From left to right: Sima Nan, Zhou Xiaoping, and Fang Zhouzi

Until this week, the social critic Sima Nan was best known for getting his head stuck in an escalator at Dulles Airport. That moment was particularly precious because Nan, a devoted neo-Maoist, had just posted another of his anti-America screeds on Sina Weibo before flying to DC.

But China’s most famous wumao is now back in the news for a more impressive reason: as an impassioned defender of free speech.

The wumao, or 50-centers, are patriotic Web commenters who sing the praises of big government, whether for a paycheck or genuine nationalism – the latter have a special name, Ziganwu, “wumao who runs on his own fuel.” (Indeed, this very site has lately been enjoying their considerable insight –Ed.)

The talk of the Chinese Internet has been the overnight elevation of a new leader to the wumao ranks, “online writer” Zhou Xiaoping. Zhou reportedly was invited to attend a Forum on Art and Literature on October 15 held by “Uncle” Xi Jinping, where he posted a rather blurry selfie that featured the chairman in the background. That he wasn’t wrestled to the ground indicated Zhou’s star was in the ascendancy.

The 33-year-old actually began his writing efforts with a Sina blog back in 2005, where his provocatively titled articles have the measured nuance of Rush Limbaugh on a Vicodin binge. “America-Style Democracy Can Kill You,” begins one. Another warns, “If American Soldiers Invade China, I Will Have No Choice But To Join the Taliban.” Many are plain vulgar: “Some Gossip About the Gay Affair Between Gary Locke and Brother Blind” describes an alleged relationship between the former US ambassador and blind activist Chen Guangchen.

Such sophomoric writings have made Zhou a laughingstock even within the wumao community. His nickname, “Belt Fish” Zhou, was earned for his penchant toward fabricating evidence (Zhou had claimed that social critic Charles Xue was “spreading rumors” about Zhejiang beltfish farms suffering water pollution. When people pointed out that the beltfish is not farmed, Zhou revised his article and claimed the original was by an unknown sock puppet out to discredit him).

Has Xi actually read any of Zhou’s bollocks? Hard to say, but that’s irrelevant now anyway. Following the presidential praise, Zhou is a made man, and millions of readers have to pretend to give a shit about what he says. He has interviews with People’s Daily and affiliated tabloid Global Times (neither mention the beltfish), and has published three articles (“Broken Dreams in the USA,” “Fly, Chinese Dream,” and “Their Dreams and Our Flags”) on Reference News, the best-selling newspaper in China.

Not that there aren’t knives out for Zhou. Fang Shimin, better known as Fang Zhouzi for his relentless fights against plagiarism and fraud, published his own point-by-point critique of Zhou’s “Broken Dreams” on October 21.

The pair has history. Fang himself was maligned by Zhou in a 2010 article titled “This World Will Enjoy Harmony When Fang Zhouzi Doesn’t Exist Anymore.” It took four years, but Zhou’s wish was realized merely hours after Fang’s rebuttal came out: Not only was the blog deleted, Fang’s accounts on Sina Weibo and Sina Blog were soon gone altogether. Within a day, almost all reposts of the article were also erased. It’s as if Fang didn’t exist anymore.

But with Fang, has harmony returned to the galaxy? Far from it, says, of all people, Sima Nan. “Fang held his rationality as always and corrected the untrue parts in [Zhou Xiaoping]’s article,” Sima wrote (pictured below). “I tried to repost Fang’s article but was blocked too. Firstly, I hope that was a mistake by law enforcement; second, I hope the blogger [i.e. Zhou] will stand up and speak for himself; and third, hopefully Fang Zhouzi’s account will be spared from death when the sun rises again.”

Alas, it was Sima’s post itself that was deleted. That led to a meditation on rule of law, the theme of the Communist Party’s Fourth Plenum.

“Learning from the plenum documents should combine realities. There’s one thing I just can’t get over thinking about,” admitted the leftist in an emotional plea. “A popular science writer that I know, whose name now cannot even be mentioned, is blocked all over the Internet. None of his works can be read on Weibo or WeChat. Please – exactly what law did this writer break? Stripping him of his right to speech rights, is that legal? Please help me understand!”

That post was also blocked. Unbowed, Sima made a third petition: “Could [administrators] mercifully allow [Fang’s] popular science writings to be published? Even in the days when the Qin Emperor launched his ‘Burning Books and Burying Scholars’ campaign, he didn’t burn all books… Your grace, please think carefully!”

So, why is Sima Nan doing this?

