Chinese Ultra-Nationalist Website Warns Japan: No Torch Protests
![](http://www.japanprobe.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/china-anti-french.jpg "\\"Jeanne D\'Arc = Prostitute, Napoleon = Pervert, France = Nazi, FREE CORSICA\\"")
With thousands of Chinese taking to the streets in angry anti-French protests over “unfair” media coverage and the fact that some French people protested the Olympic torch relay, the Yomiuri Shinbun reports that Chinese ultra-nationalist websites are threatening to direct “patriotic” rage against Japan if protests get in the way of Chinese honor at the April 26th Nagano torch relay:
“Reaction [in China to protests in Japan] would be huge in comparison to the reaction against protests in France,” in which Web sites called for a boycott of French products sold at Carrefour stores, an international issue expert said, pointing out that negative feelings toward Japan remain strong in China due to historical issues.
A man in his 30s who runs a Web site that is popular with many Chinese “patriots,” told The Yomiuri Shimbun, “Chinese people won’t forgive [Japan] if the Japanese do the same things as the Americans and Europeans, such as making distorted reports about the Tibet issue.”
Yes, free speech is all well and good until it conflicts with China’s “patriotic” rage.
//wait, can I say that without provoking “the rage”?
Boycott is fine but i always feel a part of the chinese community seems to be misusing national pride as an excuse to take out their fustration on everything any thing and in the end hurting their own people.
Like the protests in the past against Japan where the mob of protesters goes out and destroy a bunch of Chinese own and operated stores that are only connected to Japan by brand etc..what’s the point in a violent act like that? All they end up hurting is their own people and make their image worsen to the eyes of the world.
If they boycott French related goods/brand. Do they go home and throw out all their belongings that are made in France or have some connection to France.
If they boycott against Japan do they rush to throw out all their Japanese made goods, camera, phones, game devices, etc etc
If they are to boycott or protest then should do so peacefully and logically, show the world how proud they are being Chinese and how far they have come.
Not act in ways that end up hurting their own people and image which they are so proud of, as if not then they are just the same as those whom they are protesting about.
I cant agree more. we should protest peacefully. Sad to see the boycott turning into this situation
Get the feeling that government-owned Chinese media is distorting news about how international media has been reporting news about human rights abuses in China.
Hmm, if there’s something they don’t want people to hear, they don’t have to distort anything. They’ll just issue a directive or so to national publications not to write anything about it.
You might have neglected the fact that the students overseas, esp. in France and UK HAVE ALL ACCESS to all kinds of media and they still end up so angry and frustrating. The boycott and conflict starts with those students overseas, not from China itself.
And with the Internet, the government could only block that many. They cant block all channels from which people can know what is actually going on with the torch relay. At least most of my high school friends in China know pretty well the real situation when we discuss about this, instead of the weather was bad and the torch relay went generally smoothly….
Yep - impressive how blinding unconditional nationalism can be, eh?
Im glad to finally see China citizens protest something…well, at least doing it without getting beat up, arrested, and shot by their government. Hopefully protesting other countries will teach the chinese how to stand up againt their own government. Would love to see these anti-french demonstrations turn into a pro-democracy movement…but if that were to happen, chinese citizens would be shot and then they would understand why the French are protesting against China’s authoritarian rule… (a funny pickle for china to be in)
Don’t hold your breath. What you see now is a direct result of CCP’s fanning the flames of nationalism in China as a way to direct criticism away from the party. If anything these rabid, mindless nationalists will criticize the CCP for not doing enough to make outsiders, Tibetans and ’splitists’ pay.
Nationalism is a disease.
You don’t really think these protests aren’t completely planned, authorized, instigated, funded, etc. by the Chinese government, do you?
Or at the very least run by university Communist anti-foreigner clubs? which in turn are authorized by the government?
Any protest in China that is not broken up by the police there, and any protest that the Chinese police ALLOW to be openly photographed and broadcast freely, is obviously authorized by the government.
FREE TIBET, and while you’re at it
FREE CHINA, TOO!
This is just stupid because, unlike China, you can’t control when and where people protest. If people in Japan want to protest the torch that is their freedom to do so.
Absolutely right - the Chinese sites making these ‘warnings’ don’t seem to grasp that - unlike in their own country - people in Japan (and the West) who choose to make a stand do so out of their own freedom - not because their government will knock on the door if they don’t.
