Amid state-media silence and Chinese Foreign Ministry insistence that two fatal anti-Japanese attacks in Shenzhen and Suzhou were “isolated incidents” that could happen in any country, Chinese bloggers, citizen journalists, and everyday netizens continue to publish soul-searching, thoughtful essays, articles, and comments on topics such as the role of the CCP in promoting anti-Japanese propaganda, the proliferation of xenophobic content online, and the “teaching of hatred” in school classrooms. Over the last ten days, CDT Chinese editors have archived over three dozen such essays and articles, many of them since deleted by platform censors.

This diverse range of content includes heartfelt expressions of mourning and apology; fond personal recollections of time spent in Japan; socio-political discussions of the importance of Sino-Japanese friendship; detailed explanations of the role of Japanese and other international schools in China; and historical reflections on Shenzhen as an open, cosmopolitan city and the cradle of Chinese “reform and opening.”

Many of the authors disputed the official government characterization of the stabbings in Shenzhen and Suzhou as “isolated incidents,” and placed the blame squarely on a constant flood of anti-Japanese propaganda countenanced by the Party-state, spread online by ultra-nationalist influencers with the tacit support of platform censors, and often cheered on by complicit audiences. In a NetEase News post titled “From Suzhou to Shenzhen, No Longer Are These ‘Isolated Incidents,’” entrepreneur Mao Daqing argued that last week’s murder of a 10-year-old Japanese boy in Shenzhen “is not an ‘isolated incident’ but a critical juncture, one that will test both Chinese civilization and our national conscience.” After the Suzhou attack in late June—during which school-bus attendant Hu Youping was stabbed to death while trying to protect her young Japanese charges—many commenters and bloggers made a similar point. In a sharply critical WeChat post, science and current affairs blogger Xiang Dongliang raised the question of public complicity: “The attack on Japanese people was incidental, and the attack on Americans was incidental—were the cheers [that greeted those attacks] also ‘incidental?’”

Many who commented on the attacks laid a lot of the blame on “hate education”—an educational system that “teaches hatred” and promotes a “U-lock mentality” by incessantly criticizing Japan for reasons as varied as its World War II-era history, territorial issues with China, close relationship with the U.S. and other Western nations, and more recently, its release of treated nuclear wastewater from the damaged Fukushima power plant into the sea. A now-censored WeChat post from teacher Wang Kaidong vehemently rejects all forms of “hate education” and urges educators to teach love, rather than hate. Wang identifies three common characteristics of “hate education”: a focus on othering, negation and exclusion; an emphasis on opposition and division to promote mob rule; and the cultivation of an atmosphere of tension and hostility to make people more willing to use violence against others. In another article, from WeChat account “Historical Archives Porter,” the author cites examples ranging from China under the first Qin Emperor to Poland under Communism in order to critique the cynical promotion of “hate education” by totalitarian systems. He poses this question from Polish philosopher and historian of ideas Leszek Kołakowski (1927-2009), who was effectively exiled from Poland in 1968 for his criticism of Marxism and the Communist state system: “Why is it that all totalitarian systems inevitably employ hatred as an irreplaceable tool?” A WeChat article titled “Hate Education Nabs Kids While They’re Young,” by Xiang Dongliang, makes the most direct connection between hatred taught in Chinese schools and violent anti-Japanese attacks:

In the past few days, we have all witnessed the dire consequences of a society suffused with hatred. Although it is painful, it is absolutely necessary to cut open this festering sore so that everyone can see what kind of education the next generation is receiving, and see how hatred has taken root in the tiny, innocent garden of childhood.

[…] Every one of us is complicit in standing by and allowing our children to be poisoned by education that teaches them to hate. [Chinese]

A number of these archived posts decry the proliferation of xenophobic and ultra-nationalist content online, and attempt to debunk some of the most widespread conspiracy theories surrounding Japanese schools in China. Despite Chinese social media platforms’ avowed crackdown on anti-Japanese vitriol after the Suzhou attack in late June, xenophobic content remains popular on many websites, including video-sharing sites such as Kuaishou and Douyin, the Chinese counterpart to TikTok. Some specific types of videos have been censored, such as skits in which Chinese vloggers masquerade as Japanese students behaving badly or using racist slurs. (These sorts of videos, which were very popular before the Suzhou attack, have been banned, but other anti-Japanese content has emerged to take its place.)

