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Originally Posted by Beestie
As I understand it, the rioters are using Japan's interest in possibly gaining a seat on the UN Security Council as an opportunity to express their displeasure with Japan's unwillingness to acknowledge its past transgressions. The Japanese textbooks are the just latest insult to the Chinese.
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This is far closer to the reality of those demonstrations. You can be sure that if those demonstrators were campaigning for democracy, the police would have stopped them cold.
The Chinese do have a point about how Japanese history is taught in Japan. I was rather surprised to learn the USS Arizona is a most popular tourist attraction for Japanese. In Japan, Pearl Harbor is not taught as a surprise attack and is a rather curious popular destination for Japanese tourists. The Rape of Nanking is also not taught.
But China does have an agenda here. A realigned Security Council should include the world's #2 and #3 economies - Japan and Germany. The current six permanent Security Council members are not keen to share power. Again, China remains suspicious of Japanese motives.
Yes there are other factors in these demonstrations. And lets not forget where more than 50% of the world's known plutonium is currently housed.
However there are too many posts here that portray China as a monolithic and evil power. Same reasoning used to claim Saddam was a threat to anyone. China, like so many other nations, is a congruence of forces. Some are very sympathetic to US interests. Others more suspicious. Was it an accident that US warplanes hit the China embassy exactly in the room where all Chinese intelligence would be collected? The same people are asking why US planes accidentally hit Al Jesera offices in both Baghdad and Kabul when such attacks would be most beneficial to US propaganda. Chinese have good reason to both be suspicious of and want to be close friends of America. There is no monolithic 'good' or 'evil' power in China - as some have posted here.
And lets not forget how dependent the US is now on China. The George Jr administration is so wildly spending away the 'fiscal responsible' gains of both the George Sr and Clinton administrations. China now controls a mountain of US cash to the benefit of America. It would take very little for China to massively undermine the US economy by dumping dollars. China has that many dollars, and is one of the largest reasons why the US dollar remains so strong and stable.
Those who monolithically promote China as an enemy should first learn how much China has been doing to maintain good US relations.