I was at the London free-Tibet protests - and I’m proud of every single other person throughout the world who dared resist the threats of the CCP.
Mao thought religion was a poison of the mind: I wonder if it’d worry him to see how religiously nationalistic his country has become.
CNN is a professional liar on china’s issue
Really? Like to explain that one?
China is also a professional liar on just about everything.
in China there is a big problem with media freedom.
But let me just say that no media is completely objective.
Do u ever doubt why there is so little coverage about Iraq war in the US? Do u actually think CNN and other media reporting some prisoners being tortured by American soldiers proves that these media are all so unbiased even if it is against their own army?
In every country, the media is affected by the government.
And in this case in Paris, this kinda selective blindness of the French media has come to an extent that Chinese students abroad cannot stand it any more…
Do some research before you starts criticizing pls. And don’t always put “china is a liar” in the first place when you look at different issues. Then you are not better than Chinese government…
Sorry, but I would have to say that this comment wasn’t “overthought”.
“Do you think the international media has been unfairly distorting news about human rights abuses in China?”
Huh?
Seems like you are completely clueless or misunderstood at what sparked the recent protests in China against the international media (particularly CNN). The “unfair distort news” that made Chinese people angry were referring to the one-sided bias reports on the recent Tibet riot, for example: claiming pictures of Nepalnese police arresting Tibetan monk as “China Army beat up Tibetan monk”, or Chinese army rescuring people who got beat up by Tibetan rioters as “Chinese army arresting Tibetan”, or deliberately cropping pictures (i.e. Tibeten throwing rocks at tank, CNN crop the picture to look like as if the Tank is running over people), citing old pictures from 2003 of a movie behind the scene as “proof” that Chinese army dress up as tibetan monks…etc etc.. there’re many many more other completely bias and distort news report. That’s what really sparks the protests. Please please do try to at least understand what is really going on before “reporting” here and making opinion polls? It’s really not that hard to find out what’s going on, just spend 10 minute to do a little “research”….really…
Do you think Yomiuri is unfairly distorting Chinese “patriotic” action?
Surely in this case the best response is to simply vote “no”?
I’d like to see some links and sources for your accusations.
It’s too bad that in China, the proof to counter your claims is of course, BLOCKED by your Chinese government, so you can’t find it, but we, in FREE countries can see it.
Unless you have full access granted to you by your propaganda minister so that you can spread lies on international websites as a paid representative of the Chinese government.
It’s sad that China wastes so much time and manpower on propaganda, but there are just so MANY of you, manpower is cheap, right?
Well, keep up your propaganda work, but make sure you don’t see anything you’re not supposed to see. Your bosses might just have to kill you and yuor family.
Now this is a real funny post. Just keep this diatribe up. It makes me laugh.
It is true that CNN’s reporting can be unbelievably sloppy but that’s different from biased.
Well, look at that!!!
Chinese students have decided to stop the seemingly endless protests against the United States and Japan (at least temporarily).
Instead, this week’s enemy of Chinese demonstrators is France!!! Mon dieu.
Score one for President Sarkozy. I, for one, hope he doesn’t attend the opening ceremonies of the Olympics. If memory serves, Germany’s Chancellor Merkel and the UK’s PM Brown won’t be going to Beijing this summer either. Unfortunately, it appears that some high level official from the US, possibly President Bush, will be attending the opening ceremony.
Apparently, PM Fukuda has told the Chinese that Tibet is now an “international issue”. Good for him, although it probably isn’t too long before Chinese demonstrators go back to their usual activity of burning Japanese flags in Shanghai due to that remark. Since he has become PM, Mr. Fukuda doesn’t seem to be afraid to speak his mind. Here’s hoping he continues doing so.
Granted, the issue of Tibet is a relatively easy issue for most world leaders to make some quick political capital by criticizing China’s Communist/Authoritarian government. However, it is refreshing to see world leaders stand up to the 800lbs gorilla that is China on at least one issue.
What? Fukuda has been meek since becoming Prime Minister. He didn’t meet the Dalai Lama and he hasn’t really criticised China.
The supreme irony is that while my local Carrefour was closed yesterday because of the protests/boycott, all the people that would have been shopping there shifted over to the Japanese owned Jusco just a block away. So I suppose when it’s time to boycott the Japanese, they’ll just shift back and go to the Carrefour. haha
The Chinese keep using the “world war 2 card” to silence Japan with anything that is against China’s will.