Following the fatal attack in Shenzhen, one of the first pieces to criticize the rise in anti-Japanese content online came from Chengdu-based former journalist Zhang Feng. In his now-censored WeChat post, Zhang bemoans the marginalization and silencing of sensible, moderate, humane voices online: “Anti-Japanese hate speech rooted in the nation-state narrative has begun to proliferate online, and even threatens to occupy the mainstream Internet. The voices of those committed to friendly exchange between China and Japan have gradually been marginalized, and some have even been ‘purged’ from the Chinese Internet.” An article titled “Why Do We Need Japanese Schools?” from WeChat account “Indulgence Sales Center” attempts to explain the need for Japanese and other international schools in China. The author includes screenshots of online conspiracy-theory content regarding Japanese schools, and debunks some of the most common rumors, complaints, and conspiracy theories by asking and answering 11 questions, including “Isn’t it discriminatory that these schools don’t accept Chinese citizens as students?” (Answer: “China’s State Education Commission doesn’t allow Chinese students to attend Japanese schools.”) Other related content includes an article from WeChat account “Fatty Zhao, scholar of Song Dynasty history,” which argues that “normal people shouldn’t buy into these conspiracy theory claims.” Zhao writes that he was frustrated by some of the conspiracy-theory-based questions he received after publishing an article about the murder of Suzhou school-bus attendant Hu Youping. WeChat account “Legal Roundtable,” writing about how anti-Japanese content is becoming increasingly tolerated online, notes that this isn’t a new phenomenon: “Where does this insane anti-Japanese online sentiment come from? It surely didn’t just appear in the last day or so. Because no matter how obscene and despicable such online behavior—even behavior that might be considered illegal or criminal—as long as it appears under the banner of anti-Japanese ‘patriotism,’ there will always be those in the comment section who wave flags and cheer it on.”

The most detailed post on the topic came courtesy of WeChat account “Chanting a Spell Will Make It Rain.” In a now-censored longform article titled “Behind the Murder of a 10-Year-Old Japanese Boy: 278 Kuaishou Videos Calling for Japanese Schools to Be Torn Down Have Attracted Over Two Million Likes,’” the author includes screenshots detailing the popularity of extreme anti-Japanese content on the video-sharing platform Kuaishou:

The 278 anti-Japanese videos on the Kuaishou platform calling for the demolition of Japanese schools have not been censored in any way and have accumulated 2,313,525 likes. Among these, 39 videos have received more than 10,000 likes; five videos have received more than 100,000 likes; and the most popular video has garnered 327,000 likes.

The content of these 278 videos can be divided into roughly four categories:

1. Live-bloggers who film themselves lurking around Japanese schools, “revealing” their locations and supposed secrets.
2. Fake news reports claiming that the Chinese government has decided to demolish Japanese schools.
3. First-person commentaries spreading rumors that Japanese schools in China train their students as “spies.”
4. Emotional videos that whip up anti-Japanese hatred and call for the destruction of Japanese schools in China. [Chinese]

CDT has also archived an open letter from the father of the Japanese boy who was killed in Shenzhen. The statement, which has been confirmed as genuine but has since been deleted by censors in China, was translated in full by Pekingnology’s Zichen Wang. (Specific names were omitted from the translated statement, and the boy’s name is rendered as “K.”) A portion of Wang’s translation of the moving, humane letter is excerpted below:

[…] K loved insects and reptiles and had a unique talent for spotting even the tiniest creatures. He had a heart more gentle than anyone else’s. From a young age, he loved drawing and was gifted with languages, being fluent in both Japanese and Chinese.

[…] K was both Japanese and Chinese. His mother is Chinese and lived in Japan for nearly ten years, while his father is a Japanese man who has spent nearly half of his life in China. K spent most of his early years, before the age of three, at my wife’s family home in China. Regardless of how the outside world might report on this tragedy, the fact that he has roots in both Japan and China will never change.

We will not hate China, nor will we hate Japan. Regardless of nationality, we consider both countries our own. While customs and cultures may differ, we know better than anyone that at our core, we are all the same. Therefore, I do not wish for the actions of a few vile individuals with twisted minds to harm the relationship between the two nations. My only wish is that such a tragedy never happens again. [Source]