaku dispute to the level of a core interest for China putting it on a political footing with security issues like Taiwan and Tibet would signal another serious escalation by Beijing.
In addition to the minuscule Diaoyu group (called the Senkakus by Japan and the United States), China lays claim to much of the South China Sea. Indeed, Beijing has already had violent, maritime run-ins with several countries in the region, notably the Philippines and Vietnam.
Another worrisome escalation now whether in connection to the Diaoyu/Senkaku dispute or elsewhere would be the arming of Chinese fishermen, a suggestion that was aired recently in the People’s Daily, the principal newspaper of the Communist Party.
We should militarize our fishermen, said He Jianbin, the head of the large state-owned Baosha fishing corporation, referring to confrontations near the Spratly islands, another of Beijing’s disputes in the region. He advocated the military training of fishing crews, creating a reserve force at sea, and using these militiamen to solve the South China Sea problem.
2012 The New York Times Company