It’s pathetic.
Agreed. Its been a part of CCP foreign policy for 30+ years. Too bad there are so many brainwashed and ignorant Chinese nationalists floating around.
Regarding the poll.
“Do you think the international media has been unfairly distorting news about ______”.
Fill in the blank here with anything at all and I will say YES.
That is how the media makes a living after all.
I think you have to insert another blank to make it a bit fairer.
“Do you think the _____ media has been unfairly distorting news about ______”.
That’s more like it.
I wish these demonstrations did not turn into Boxer Rebellion in the 21th century.
i wouldn’t trust anything from china, whether in word,
deed, or product. Hell no!
Time and time again these protests (US embassy, anti-Japan riots) remind me of the Cultural Revolution and overzealous red guards.
What’s quite rich is that these people accuse the “Western media” of “distortion” all the while parroting the Chinese state-controlled media.
Indeed, the rabid mindless motion of these individuals is entirely reminiscent of the rabid mindless motion of people everywhere in China during the Cultural Revolution. It seems the Chinese are prone to herd mentality and manipulation.
Idiots are easy to be manipulated. eg. you know who.
I’m really disappointed with Chinese people in the west. They have free access to information so they should know about Tiananmen, Falun Gong etc. Even so they are not prepared to protest or fight for their own right to free speech or their own right to vote. They are not prepared to protest for the rights of minorities in China. However they _are_ ready to protest because of a frickin’ torch?!
Yeah, its pretty ridiculous.
so ダビ, what do overseas Chinese reactions tell you? Doesn’t it suggest that the so called “truth” purported by the western media may not be the complete story? There are a lot more to it than foreigners/gaijin understand or appreciate. While you accuse the Chinese of being ignorant about their history, I suggest you examine yours and be a little sceptical of what you read in the press, especially when the western (incl Japanese) press regularly demonstrates paranoia and suspicion of systems/ideas that are different from theirs. The west does not have the complete story and its prescriptions do not always work. If you’re not convinced, look at what has happened/is happening in Iraq, Afghanistan etc.
Iraq and Afghanistan has nothing to do with this.
As a Japanese, I understand the western media’s tendency of the biased coverage of asian countries. But that doesn’t justify this kind of excessive nationalism and doesn’t legitimate CCP’s tibet policy. Their strong anti-Japan and anti-West feelings now worrying even CCP’s leaders have been formed and nutured by so-called “patriotic education” since Jiang Zemin era. We’ve seen a series of this “match pomps”(Engrish that means “after setting fire using a match, quench it using a pump” process). I am seriously concerned about whether CCP can control their zeal during the Olympic games or not. If failed, this festival would mark the beginning of the chaotic power struggles within CCP and PLA. I don’t hope such a future for China and Chinese people.
China is so gay.
Love the words written on the french flag.
Joan of Arc = Prostitute
I understand that some Chinese have a point and I encourage freedom of speech but was that flag really justified? No one is going to take you seriously while you are making statements like that.
Cant the world get along?
I’m sure the British would have agreed with that sentiment back in the day…..
So did the government stage an English-language protest march for English language media at 10AM, then a French-langauge version at 11AM?
Why write English in an anti-French protest?
In further news, no surprise but, France today surrendered to China.
Carrefour will now be known as “People’s Goods Distribution Center”, and all Chinese citizens who have made appropriate bribes will be permitted to pay 300% of the original price for luxury foreign goods.
As a good brainwashed American you used the word “surrender” to write about France, the Bush government is happy that his massive effort in making Americans people to accept the war in Irak have been successful.
You are obviously not familiar with American culture or you would recognize dry humor in the use of the word surrender. It was a barb. AND AMERICANS HAVE NOT ACCEPTED ANT WAR_ IRAQ OR OTHERWISE. Taxpaying citizens are actually getting tired of paying for problems “over there” We are happy to remove Bush and his cronies from power and continue our “American experiment” in good goverment. And respect is earned and not like dollars
Some of comments really hoping China would go down to hell. Sorry, you have been disappointed so far. You can’t stop the trend of the world power being shifted to the East, especially to China. You or your kids need to talk to China in a very respect way in order to get your business going. to bad to you.
Young professionals and middle class in China surpose to be pro-West. Because of your teaching, they will know how to deal with West when they are in power. It would be much strong than current CCP leaders. when professional people with capitalism in mind and democracy game in hands, it would be your days to beg.
