As anti-Japanese protests continue to heat up in China, well-known Chinese blogger Han Han took to Weibo to denounce violent acts such as smashing Japanese-made cars. Liz Carter and David Wertime at Tea Leaf Nation summarize some of his points:
Buying a Japanese car does not equate to a lack of patriotism. “No one who has bought a Japanese car thought they were supporting Japan’s violation of China’s territory; they just wanted an economical, fuel efficient car with easy upkeep.” Han, who in addition to being a famous writer is an accomplished race-car driver, further wrote that he himself used a Japanese car in rally racing.
Protests like these reinforce the Chinese government’s rationale for keeping tight social control: “One need only consider the past couple of days to see why the average person feels that ‘stability maintenance’ is a good idea, and ‘protests’ and ‘meetings’ are unwelcome words.”
[…] It’s possible that someone in China’s higher reaches is backing these protests: “As far as looting and destroying things, this must be punished by law, or else I might suspect that there was some official backing behind all this.”
See more on Han Han via CDT.