Well, he wasn’t always been known for being a blowhard. Sima was once a keen critic of pseudo-science himself in the 1990s. He met Fang in 1997 as a guest speaker at a forum led by Fang on academic corruption, according to this interview. “Fang Zhouzi is hardworking, insightful and feisty… many elites choose to protect themselves by not pointing fingers at plagiarism and lies, but some choose to stand out. Fang is a respectable, fearless warrior,” he told the journalist in 2010.

Fang returned the favor by publicly acknowledging Sima as a friend, something which won him few friends (here’s Sima having a shoe thrown at him by one of his detractors). “I don’t agree with his basic political ideas, but it doesn’t mean I can’t make friends with him,” Fang said in an interview with Tencent News. “I’m not looking for a political ally.”

But friendship may be only part of the reason. Political observer Zhang Lifang says that Xi Jinping’s Mao-style Forum is an attempt to seize the “market” of mainstream commentary and “replace it with political control.” Many, like Sima, were tempted to sign up, says Zhang: “But as it turned out to simply mean degrading themselves ahead of cheap scum like Zhou, they are reluctant.

“Even if Zhou doesn’t have a market, he doesn’t need one. If one day all public intellectuals are diminished, [wumao] will lose their jobs too. That’s why you now see many wumaos like Sima Nan talking more and more like public intellectuals.”

That, after all, may not be a bad thing.

Follow Valentina @valentinaluo.

It’s 2.6 GB, but if you have the disk space and five hours to spare, go here to download Glorious Mission Online, a first-person shooter you’ll be hearing a lot more about in the coming hours and days.

Glorious Mission is the People’s Liberation Army’s military simulation, developed by the Chinese company Giant Interactive Group. A few years ago, it was used as a training and leisure program for real, actual Chinese soldiers. Now, it’s a free, downloadable game that lets players try their hand at defending the Diaoyu Islands.

The game was released on Thursday, on the anniversary of the founding of the PLA.

Reports Reuters:

The PLA was interested in having a 3D interactive game for simulations with virtual replicas of their weapons, said Richard Chiang, a spokesman for Giant Interactive.

“The military was 100 percent behind this game,” he said. “Rather than playing the same foreign games like Call of Duty and being American Marines shooting Russians or whatnot, Chinese can actually play as Chinese soldiers.”

A term you’ll hear throughout the game is guizi, referring to the “Japanese devils” who occupied China during World War II.

“The guizi are coming!” warns the game in a scenario where players are tasked with defending a World War Two-era Shanghai and its cultural artefacts from Japanese invaders.

“The guizi have been obliterated!” Glorious Mission congratulates the player after a grenade explodes under the last enemy’s feet. Shanghai’s museums are saved.

Yes, save the museums. Save the motherland. Capture those rocks in the East China Sea.

If you get tired of Glorious Mission (and why would you get tired of it?), we recommend Defense of the Diaoyu Islands. It’s not really the same kind of game, but when the objective is to kill Japanese, what does it matter?

UPDATE, 8/6, 12:32 am: Caveat emptor. As sent along by reader Joel M:

The Wall Street Journal has a follow-up to a Chinese state media article we linked to yesterday, in which a South Korean broadcaster, while trying to express relief that the two girls who died on Asiana flight 214 from Shanghai to San Francisco via Seoul were not Korean (as if nationality matters in these tragedies), used utterly regretful phrasing.

Here’s Yoon Kyung-min, presenter of Channel A’s Sunday news show, as translated by WSJ:

“We just received an update that the two dead are assumed to be Chinese….We can say it is a relief at least for us,” Channel A presenter Yoon Kyung-min said on a news broadcast for the cable news channel on Sunday.

“Us”? South Korean news couldn’t possibly be more nationalistic than Chinese news, could it? We found the video above, for those who speak Korean. (Perhaps you can also help us answer the preceding question.)

Meanwhile, as Korean viewers expressed their discontent (“If it had been China who made such a comment, [Korean internet users] would have probably started an online war against China”), Korean media went into spin control as it emphasized the crew’s rescue efforts while deemphasizing the fact that pilot error likely caused the crash. According to WSJ, “Only one major South Korean daily prominently raised the question of potential pilot error in the crash, with a headline on its front page that read: ‘Pilot of Crashed Plane Only Had 43 Hours of Flight Experience on B777.’”

Channnel A did apologize for Yoon’s comments though… sort of. In a released statement, it said:

“The comment was made to emphasize the fact that there is no Korean dead in the accident, which is a relief for us. We apologize for not running the live show smoothly.”

