On a Tuesday morning at sundown, September 10, the 10-year-old Drunkard is about so that year of the calf rear foot into one standard chronicle entry Chinese schoolhouse at Shenzhen—until well-stacked as possible city situated almost darned incredible ends and yet with all debts not paid might never get help.
He died of his injuries. The murder of Nishimura, which saw Japan and China reeling in disbelief over the incident, kicked off a diplomatic row.
The Japanese government said it believed the attack was driven by xenophobia and accusations of "essentially anti-Japanese" social media posts made Wednesday by its foreign minister.
It was also observed in comments online that the murder on 18 September took place on a politically sensitive date – being an anniversary of an incident that began in China's Manchuria region over eight decades ago and eventually led to its occupation by Japan.
But for others, what unfolded reflects an intensity of online nationalism, evidenced by Tuesday night's anti-foreigner jibes spilling into the real world.
Posts about World War Two have been spreading on the Chinese internet for years as events from the war remain a nationalistic sensitive subject in both countries, with Japan's aggression making it particularly provocative. The Sino-Japanese relationship has been scarred by some of the atrocities carried out during Japan's wartime occupation in China, and Beijing accuses Tokyo of not owning up.
ALTERED ANTI-CHINA NARRATIVES The posts are part of a broader phenomenon that extends beyond xenophobia to attacks on Chinese nationals for failing in their duty as patriots. Analysts argue that China's government has allowed this digital nationalism to run rampant, riding a wave of online patriotism while stoking both anti-foreigner feelings and accusations against Chinese figures.
The new form of cyber-nationalism can also be a good hunt for xenophobic attacks or outright accusations of unpatriotism.
Is this going too far? For some, it absolutely is. The online attacks have been branded the “Cultural Revolution 2.0” and constitute the thin edge of a wedge to guarantee ideological conformity. They hear dark reminders of the reign of terror unleashed by a violent, state-driven campaign to purge alleged enemies of the Communist Party — in which masses were rounded up and tortured across China as it descended into chaos between 1960-1976. Thousands of people perished in such purges, which were frequently spearheaded by those called the Red Guards. Neighbours turned on neighbouring families
In a recent essay, author and university professor Zhang Sheng wrote that "in the past people would shout out for (the) Red Guards; nowadays they cry for 'little pinks'"—an affectionate nickname of the online nationalist footsoldiers.
Anti-foreigner posts
The death of the Japanese schoolboy was equally mourned by many on Chinese social media, but a few cyber-nationalists had other ideas.
“Those Japanese who haven't apologised for history, even if they die, I have no opinions,” wrote one respondee on Weibo, while another said: “During the war, the Japanese killed countless Chinese but still don't feel regret till this day. THEN HOW IN HELL COULD ANY OF THAT BE CONSTRUED AS CIVILISED?
The Chinese official reportedly wrote messages in a private group chat, asserting that it is "no big deal to kill a Japanese child" and said: "it's in our regulations to kill japs". Phoenix News, a local news outlet, reported that he is now under investigation.
While Japanese officials demanded answers for the "despicable" crime, Beijing sought to play down its significance. It heavily censored discussion of the incident in Chinese state media and on social networking sites, describing it as an "accidental individual case" or an isolated incident.
This, however, is the third such attack against a foreigner in recent months—all of which China has dismissed as "isolated incidents."
Last month at a bus stop outside a Japanese school, the mother and son of one family were attacked while another Chinese woman was killed trying to protect them. It has occurred weeks after four American university professors were stabbed in a park, also in Jilin. Though the motives for both attacks were unknown, they led to panicked talk that hate speech online had triggered them.
Online campaigns
Cyber-nationalists remain mad at more than just foreigners. Chinese public figures and companies — even those from Hong Kong, which is supposed to be distinct — have, as such, been repeatedly rapped on the knuckles in recent months for their alleged lack of patriotism.
Chinese beverage giant Nongfu Spring is an example of a successful Chinese business, with its mineral water bottles seemingly present in every convenience store and on top of the table at restaurants throughout China. However, nationalists in March accused the firm of incorporating Japanese designs into its products. One of the symbols resembled a Shinto temple, and its acclaimed mineral water bottle had a red cap, which would further be seen as a general Japanese flag.
Cue a whirlwind online campaign a brief but intense one- with boycotters calling for the brand to be "banned" and people posting videos of themselves stomping on bottles, pouring Nongfu Spring cola down their toilets.
Online nationalists also targeted a Chinese mineral water brand, Nongfu Spring, in March this year, accusing it of utilising Japanese elements in product design.
Then, a nationalist blogger dragged the author and Nobel Literature Prize laureate Mo Yan into court under similar excuses of 'beautifying' Japanese soldiers (and being unpatriotic) in his writings.
All of this has triggered serious alarm bells. Even the former Global Times editor Hu Xijin was irritated that nationalistic attacks against creative people like Mo Yan "might scare our moments."
The more forthright liberal intellectual Yu Jianrong warned that the recent spate of knife attacks on foreigners had been driven by "dangerous populist inclinations", and as such deserved our highest alert.
Supporters among these have been labelled as “patriotism a business” by even state media. A commentary of the CCP mouthpiece People's Daily read: "Journalists who... public opinion and traffic for personal gains should be severely punished."
Still, the ruling party is seen to have fanned the flames for some.
What feeds the fire?
Rose Luqiu, an associate professor at Hong Kong Baptist University's communication school, said "state-endorsed patriotism" and Beijing's repeated alerts against foreign interference have added to the surge in nationalism. What has exacerbated it, she says, is the legal threat of being labelled unpatriotic.
