Citing a discussion published in the monthly magazine WiLL featuring Kent Gilbert, Tsukasa Jonen, and Ippei Ijima, this chapter examines the U.S. protests against racial discrimination, BLM, ANTIFA, extremist organizations, allegations concerning China’s involvement, statements by Japanese politicians and activists that were interpreted as support for ANTIFA, and the conflict between political violence and freedom of speech in a liberal society.

July 20, 2020
Among them were Akira Koike and Saori Ikeuchi of the Japanese Communist Party, and Yoshifu Arita of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan.
Activist Shin Sugok also posted a photograph with a broad smile.
The following is taken from a discussion titled “China Behind the Protests Against Racial Discrimination!” published in the monthly magazine WiLL, featuring Kent Gilbert with Tsukasa Jonen and moderated by Ippei Ijima.
What are we to make of Japanese politicians happily posing for commemorative photographs with an organization described as a terrorist group?
Former Terrorists Become University Professors
Ijima:
According to the Sankei Shimbun, it was learned that the New Black Panther Party, said to follow in the tradition of the Black Panther Party, a radical black liberation organization that conducted an armed struggle in the United States during the 1960s and 1970s, participated in protests in Washington, D.C., following the death of a black man at the hands of a white police officer in Minnesota.
Kent:
Like the far-left group ANTIFA, the New Black Panther Party is an anti-government organization that seeks revolution.
There was once an extremist organization called the Weathermen, which carried out numerous bombings in the United States during the 1960s and 1970s.
Some of its members now teach as professors at Columbia University.
Jonen:
Terrorists have become university professors?
Kent:
The U.S. attorney general has made it clear that several terrorist organizations, along with separate criminal organizations, were involved in the recent demonstrations.
A trial concerning allegations against one man began on the eleventh in connection with the occupation of a Minneapolis police station.
He will presumably disclose internal information in order to enter into a plea bargain, and the true nature of the participating organizations will likely become clear.
It has also become apparent that ANTIFA is an anti-government organization.
The Democratic Party initially supported this organization, but that support placed the party in a difficult position.
That is only natural, because supporting or defending a domestic terrorist organization is certain to invite accusations that the party does not care about the safety of the American people.
It is still unclear whether the demonstrations will benefit or harm the Democratic Party in this year’s presidential election.
However, the public’s greatest concern is the economy, followed by security.
There is no question that President Trump has a decisive advantage on these two issues.
Jonen:
Contrary to initial forecasts, the unemployment rate is not as bad as expected and is making a V-shaped recovery.
Kent:
However, the Republican Party is not necessarily united.
There are also left-leaning Republicans.
The establishment, the ruling class that dominated the Republican Party for many years, is precisely such a group.
They believe President Trump drove them from power in the previous presidential election, and they still hold a grudge against him.
They behave almost as though they were relatives of Hillary Clinton.
However, they will not regain real power, so there is no particular need for concern.
Ijima:
Here is an email from a viewer.
It says: “I have a question for Kent.
Local black commentators present their arguments every day through various media, but the more I listen, the more I feel that Black Lives Matter, or BLM—an international activist movement calling for an end to violence against black people and structural racial discrimination—represents black supremacy or black-centered thinking.
The Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. advocated nonviolence and was criticized by black radicals and extremists.
Does BLM follow in the tradition of such extremists?”
Kent:
On the surface, BLM conducts peaceful activities, but at times it does not shrink from acts of violence.
There have, in fact, also been terrorist organizations using the name BLM.
Jonen:
It is the familiar pattern of a peaceful movement being taken over by extremists.
Kent:
However, BLM and ANTIFA are entirely different.
BLM is a legitimate movement and is not centrally organized.
ANTIFA, on the other hand, is a tightly organized collection of terrorist groups.
When I recently examined a list of terrorist organizations operating in the United States, I found that there were approximately thirty.
Discrimination in the Name of an Anti-Discrimination Movement
Jonen:
This movement is spreading simultaneously around the world.
Demonstrations demanding rights for black people have occurred frequently in Britain, France, Belgium, Italy, Spain, and other European countries.
That is understandable because Europe has many black immigrants, but for some reason demonstrations involving around one thousand people have also taken place in Australia and Osaka.
When I looked at photographs posted by people spreading information about the demonstrations on social media, red-and-black ANTIFA flags were flying.