Meanwhile, here are the two Chinese hosts of the talk show Shuo Tian Xia (说天下, Talk Under Heaven) rebuking Yoon:

You might think a Chinese broadcaster calling out any journalist is a pretty extreme case of pot calling the kettle black, but I’m with them on this one. You have to be awfully stupid to say what Yoon did on national TV, especially right after a tragedy. Nationalism has no place here.

Newscaster’s Comments Spur Anger (Korea Realtime)

UPDATE, 9:16 pm: China’s CNTV getting into the act:

“Lives have the same value no matter what nationalities they are. Reports can’t be like that. The reporter might have made a mistake during an emergency report,” a South Korean journalist said.

“The nationalities of the victims are not important. We should feel sympathy while reporting such accidents. No matter if it’s a mistake, reporters should be very careful while reporting such sensitive issues.”

Its most controversial days are likely behind it, but we have one more update on Beijing Snacks, which some have taken to calling “the most racist restaurant in Beijing” thanks to its owner pasting a “no dog… no Japanese et al.” sign on the front window. RFH recently visited with friends, including a Japanese man named Tomo (initial plans to bring a dog were scrapped). Here’s what he had to say about the place in a piece for That’s Beijing:

The restaurant serves, as mentioned, northern capital delicacies. These usually have a strong smell and taste, and can be found by following the trail of pungent whiffs: one notorious local dish is simply called ‘stinky tofu.’ Our arts editor, James, describes the style as “hearty and heavy. It’s difficult to grow things up here, so there really isn’t much of a varied diet.” Young Beijinger Jinqing says it is “mostly based on Shandong cuisine and quite salty… As the former capital of Qing Dynasty China, it also combines features of Mongolian food (grilled beef and lamb [i.e. chuanr]) and Manchurian confections.”

Ah, but you don’t care about the food, do you? You just want to know how the manager reacted when he found out he had unwittingly served a Japanese customer. Disgruntled, for one…

But overall, the food would fall flat to any experienced Beijing snacker. It turns out that notorious ex-sign was one of the main things going for the place. On that subject, we tried to lure Boss Wang to our table to discuss the matter a number of times, but he was churlishly holed up in the corner, answering our comments with non-committal, monotone grunts. I think he was onto us from the beginning, really. Eventually, while paying the bill, we mentioned how much Tomo, our sushi-guzzling Japanese friend, had enjoyed the food. The frown faded from his face, swiftly replaced by a scowl. All eye contact vanished. I’ve never before seen anyone go so rapidly from grumpy to grumpier. Admittedly, the remark was a touch provocative. But all we’d said was that he’d enjoyed the meal: we didn’t tell him they “serve a much better lu zhu huo shao on the Senkakus” or anything. Still, I guess if you are a serious racist, learning that you just served a grinning devil your own House Special has to hurt in a Special way.

As we said our goodbyes outside, some of the staff gathered at the window to stare at us. This is a non-traditional Beijing goodbye – it says approximately something like “Don’t ever come back here again, you running dogs.” One of them glared balefully through the spot where the sign had once proudly hung on the glass. I gave him my warmest smile and pedaled off.

Invited to comment on the story, PKU Professor of Japanese Studies Wang Jian told Beijing Cream’s editor-at-large that she thought the restaurant’s behavior was “terrible.”

She explained that “that’s how Chinese people were treated during the Anti-Japanese War. But it doesn’t mean they can simply use it now against the Japanese. That’s not what civilized people do. There are surveys in Japan about their attitudes towards Chinese and 70 percent of them don’t like Chinese. But they’d never do that.”

If readers know of any xenophobic sushi bars in Okinawa, though, you be sure to let us know!

‘No Japanese or… dog’: A meal at Beijing’s most racist restaurant (That’s Beijing)

The Beijing restaurant manager, a man surnamed Wang, who doesn’t want to serve customers from countries engaged in maritime disputes with China has removed this fairly racist sign from his Houhai establishment. He took it down Thursday by his own volition, according to AFP, but has “refused to apologise.”

“I don’t have any regrets,” he told AFP. “I was just getting too many phone calls about it.”

Well, that makes sense. This, however, does not:

“Maybe people misunderstood our meaning… it only said we would not serve customers from those countries,” he said.

Um. Good clarification.

Meanwhile, we’ve learned that the restaurant serves “soup made with pork offal and gravy-soaked biscuits.” So there. Another reason not to visit. (But we’ll let you know if we do.) UPDATE, 3/6, 10:05 am: Like this.

Beijing restaurant removes ‘racist’ sign after fury (AFP)

So, it seems that some people have yet to fully understand why racism is a bad thing. With tensions in the South China Sea remaining high, we’re still being treated to bizarre examples of unhealthy nationalism.

