Through Emi Kawaguchi-Mahn’s essay, this chapter examines the extraordinary pro-China stance seen in German public broadcasting and media. It reveals how economic dependence, anti-American sentiment, and historical perceptions have combined to shape Germany’s deep-seated sympathy toward China.

May 27, 2020
The praise of China continues perhaps a hundred times longer, but I will stop here.
What I simply cannot understand is where this kind of pro-China thinking comes from, a pro-China thinking as solid as a rock, without the slightest cloud, transparent and beautiful.
The following is the continuation of an essay by the writer Emi Kawaguchi-Mahn, published in the latest issue of the monthly magazine Hanada, a magazine that not only the Japanese people but people throughout the world must read.
The issue was released yesterday under the title, “Germany’s No. 1 mass-circulation newspaper declares war on Xi Jinping.”
Ms. Kawaguchi is married to a German and lives in Germany.
Her essay also proves that my own arguments about Germans have been correct.
Anti-Japanese, pro-China, pro-Korea Germans.
The Asahi Shimbun has contributed greatly to producing such Germans.
Whether they know the reality of Germany or not, when NHK and other television media wish to criticize the Japanese government, or when they wish to denigrate Japan, they invariably bring up Germany and praise it.
However deeply steeped in a masochistic view of history they may be, there are no fools anywhere in the world as foolish as they are.
How would you feel if the television broadcaster of your own country constantly praised a people who, at heart, despise you?
The preceding part is omitted.
Emphasis in the text is mine.
A state broadcaster that praises China.
As for Deutschlandfunk, I had thought that, while liberal, it was solid in content, so I was extremely surprised to find that it had such a vulgar writer.
When I looked into him, I found that this journalist, in another article, had abused British Prime Minister Boris Johnson as a “populist,” a “show-off,” literally “a pig on the stage,” and a “fool,” literally “a fat man like a sausage.”
Germany has freedom of speech, and people are free to write whatever they like, but Deutschlandfunk is a public broadcaster.
When I think that I too am paying public fees in order to be made to listen to such strings of insults, I feel rather resentful.
Furthermore, he introduced one of the many comments posted on this video, which had been widely circulated, as though he had taken the head of a demon.
“To wrap a dead fish in a copy of Bild is an insult to the dead fish.”
Surely that is rude to the readers of Bild.
Equally astonishing was an endlessly long article written by a female journalist on a news page called Telepolis.
She first sets out to crush, one by one, the five points that Reichelt had listed.
For example, in response to point ① about the surveillance state, she says, “Germany also has intelligence agencies.”
Regarding point ② about the theft of intellectual property, she cites endless examples in praise of China, saying, “Huawei has already ranked first three times on the list of the world organization for intellectual property. Huawei is also at the top in European patent applications. According to the U.S. National Science Foundation, in 2017 the number of Chinese papers exceeded the number of papers from all other countries combined.”
Reading her article, one begins to feel that the theft of intellectual property by China is merely a misunderstanding on Reichelt’s part.
What is truly astonishing is her treatment of point ③, the concealment of the coronavirus.
She simply reproduces the announcement of the Chinese embassy and declares, “The Chinese police only instructed the doctor not to spread panic and fake news.”
This truly astonished me.
Regarding the point that the management of biological research institutes was looser than the management of political prisoners, she says, “Do you really know how China treats political prisoners, or are you merely repeating what you have heard?”
In her hands, even the ethnic oppression of the Uyghurs and Tibetans is nothing more than fiction.
When it comes to defending China, she is even more zealous than a Chinese spokesman.
She mocks him as “the organ of the Nazi Party.”
Regarding point ⑤, Xi Jinping’s power, she writes, “Of course, naturally, what one German journalist sincerely wishes for China as a country is the splendid event of a crisis for its leader. And if he could contribute even a little to that downfall, he would be even happier. So he quickly uploads a video to YouTube and tries his luck, hoping that his stupid and cowardly criticism will be heard in China. But was China not supposed to be repressive, with all critical Internet sites shut down?”
“If China feels deceived by this method and German-Chinese relations deteriorate, will the pro-American Bild newspaper thereby have contributed a little to ‘people’s diplomacy’?”
“They generously provided masks, medical equipment, and aid personnel as saviors. It seems that the chief of Bild can clearly distinguish whether this act is ‘friendship’ or ‘imperialism with a cynical smile.’”