Please verify it by yourselves or your kids in 10 or 20 years.
You will probably find that most anti-China comments are against the totalitarian overlords that run the country, not the country or its people per se.
However it will be a bit longer before world power shifts to China. China’s importance at the moment is based on two things: a vast population - so that even ten percent in the middle class makes it the same size as Japan’s middle class, and so that it often comes very high in statistical ratings simply due to the huge number of people there; and second, related to this population, an almost inexhaustible supply of cheap labour from the rural hinterland. When this is used up, what then? Will it be able to adapt?
When Chinese brands start making an impact in the world like Toyota and Sony, and even Hyundai and LG, then we can take serious notice. At the moment it seems to be a sweatshop for producing foreign brands cheaply.
Japan is a rich country. China is a poor country with some rich people in it. That’s the difference. (And of course, while it may not be ideal, Japan is a democracy and has a level of freedom of speech that China is far from.)
It’s not about grand products.
It’s about weight of economic and political impact. It’s about China market.
Why did the U.S. and China hold economic talking regularly? Why did the last conference of Iran nuke hold in Shanghai two weeks ago? Why did the U.S. and Japan ask China to work on N. Korea nuke?…. Why does Wall Street care about China’s economy and policies very much? Why did multinationals continue supporting Beijing Olympics regardless pressures of “democratic” public of the West? Why do all major hotel chains keep building hotels in China, yet still not enough rooms for visitors.
You figure it out.
Access to cheap labour.
And the “China Illusion” that once motivated the factories of England. It was once said that “if every Chinaman were to add an inch to his shirt, all the factories in England would be kept going for a year.”
100 million is a big middle-class market, but it’s still only a tenth of China, and it’s what will happen with that other 90% that is worrying.
Hopefully, a future pro-west, democratic, post-CCP group of Chinese individuals won’t feed their children with nationalism and hate for their neighbors as the current crop are being brought up with.
A pity that Mao almost erased every shred of Confucian wisdom that Chinese society had thrived on up until his time came. Perhaps we would have more Chinese who remember that understanding other peoples’ perspectives is a good thing.
I thought more or less unconditional obedience of the leaders of society was one of the tenets of Confucianism
Not sure about “unconditional obedience”, but yes, Confucianism does endorse submission to leaders, society, etc. I think shazzbot must have been referring to Taoism (or Daoism), which is, in a way, the opposite of Confucianism. But regardless, I agree that Chinese culture has been devastated these past decades. The only thing you have left is government approved “culture”, which isn’t exactly a lot.
Unconditional obedience isn’t the word for it and it isn’t even what I was referring to. What I meant was that Confucianism stressed wisdom as opposed to reactionary mindlessness. Sound judgment went out the door when Mao sent the Red Guards to attack the ‘Four Olds’. Perhaps even before that as well.
Any claim to Tibet that China ever legitimately had was obliterated with the fall of the Ming Dynasty.
In 20 years China in all probability will be a gigantic polluted wasteland, where the dying population will hardly be able to breath (or drink or grow enough food) let alone breed.
People are not against Chinese people, actually people love traditional Chinese culture. People are against
oppressing Tibetan poeple. How many Tibetan people China has killed since 1949?
Freedom to Tibet, Freedom to China. That’s what people are hoping for.
When did these chinese will understand the meanings of free speech, democracy and human right?
In China, what hell jobs the news media? just for brain-washing? Living in a democratic country such and French and USA but still acting like a barbarian.
I think you are brainwashed by the West medias with no abilities of reading history or world economics.
Haven’t you seen the world has been changed. Be real, your arrogent wouldn’t change the fact that the West must share the power with the East especially in China. Isn’t Iraq war not enough forthe West? would like to take China on?
Haha. Wow, you poor soul. The world hasn’t changed nearly as much as you believe it has. The truth is that it is a sad thing.
World history. World economics. Please, tell us about them. All of us are morons and only CCP puppets know the truth.
That was sarcasm since you probably didn’t pick up on that.
Yeah, although Third World nations have evened the field out somewhat, hypocritical Western nations who think they have the right to criticize the Chinese after subjugating the rest of the world and not apologizing for it still have much of the world’s power balance. True, the world hasn’t changed nearly as much as he thinks.
Anyone reading your comments would know you’re clearly an idiot. Talk about brainwashed.