The latest can be found here in Beijing: the proprietors of a snack shop in Houhai called Beijing Snacks [百年卤者] have put up a notice refusing customers from countries engaged in maritime disputes with China. 

The bilingual sign above, via Rose Tang, reads: “本店不接待日本人菲律宾人越南人和狗 — This shop does not receive the Japanese, the Philippines, the Vietnamese, and dog.”

This kind of sign would result in a hefty fine in most places and instant removal, but here, it’s more likely that a restaurant gets in trouble for “hurting the feelings of Chinese people” by referring to sensitive history. About a year ago, a restaurant in Shanghai was fined 47,500 yuan for mentioning the “French Concession” in an ad. Love for country in the form of overt discrimination? No problem!

(H/T @badcanto and Rose Tang)

UPDATE, 2/28, 12:44 am: Apparently the Philippine government is aware of this sign. Via ABS-CBNnews:

Meantime, the Philippine government on Wednesday said it is treating as an isolated incident a Beijing restaurant’s refusal to serve Filipinos and other customers from countries locked in maritime territorial disputes with China.

In a press conference, Foreign Affairs Spokesman Raul Hernandez said the Philippine government is aware of the photos posted on social networking sites of the restaurant in Beijing.

Asked about the controversy, Hernandez said: “We think the notice that was posted on that shop in Beijing is a private view about the whole situation that is happening between the Philippines and China.”

“We hope it is not state policy not to allow Filipinos in restaurants in Beijing,” he added.

Meanwhile:

A report by Radio Free Asia earlier quoted the Beijing restaurant’s owner as saying that he put up the sign out of patriotism. “Chinese customers support me,” the owner, identified as Wang, told BBC News.

UPDATE, 3/2, 3:45 pm: The owner reportedly removed the sign on Thursday, but remains defiant about it.

According to AFP, more than 20 people in Hanoi have been arrested today for anti-China protests. About 200 protesters waved banners and chanted, “Down with China’s aggression!” A similar demonstration was broken up in Ho Chi Minh City. AFP:

Vietnam, which has begun exploring for oil in what it claims as its territorial waters, last week issued a rebuke to Beijing over claims that Chinese fishing boats had sabotaged a boat operated by state-run energy giant PetroVietnam.

China responded by denying the allegations and demanding that Vietnam end oil exploration and stop its navy harassing Chinese boats.

Beijing’s increasingly assertive stance on the South China Sea has stoked public anger in Vietnam and given way to rare protest in the authoritarian country.

This was reportedly the fifth such anti-China protest in Vietnam this year.

Similar pockets of protests were frequent last summer, also as the result of territorial disputes. Via Time:

Political protests and gatherings, frowned upon by the government, are not common in Vietnam. When they do occur, they are usually to air grievances about more local affairs like land grabs, factory wages or police brutality. And, indeed, tolerance for this wave of demonstrations has finished. Earlier protests were allowed as a way to send a message to Beijing and allow people some outlet to express anger. But after the fourth week, Hanoi and Beijing released a joint press release that emphasized “the need to steer public opinions along the correct direction, avoiding comments and deeds that harm the friendship and trust of the two countries.” A fifth demonstration went ahead in the following week, but it was already clear patience was wearing thin, and both China and Vietnam had no wish to upset diplomatic relations further.

And just this August, about 25 people were arrested in Vietnam and “forced into waiting buses and taken to a rehabilitation centre usually used to detain sex workers and drug users, after attempting to gather in defiance of a heavy police presence, one detainee told AFP.”

National pride is a funny thing, isn’t it? One moment it’s lifting a country up, on whose shoulders we glimpse greater horizons. The next, it’s inciting protests, a monster fueled by emotion. And if one monster should meet another, out in the open sea, both standing on their hind feet, riled up and unhinged?

Back on August 24, weeks before people would double down on Diaoyu Islands senselessness, four protesters took to the streets in Shenzhen to urge “civilized patriotism, rational Japanese resistance.” Three of them wore swimwear — bikinis for the two girls, briefs for the man — and attracted attention as much for their message as their appearance. We posted about it here, with a video.

It was only a matter of time before the image of those scantily clad rabble-rousers got printed on a sign by protesters seeking to one-up them. Ahem, of course. Take note of the above, posted on TTMop on Saturday (more than 66,000 views so far), also from Shenzhen. The three men are naked save for sunglasses and medical masks; they hold pots over their private parts with the character ding – upvote (emphasis on up, surely). They… well, I don’t know. They’re there. That’s half the battle, as the saying goes. The Diaoyu Islands will return to China in no time.

