Chinese Hypocrisy

In Anti-Japan Protests Rooted in Chinese History by Rob Gifford

Anti-Japanese sentiment surged again in China Saturday, as thousands of angry citizens demonstrated against a new Japanese textbook they say glosses over Japan's wartime atrocities. There are Chinese historical precedents for the current wave of protests.

The experts note that the demonstrations could get out of control. EastWestNorthSouth offers a compelling argument about the source of the demonstrations:

• The Chinese Communist Party's expertise is in organizing mass movements.
• The Chinese Communist Party is not a monolithic block of steel. Rather, there are various factions which are always struggling against each other.
• Every single mass movement in the history of the Chinese Communist Party was the result of factional fighting. The Anti-Rightist Movement, the One Hundred Flowers Blooming campaign, the Great Leap Forward, the Cultural Revolution, the anti-Lin/anti-Confucius campaign, the 1989 student democracy movement and everything else can be interpreted in that light. A mass movement may have started spontaneously, but it will be instantaneously co-opted for factional fighting or crushed if it suited nobody's purpose. Whenever there is a mass movement, you should look at who is the black hand behind the curtain and what are the motives.

He continues:

Using these axioms, how might we interpret the events in Beijing and Shanghai over the past two weeks?

If the whole history of the Chinese Communist Party is about factional fighting, then we should identify the factions of this moment. The two major factions within the Chinese Communist Party right how are the Hu Jintao-Wen Jiabao central government and the Shanghai gang which is centered around former President Jiang Zemin.

Cicero

can't help but wonder about China's claim of 'moral' supremacy over Japan. While they riot for accuracy in Japanese history books, their own textbooks most likely lack historical exactitude. The 40 million or so Chinese who were killed by Mao probably don't figure in most Chinese history books. And I wonder how they handle China's claim over Tibet? And Tiananmen, 1989? Or Falun Gong? How do they record Mao's disastrous Cultural Revolution now that they're unabashed capitalists?

Obsessing over Japanese history is a good way to keep Chinese citizens from engrossing in their own unfortunate history. Mao's giant portrait still dominates Tienamen Square, the last time I checked. And his successors still speak his name reverently, at least in public. Since the regime appears to be detaching from Mao's murderous legacy while simultaneously claiming legitimacy from his communist system, there's some unfinished historical business, I should think. Perhaps there's a few inaccuracies in Chinese textbooks. Just a few.