That’s exactly why this is so worrying. China may become a superpower before it becomes a democracy governed by the rule of law. It’s up to the Chinese people to change China into a country that respects the human rights of its and other countries’ citizens. Otherwise China will be a very bad influence on the world as it rises to power.
That even many expat Chinese are apologetic about the Chinese governments often blatant crimes is a scandal. But at least we have the Epoch Times people…
If you’ve ever talked to Chinese “patriots” at their pro-China rallies, you’d realize that they’re seriously just drones who just parrot the party line and don’t even listen to rhyme or reason. Case in point, there was a pro-Tibet demonstration at my school, and since I had nothing better to do I watched. Of course, the pro-China people come and start s*** with them, and I had one of them ask me why I support Tibet. She kept going on and on about how the west “distorts” the issue, that these Tibetans are liars and were never born there, etc. despite one of them giving a speech about how he escaped. I guess if you repeat a lie enough it becomes true.
Oh and Expat, hell will freeze over before my or my kids kowtow to a Chinese superpower.
I am French and quite shocked by the picture of the French flag with the insults on it.
Let’s put Jeanne d’Arc aside. It is now mainly a symbol for the extreme nationalist in France. But “France = Nazi” ??? Do they really know what Nazis have done to the France? Do they want French people say “China = Japanese Army while the Nanking Massacre” ?
The “Free Corsica” is quite funny. Few years ago, Corsicans have voted to know if they really wanted to get independence. Guess what? The majority asked to stay with France! Yes, France is still a real democracy.
I don’t want to express my opinion on the French protests against the torch relay. It is a complicated subject. But I am really angry against the Chinese Officials. During the day of the torch relay, France have been under China’s laws. Tibetan flags have been stolen by policemen. (it is not a crime in France to have a tibetan flag!) And Cameramen from the national television have been escorted outside of the relay because they were filming the protesters. I can’t remember the last time France worked like this!
It is sad Chineses want to boycott France… I have nothing against Chineses, I think they have a great culture. It’s just their government which we can’t bear. And why are they so mad against France? It’s not the only country which had problems during the torch relay…
For them, Nazi only seems to mean the evil country or something like that. France, le pays de l’origine de droit de l’homme, is targeted as a country that represents “The West”.
I had no idea Jean D’Arc was a symbol for the French extreme right. very interesting!
Chinese people = oppressed and un/mis educated. I feel sorry for them, too bad they don’t rise up against their fascist government. They have had their minds messed with by their government for so long that they are completely warped.
Chinese nationalists needn’t fear - protests in Japan will pale in comparison with those in Australia.
Seriously, one day, that extreme nationalism will eventually destroy the country.
Tibet had a master-slavery social structure prior to the CCP assuming governance in that part of the country. Violations of basic human rights were common place under the rule of Dalai Lama and the ruling class. So CCP’s intervention has actually helped to substantially improve many many people’s living standards, social equity as well as giving many rights to the people. It is true that the respect for rights such as free speech and political association still has a long way to go by Western democratic standards, but I think we should still give the CCP credits for many good things it has done. Furthermore, Western notions of democratic political freedom have not been achieved in other parts of China either. Thus, one cannot say that CCP is unfairly discriminating against the Tibetans.
I think it’s the Chinese media that’s distorting things, not the Western media. But I think that there’s a perception across much of the world that China has instituted a vicious crackdown against Tibetans, with thousands killed. In fact, I don’t think the number of Tibetans killed in the recent events even reaches into the low hundreds.
The Chinese attitude seems unreasonable, but the Chinese look at it from the perspective of Western (and Japanese) attempts to humiliate them. Looked at that way, I can understand their defensiveness.
Of course, these events should be protested, it’s just somewhat sickening to see them being protested by Westerners and Japanese. I’m amazed at how everyone’s ganging up on China in this board. Well, it’s always good to attack someone while they’re “down” and when you’re sure everyone’s with you. It makes me wonder whether they actually care about the Tibetans or whether they’re merely using them as a reason to attack the Chinese. Wouldn’t that be the most cruel thing?
And another thing. Assuming there should be protests, should the Olympics be protested? The ones protesting over “a frickin’ torch” are Westerners, not the Chinese. The Olympics, and the torch, belong to the world, not just to China. And that time when protesters attacked a wheelchair-bound Chinese athlete in France was nothing short of revolting. Is this what people who are honestly concerned about the Tibetans want?