(H/T Alicia)

Chinese pundit Sima Nan, known for, among other things, spewing anti-America rhetoric despite having no qualms about visiting America and getting his head stuck in a Dulles Airport escalator, was giving a lecture at Hainan University yesterday when he ran into a proverbial buzz saw  A student took the microphone, stood up, and began coolly rebuking the man on stage, who grew increasingly agitated as it became clear that many of the cheering students in the auditorium weren’t on his side. At the 2:30 mark, the student hurls his shoe onto the stage — a good 20-yard throw, it seems — drawing more applause.

As of this moment, Sima Nan has not posted about the incident on his blog. His name is now trending at No. 2 on Sina Weibo though, as Tea Leaf Nation’s Liz Carter shows us:

"Sima Nan" trending at #2 on Weibo after the shoe-throwing incident pic.twitter.com/nMpFzJ6i

— Liz Carter (@withoutdoing) October 8, 2012

By no means are the comments all supportive of the shoe-thrower. They include:

@北夷冥顽: You infringe on my freedom. Can I throw a shoe? This child is already this big, doesn’t know what is freedom, doesn’t know what is infringing on freedom…. What are his teachers, parents doing to earn a living? China’s education system built this kind of hoodlum student’s foundations?

@趋势无敌888: Too bad about the shoe, but judging by the applause, it was worthwhile.

@lul416: Those who are following this Weibo should also follow that student! I have a feeling that brother’s gonna have a bad time.

@ELiENRiEN: Sima Nan’s always been a Five Mao stupid cunt, but there’s a problem with throwing a shoe. Even if you don’t agree with someone, you shouldn’t throw a shoe at him. Wouldn’t it be better to leave and leave him with an empty stage?

@李海明Dzznn: Nice throw.

Update, 6:48 pm: Here’s a good article in WSJ that gives some context:

Arguing that Mr. Sima’s Maoist views were a threat to freedom, the student quoted Socrates as a saying the only thing he knew was nothing at all. “The little something I know is that I need freedom,” he continued. “Democracy is one way to protect freedom.”

Mr. Sima interrupted the student to ask whether he had a question, to which the student replied: “My question is, ‘can I throw my shoe?’” To the cheers of a packed auditorium, the student proceeded to do just that, lofting a sneaker toward the podium.

…Mr. Sima joins a short-list of prominent Chinese who have been on the unfortunate end of shoe-hurlings in recent years. Premier Wen Jiabao was target during a 2009 speech at the University of Cambridge. Ren Zhiqiang, one of China’s best-known property moguls and Mr. Sima’s ideological opposite, was the target of two shoes during a 2010 speech.

Following the incident, Mr. Sima took to Sina Corp’s Weibo microblogging platform, where he has more than a half-million followers. He cited the execution of Socrates in ancient Greece, democracy’s birthplace, after a trial on charges of impiety.

“Democracy can also give rise to tyranny,” read one of Mr. Sima’s posts.

Update, 7:17 pm: Here’s the translation we’ve been waiting for, via Oiwan Lam of Global Voices. The student’s remarks:

First I would like to welcome Mr. Sima Nan for coming to Hainan University. I am also a student here. I want to make a few points. First of all, I have read about Socrates, who once said, I know nothing except that I am ignorant. Secondly, I need freedom and democracy is a means to protect freedom. Thirdly, I have to say, your talk against democracy has invaded my freedom. We are not equally able to exercise our freedom of speech. The four points that you have mentioned, I cannot go against them because of political correctness. Even if your talk is not good, you can go back to your hotel. If I argue against it, certainly I will be locked up in a tiny dark room. Please don’t interrupt me. You should have the manners not to interrupt me. Here comes my question, can I throw my shoe at you? As my freedom is harmed in this country, I am here to protect my freedom.

(H/T John Kennedy)

No two protests are ever the same, as the above video will show. In Changsha, people flip cars. In Dali, they sing the national anthem. In Qingdao, they chant. (Actually, they sing and chant everywhere, but you know what I mean.) There are a lot of banners that read “Japanese Devils,” a term that originates from Japan’s invasion of China last century. Other slogans are less kind.

What’s striking, however, is how orderly most people are. Sure, you see a lot of open anger, and some violence, and of course you’ve read about the destruction and chaos, but let the above suggest that anguish over the Japanese government’s purchasing of the Diaoyu Islands has forced the Chinese government to allow a measure of organized protest. Could a further loosening of controls result in the enabling of free speech? The sun rises in a brave new world. Progress!