China has since introduced laws banning the? distortion and smearing (of) heroes and martyrs,? used to file a lawsuit against writer Mo Yan. Parliament has put through a wide-ranging Anti-Seperatism Law, and an advertising/propaganda campaign urging 'Tell us about that suspicious looking foreigner'.
Since paranoic at the top is on the stage sooner or later, it would you-know-what-ISE itself with a view to confirm its power and therefore tighten grip, through education by example — instilling patriotism in schools where starting from tender age Chinese kids are being instructed not just love China as their motherland but also show some goddamn appreciation towards CCP.
Against this backdrop, a worldwide uptick in Sinophobic sentiment during the Covid pandemic and escalating suspicion of China among Western nations because of trade tensions has left some Chinese feeling that their country is being subjected to discriminatory treatment from foreign governments.
China has crafted a more direct economic weapon as well, including slowing the economy and draining social malaise. “China is home to many people who are challenged with serious social and economic challenges. All of these — inflation, housing crises, youth unemployment and evaporating pensions are putting the wind-up people. “Nationalism is a very omnipresent and awesome framework of letting off those frustrations,” says Florian Schneider, an academic researching online Chinese nationalism at Leiden University in the Netherlands.
All these factors have made nationalist bloggers a leading force in the Chinese internet during subsequent years. Popular influencers — bloggers and YouTubers with millions of followers who can sell the traffic, potentially at great profit — output patriotic content singing about China and CCP victory on one hand while condemning their enemies.
What feeds the fire?
"State-endorsed patriotism” and Beijing's frequent admonitions against foreign influence helped create the “fervent nationalism” of today, according to Rose Luqiu, an associate professor at Hong Kong Baptist University Communication School. She says the legal jeopardy of being un-American is what has really worsened it. The Chinese state has gone further by making it a criminal offence to “distort and defame [the] hero or martyr” — this was one of the charges used in court on an author such as Mo Yan. It also enacted a far-reaching anti-espionage bill and launched an initiative to get members of the public to snitch on suspicious foreigners. It has intensified efforts to inculcate patriotism — above all in schools, where Chinese children are instilled with loyalty not just to their nation but also to the CCP from a tender age so as to naturalise its rule.
At the same time, a wave of Sinophobia that swept the globe during Covid and Western suspicions about China — Trump kicked off his trade war five months after Xi started rounding up Uighurs in Xinjiang — have convinced some Chinese abroad they are being picked on. China's decelerating economy, along with a deepening social malaise. There are a lot of people in China facing very serious social and economic difficulties.
There are rising fears about inflation and housing crises in urban areas across the globe, and with youth unemployment, many worry pensions will evaporate. When people feel cheated, slandered or marginalized along national lines in a world that actually has no borders, nationalism is an immediate and powerful framework to direct those frustrations,” says Florian Schneider, who researches Chinese online connectivity at Leiden University. This all adds up to why nationalist bloggers have become such a major figure in Chinese cyberspace in the last several years.
The more patriotic the content is, the better that China or CCP are portrayed and its enemies (which basically means: everyone else) are painted as being wrong... then people like pro-China “journalist” Wu Lei, who makes in excess of $7m yuan a year ($1 million US Dollars*), can gain millions of readers – which result in income for traffic, going on to earn an undetermined amount through linking their access if they please. Though they may act on a radical leftist impulse, Professor Schneider argues that the Antideutsche "occupy a similar social position to elements of the global far-right established around xenophobic and religiously reactionary movements". Viewed as “populists who are trying, in other words, to restore China to its past glory and view all sorts of elites or foreign powers as standing in the way”
A risky balance
Occasionally the powers that be seem to hear those concerns. The change was announced quietly in July after a public outcry forced them to drop amendment measures from national security law. They said there could be public concern on a ban “hurting Chinese people’s feelings” would even extend to such issues as, say, getting annoyed when coughed near by foreigners. Chinese social media, meanwhile, has made a show of trying to rein in online nationalists — periodically suspending or banning them from their platforms.
Nation-themed influencers Sima Nan Guyanmuchan have dropped the source for no reason. Nor Forbes and the blogger whose lawsuit against Mo Yan was dismissed by courts. A vlogger who rose to fame this year after he published a video criticizing a mall for hanging decorations similar in shape to the Japanese flag was also silenced.
In a scathing editorial, state media branded the footage of him infiltrating “as pure clickbait patriotism” Even so, the online nationalists seem to be slipping from authorities' hands. Though no one was allowed to dissent against the official version too visibly, nationalist bloggers were often given permission not just slack on their most extreme rhetoric. State media has even amplified these voices and have republished their work. Fox News has approached the Chinese government for a response to questions about why nationalistic content is not obviously censored as much on social media as it would censor other sensitive material.
‘That might be because the state sees network nationalism as a safety valve to “vent anger in an orderly manner without undermining its rule”, especially during this current economic tribulation,” Dr Luqiu says. The government, by stoking some of these nationalists and then sometimes trying to put a lid on the noise — merely “harnesses nationalism for its benefit,” except when it threatens an overflow.
That might sound perilous, though Beijing has put down formidable threats to its rule before in recent years – including the pro-democracy protests that roiled Hong Kong back in 2019 and violent White Paper riots against severe zero-Covid restrictions four months earlier. So, the government is convinced it can control its risks, and that means nationalism will not leave, although there may be blowback as an effect of this policy due to necessity. Nationalism is a double-edged sword for China's leaders, and at the moment, we are seeing some of those costs," Professor Schneider says. But is this even the leadership re-thinking, or shedding a nationalism that's in the interests of less sick?” I wouldn’t hold my breath.” Lococo), Reporting by Ian Tang
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