“Incidentally, did ‘we’ send doctors and equipment to the world?”
“Mr. Reichelt, this is truly interesting. When it comes to denying a state and its people that he dislikes, the nationalist observer can even use the vocabulary of the left at will.”
The “nationalist observer” is the name of the former organ newspaper of the Nazi Party.
And the leftist vocabulary refers to the word “imperialism.”
In other words, this journalist is mocking Reichelt as a Nazi, and at the same time saying that it is strange for him to use the left-wing word “imperialism” to criticize Xi Jinping.
The praise of China continues perhaps a hundred times longer, but I will stop here.
What I simply cannot understand is where this kind of pro-China thinking comes from, a pro-China thinking as solid as a rock, without the slightest cloud, transparent and beautiful.
The German fondness for China.
The author seems to hate America enormously, so perhaps China is most welcome if it will drive America out of Europe.
No, perhaps she thinks that China is necessary not only for Europe, but for the entire world, in order to escape American domination.
Even so, I still cannot understand it.
America has countless faults, but to conclude from that that Chinese domination would be better seems to me a leap of thought so great that it would fly over the Himalayas.
The German fondness for China is no ordinary matter.
Their friendship already goes back a hundred years.
There are no historical problems between China and Germany, and the German image of China consists only of its mysterious and magnificent appearance since ancient times, and its energetic present-day appearance.
Moreover, the German economy, which relies on exports for nearly half of its GDP, has depended more and more on the Chinese market over the past decade or so.
After all, one in three German cars is destined for the Chinese market.
Thus, because many German companies have enjoyed the benefits of China money, politicians have treated China with great courtesy, and the media have not written badly about it.
On the contrary, whenever China seemed likely to be treated unfavorably in the EU, it was the German government that took the lead in helping China.
Offending China was a national taboo.
Since there was no bad news, it was only natural that the German people continued to have good feelings toward China.
If I raised even the slightest objection, it was dismissed with, “That is because Japanese and Chinese do not get along.”
Worse still, there were even people who behaved as though they were looking at the world neutrally, saying, “The Japanese committed atrocities in China, and yet they criticize China without remorse.”
Every December, “the Nanjing Massacre” would appear as a historical program, and Japan’s reputation would inevitably fall to the ground.
Incidentally, the original title of Nanking no Shinjitsu, or The Truth of Nanking, by the German John Rabe, is Der gute Deutsche von Nanking, “The Good German of Nanking.”
However, I do not think there is much “truth” written in this book.
And yet.
However pro-China Germans may have been for a hundred years, more and more people have surely begun to think something is wrong with China’s behavior in the current coronavirus turmoil.
Therefore, when they read this article defending China, they will surely think that something is a little strange.
On the other hand, Reichelt, who is challenging the giant China like Issun-boshi, is also somewhat too eccentric, suddenly bringing up the issue of compensation, which the government had not even mentioned.
Seen in that light, one can understand why the major newspapers ignored his article.
China is a country that wages propaganda warfare using money, including bribes and secret funds, and power, including threats and violence, as its weapons.
To that end, it does not hesitate to use various international organizations.
In the face of such China, Japan has always been placed at a disadvantage, and before we knew it, politics, bureaucracy, academia, business, and the media had all been almost taken over.
And in Germany too, I think the same thing is in fact quietly progressing.
Will Germany’s view of China be transformed?
That said, there is of course a major difference between the way China treats Japan and the way it treats Germany.
Toward Japan, China seems to harbor intense hatred and to be thinking that one day it will crush Japan.
Toward Germany, however, at least until now, China has been supremely friendly.
And Germans too feel affection toward China and have maintained what might be called a win-win relationship in business.
The good relationship evolved even further during the Merkel administration, to the point that Merkel was made to say, “China is the most important country in Asia for our country.”
However, perhaps now a small crack is beginning to appear in the pro-China feelings of the German people.
The fiery attacks by the pro-China camp this time may possibly be an excessive reaction born of their sensitive perception of that sign.
If so, this debate may become an opportunity for Germans to reconsider their relationship with China a little.
I sincerely hope that Germans will calmly analyze China not only from the economic perspective, as they have done until now, but also from historical, cultural, and ideological perspectives.
How the Wuhan-origin coronavirus will transform Germany’s view of China, or whether it will return once again to the old sheath, remains endlessly fascinating.