(H/T Shanghaiist)

We’ve gone way beyond civil disobedience. Who are the Chinese attacking? Chinese-owned Japanese restaurants, and Japanese people who may call China home, and now journalists. It is, as the proverb goes, shitting on your carpet to spite the neighbor. We’ve seen this line of indiscriminate violence in this country before — it was called the Cultural Revolution. It was bloody terrible.

I realize that the government is in the midst of a “once every 10 years” transition that’s “peaceful” and all that, so they’re busy, but if the leaders of this country want to keep leading the country for 10 more years, they need to get their priorities straight. Surely the Celestial Kingdom isn’t condoning these protests? Yet as surely, they can’t crack down, because would they then be labeled Japanese sympathizers? “We think that the government has been too soft and we want to show it what we think,” Zhang Xin, a 25-year-old protester, told Reuters. “I feel disappointed in the government and it doesn’t heed our voice.”

We’ve always known that the CCP’s grasp on power is somewhere between tenuous and fraught, but could they possibly be toppled by, of all things, this battle over rocks? One suspects they’d plunge the country into war — “heed[ing the] voice” of the people — much before ceding power.

Here’s a roundup of stories about anti-Japan demonstrations — riots, in several instances — raging across China, and in all of these you’ll note a hint of the crazy. We apologize in advance for being unable to give you a definitive account of Japan’s reaction to all this — it’s our impression, however, that the Japanese people are spending their protest energy on domestic matters, and that their government very much rivals the CCP in ham-handedness.

From the above-linked Reuters article:

“If Japan does not back down we must go to war. The Chinese people are not afraid,” said 19-year-old-student Shao Jingru.

Dissident artist Ai Weiwei, who walked by Sunday’s protest in Beijing, told Reuters he believed the demonstrations were sanctioned by the government and the police.

“Chinese citizens need to thank the Japanese government because for the first time, they can mount a large protest on their own land,” Ai said. “In China, there are no protests organized by the people.”

Police used loud speakers to tell protesters – many of whom were shouting “declare war” – they should respect the law.

To an extent, it is sanctioned. Washington Post:

While it urged protesters not to resort to violence, China’s government has also encouraged the use of economic pressure in the dispute over Japan’s control over the East China Sea islands, called Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China. China’s National Tourism Administration ordered travel companies last week to cancel tours to Japan over the weeklong National Day holiday in early October and promised to compensate any businesses for costs they could not recover, said a lawyer who saw the written order and asked not to be identified because the document is not for public use.

The scale and violence are the worst in recurring waves of anti-Japanese protests since 2005, when lingering grievances over Japan’s occupation of parts of China in the 1930s through World War II brought Chinese into the streets. Since then, China’s economy has supplanted Japan’s as the world’s second largest and its diplomatic clout and military firepower have soared. State broadcaster China Central Television on Sunday showed Chinese naval forces conducting firing drills in the East China Sea, though it did not give a date for the exercises.

South China Morning Post reporter attacked. SCMP:

South China Morning Post photographer Felix Wong Chi-keung was pushed to the ground and beaten by Shenzhen police yesterday, while covering anti-Japanese protests in the city.

Four to five officers hit Wong’s face, arms, and legs with batons. Wong’s face was swollen and a cloth he used to wipe the blood from his face turned red, as seen in television footage from a Hong Kong news crew.

The Post condemned the use of excessive force and said it would lodge a complaint.

“I was taking pictures of policemen chasing some protesters and suddenly one riot officer approached me,” Wong said. “I put down my camera and put both hands up. I repeated in Putonghua that I am a reporter, but he didn’t heed my words.

“I was pushed down on the ground and then some four to five officers came over and hit me with batons. I kept shouting reporter, reporter, but they didn’t stop. They left when they saw my nose was bleeding.”

Accounts of harassment of Japanese citizens. WSJ:

On Thursday, the consulate in Shanghai released another advisory, but this time including six accounts of Japanese residents harassed by locals.

The consulate indicates the incidents may have been in reaction to the ongoing territorial dispute, as well as to reports that three intoxicated Japanese residents stabbed a Chinese woman that is garnering heated comments on the Internet.

The cases of harassment vary in degree, and none appear to have caused major injury. Some were more aggressive than others.

In one, a Chinese person reportedly approached a group of Japanese walking down the street and poured ramen noodles on one and broke the eyeglasses of another.

In another, a person driving an electric car pulled up to a Japanese pedestrian and threw a carbonated drink in his face.

Other Japanese were called “stupid” and had a recyclable plastic bottle hurled at them. In another case, a person was kicked repeatedly after being asked if he was Japanese.

