2 weeks Ago
Warning: Sensitive content. President Xi Jinping has overseen a surge in Chinese nationalism to boost his government’s popularity as tensions have frayed with rivals. Now, the murder of a Japanese boy this week is exposing the dangers of that tactic.
Chinese authorities declined to comment on the motive behind the attack on a 10-year-old boy stabbed near his Japanese school in Shenzhen. Police in the southern tech hub didn’t mention the victim’s nationality in an initial statement. Chinese authorities inspect the scene of a stabbing at the Shenzhen Japanese School in Shenzhen, China Wednesday after a 10-year-old Japanese student was attacked by a man.
Credit: AP Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian said he was “saddened” by the killing, calling it an “individual case” during a regular press briefing on Thursday in Beijing. “China will continue to take effective measures to protect all foreign nationals,” he added. Months earlier, authorities also described a knife attack on a Japanese woman and child, and the stabbing of four teachers from a US college, as “isolated” incidents.
The date of this week’s tragedy stood out: It fell on the anniversary of an event that triggered Japan’s invasion of China - now National Defence Education Day, when sirens sound in many cities across the country. The ruling Communist Party has legitimised its policies by promoting a strong China on the world stage in recent years, a tactic that’s brewed growing hostility toward the US and its allies including Japan. With unrest mounting over China’s economic slowdown, the government is now grappling with online hatred spilling over into real life violence.
People walk past the Shenzhen Japanese School in Shenzhen. Credit: AP “Chinese authorities have certainly normalised nationalism as the ‘correct’ way to understand the world,” said Florian Schneider, chair professor of modern China at Leiden University. “What citizens then do with that understanding is not up to any individual leader - and it can backfire, sometimes spectacularly so.
” On social media, Chinese users were critical. “Who tolerated hatred comments online?” one person asked under the Japanese Embassy in China’s post about the attack on the X-like Weibo. “The hatred education has had remarkable results,” read another top-voted comment.
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