The protests have also spread to Hong Kong. Voice of America:

As tensions between China and Japan escalate, anti-Japanese protests have spread to Hong Kong.  Pro-democracy activists in the semi-autonomous Chinese territory are taking a surprising lead in the pan-Chinese nationalism movement.

An estimated 5,000 demonstrators marched on the Japanese consulate in Hong Kong Sunday.  The demonstration occurred in the build-up to the anniversary this week of the 1931 Japanese invasion of Manchuria.

Panasonic and Toyota factories damaged. What did they do except provide quality products? Business Week:

A Panasonic Corp. (6752) factory and a Toyota Motor Corp. (7203) dealership in China were damaged by fire as anti-Japanese demonstrations spread across the country, prompting Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda to urge the Chinese government to ensure the safety of its citizens.

More pictures:

(Hat tip to Reddit China, whose users have really circled the wagon on these protests.) (Update, 6:16 pm: Also see: Ministry of Tofu) (Update, 9/18, 4:48 am: And China Digital Times for more pictures.)

In a cab yesterday evening, the first words the driver said to me were, “They gonna fight?” I was confused and signaled as such. He nodded at the radio. A broadcaster was in the middle of reporting on the Diaoyu Islands — sold on Tuesday to Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda’s administration from their Japanese owners – and that’s when I realized he really meant, “Might they go to war?”

“Nah, I don’t think so,” I replied.

After a lengthy pause, he said, “I think they might.” Later he clarified, “Might as well fight a war. Got too much artillery sitting around anyway.”

Right, that’s a good reason. It’s about as good a reason as going to war over a bunch of rocks that no one cared existed until oil was discovered there in the late-60s. And now it’s “sacred.” It’s a symbol of national pride, and as I’ve written before, nationalism complicates everything. It so happens that fights over symbols are the toughest to resolve, because how do you split a symbol halfway and share the profits?

There’s really no reason you would need to know or care about what Xinhua thinks of all this, but here’s its stance:

The Japanese government’s move to “purchase” the Diaoyu Islands not only hurts the feelings of the Chinese people, but also challenges the post-WWII order in the Asia-Pacific region set by documents such as the Cairo Declaration and the Potsdam Proclamation.

Diaoyu Island and its affiliated islands have been China’s sacred territory since ancient times. This is supported by historical facts and jurisprudential evidence.

It’s also become apparent that China has staked part of its identity as a rising / maturing nation on these rocks, and how the government handles the situation will be seen as a referendum of its own mandate.

In any case, the conflict is markedly moving in the wrong direction:

China has carried out the first round of countermeasures against Japan after its government signed a contract to buy the Diaoyu Islands on Tuesday to “nationalize” the islands, by sending two law enforcement vessels to the waters near the islands.

Following strong opposition from China’s top leaders and the government on Monday, the top legislature, military and public voiced protests against Japan’s unilateral move amid soured ties between the two sides.

And if you believe Xinhua, China is both telling the US to stay out of this while simultaneously acknowledging that in an armed conflict, the US can’t stay out:

It’s not difficult to tell that tough the US government’s position on the Diaoyu islands is contradictory, but in essence, it’s very clear, that is, it supports the Japanese government’s confrontational stance against China on the issue of the Diaoyu Islands.

Lest we forget, on the other side of the ocean, this is more or less the official position, as articulated in an LA Times article yesterday:

As the United States recalibrates its foreign policy to recover its standing in East Asia, analysts say Washington must execute a delicate balancing act to nurture relations with China while preventing it from bullying weaker countries.

Is it time we face the possibility that a misfired “warning shot” from one ship to another will set off a war? After all, some neoconservatives here still think the Second Sino-Japanese War has yet to be avenged.

Chances of war are “remote,” as experts and analysts all say. As they should be. The list of reasons for not going to war far exceeds the list for war. (See: ROCKS, FUCKING ROCKS.) But then you read words like these from Global Times on Tuesday, and it’s not hard to be at least a little disconcerted:

Therefore, China should set a long-term goal, which is to change the current situation in terms of who controls the islands. It requires that the Chinese be strong-minded and highly united.

The sovereignty of the Diaoyu Islands cannot be negotiated. Japan will not talk with China about it either. Japan’s determination to defend the islands is also firm. It would be naive for the Chinese public to believe that the Chinese navy can solve the problem.

The conflict over the Diaoyu Islands seems to be between China and Japan. With Chinese pressure rising, the US may step into the issue, causing a confrontation between China and the US-Japan alliance to take place. China should be prepared for the worst.

I know one cabbie who’s already made such preparations.

The video above shows two ways of protesting the recent Diaoyu sale. Flags are involved in both — the car is from Guangzhou (“Yo dude, awesome!” is what the guy shouts), while the other video takes place in front of the Japanese embassy in Beijing.

Four protesters in Shenzhen on Tuesday afternoon came up with a creative way of voicing discontent over the Japanese claims on the Diaoyu islands. With bayonets between their thighs — and three of them in swimwear — they chanted things like, “Civilized patriotism, rational Japanese resistance.” I think what they mean is: don’t do this. Youku video for those in China after the jump.

Save the lecture about historical context. We’re talking about rocks. Uninhabited rocks. If indeed there’s black gold inside the set of rocks known as the Diaoyu Islands, governments should mine ‘em together and split the profit, as was proposed once upon a time ago. But nooo, that would be too elementary a solution. We have to act like children, because we are, in the grand scheme of things. Children whose children behave like — shock! — children, flipping over police cars and boycotting products.

You reap what you sow. The government here — and, in the interest of fairness, the right wing of the Japanese government, which incited the latest round of street protest in China by sending 150 lawmakers etc. toward Diaoyu/Senkaku, then watching 10 activists land on them — has sowed nationalism, and reaps this shit:

The Chinese state news media portrayed the demonstrations as fairly small, each involving fewer than 200 people, and not extending to inland provinces. But photographs posted on Sina Weibo, the country’s most widely used microblogging service, suggested that the crowds had been far larger. In one photo said to be from the southwestern city of Chengdu, deep in China’s interior, the number of protesters appeared to be in the thousands.

“Defend the Diaoyu Islands to the death,” one banner said. Another said, “Even if China is covered with graves, we must kill all Japanese.”

The excellent South Sea Conversations adds about the dangers of nationalism:

The ICG’s Stephanie Kleine-Ahlbrandt recently commented that the leaders of China and Japan have little “political capital” to spend on defying “nationalist or populist sentiment”. In this excellent interview, SKA identifies nationalist sentiment as a constraint on governments’ ability to compromise or back down during a dispute. There are counter-examples, such as Noda’s governament’s speedy release of the recent protagonists, where Chinese and Japanese leaders have appeared to defy pressure to be uncooperative and confrontation. But the two countries’ recent record suggest this has beendifficult in the past.

Public opinion offers an explanation for what learned observers consider to be China’s counterproductively hardline stance in the previous Diaoyu confrontation in September 2010 (itself a response to Japan’s abnormally trenchant action in detaining an infringing Chinese fishing boat captain for several weeks rather than releasing him swiftly, as they did yesterday). The ill-will on the part of both publics may have had a lot to do with the non-implementation of a deal negotiated back in 2008 for cooperative development of some of the oil and gas deposits in the area.

Nationalist activists on both sides are true believers in their cause, so even where their actions may be deliberately incited and/or tacitly sanctioned by their governments, they nonetheless impact the dispute by necessitating responses from the other side. Once the Qifeng-2 escaped the clutches of the Hong Kong authorities and got beyond PRC territorial waters, for example, Beijing had little or no control over whether the passengers of the Qifeng-2 would actually manage to set foot on the island last Wednesday.

The “true believers” are manageable when they’re slinging virtual rocks on the Internet, but once cars get overturned — police cars – then shit has gotten real. Look:

So, good luck, governments. Keep on fiddling with the people’s emotions and watch as your self-interests are cut from under your feet. Yay nationalistic fervor and all that garbage. Mobs are always great until they stop listening — the biggest fools are those who believe they ever listened in the first place.

Happy Fourth of July, everyone. I think that’s essentially what YouTube user blackredmedia is trying to say.

Wait…

If you love America and your people, not necessarily the government but the common people who live here and make up our communities and families…..Find every cheap plastic flag made in China and BURN IT. Put it on film and share it back on youtube.

It is a disgrace that we ‘celibrate’ this holidy of our independence by purchasing cheap plastic flags made in China…..Dont you realize that is why our economy is suffering and going down the tubes? Because of Neo-Liberalism?

They dont want to pay us a living wage, so they use slave labor and sweat shops in countries that have no standards for workers….the abuse people, working their fingers to the bone, and let our own people starve…..This is not something to celibrate. This is something that should be burned to the ground as a political statement of disgust.

Ah, I was wrong. Blackredmedia does not seek to wish a happy Fourth of July to you and yours.

Nonetheless, celibrate well and celibrate hard. And remember, stay sane out there in this wonderful, crazy world.