I wonder what connections exist between them.
Proceedings in U.S. courts may reveal whether foreign organizations engaged in influence operations were involved.
Rather than conventional organizations, they are more likely to be loosely connected organizations or movements using the internet, in a manner similar to ISIS or al-Qaeda.
However, someone must have scattered the initial bait.
Should specific names emerge, it would become a major scandal.
Japan would no longer be able to regard it as a fire on the opposite shore.
Kent:
Chinese names have also emerged.
Jonen:
A Chinese student has reportedly been detained in San Francisco.
A video has also been posted showing what appears to be the student inciting the demonstration.
It is worth asking whether this was an act based on personal conviction or whether the student had been mobilized under China’s National Defense Mobilization Law.
Kent:
Large-scale riots occurred and many people were arrested, so the FBI has begun a full-scale investigation.
We should await further developments.
Jonen:
ANTIFA’s way of thinking is that once people have been labelled fascists, right-wingers, or racists, their human rights may be ignored and any discrimination or repression against them is permissible.
They then call this an “anti-discrimination movement.”
Despite the absurdity of this logic, they themselves fail to recognize the contradiction.
In Japan, members of the group known as Shibakitai had their social-media accounts suspended after repeatedly posting abusive remarks.
Their logic is exactly the same as ANTIFA’s.
They believe that any attack or retaliation against opposing forces is permissible.
They regard discrimination and the suppression of human rights as acceptable.
It is a terrifying way of thinking.
Kent:
ANTIFA is an abbreviation of “anti-fascism,” but what it actually does is fascism itself.
Jonen:
It is strange that they fail to recognize this contradiction in terms.
Even when an opinion comes from an opponent, defending that person’s right to express it at the risk of one’s own life is a fundamental principle of liberal society.
Anyone who wishes to express opposition to my views is welcome to meet me in a public debate.
However, attempting to silence people through violence, as ANTIFA does, is wrong.
Do They Want to Destroy Japan?
Kent:
As I have said repeatedly, ANTIFA is a domestic terrorist organization in the United States, and President Trump has said that he will formally designate it as a domestic terrorist organization.
Jonen:
Yet images have circulated on social media showing Japanese politicians wearing ANTIFA T-shirts or posing for commemorative photographs with ANTIFA flags in the background.
Kent:
Moreover, the images have received thousands of “likes.”
Among those pictured were Akira Koike and Saori Ikeuchi of the Japanese Communist Party, and Yoshifu Arita of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan.
Activist Shin Sugok also posted a photograph with a broad smile.
Did they understand the meaning of “ANTIFA” when they posted these images?
No, they must have understood it.
In other words, it is virtually the same as declaring that they share ANTIFA’s ideas.
Openly posting such images on social media is extremely insensitive.
Jonen:
Constitutional Democratic Party lawmaker Noriko Ishigaki even tweeted on June 9, “I would gladly be called ANTIFA.”
To the people of Miyagi Prefecture other than those who voted for this foolish woman, she and Azumi are the first shameless individuals and the greatest disgrace Miyagi Prefecture has ever sent into the world.
A protest movement spread after Çelik Ramazan, a thirty-three-year-old Turkish national described as a Talt man who had lived in Japan for fifteen years, claimed that police officers kicked his legs and pressed down on his neck in an intimidating manner when they questioned him while he was driving in Shibuya Ward.
However, Mr. Ramazan had driven aggressively toward a police car.
When he was stopped and questioned, he attempted to escape.
He was also not carrying his driver’s licence.
He was not subjected to racial discrimination because he was a Talt man.
Whatever a person’s nationality, anyone who behaved in the same way would naturally be arrested.
I hope the Shibuya Police Station will not be intimidated and will continue its enforcement activities.
The claim that this was racial discrimination is an outrageous accusation.
Taiga Ishikawa of the Constitutional Democratic Party, who participated in the demonstration, also uploaded numerous social-media images containing ANTIFA flags, but later deleted them, perhaps because they had become inconvenient.
Ijima:
Mr. Ishikawa is the person who intimidated police officers in Shinjuku Ni-chome, is he not?
Jonen:
Yes.
The fact that he deleted the images means that he must possess at least some awareness of the questionable nature of ANTIFA.
Kent:
There is no possibility that he did not understand.
People who wear ANTIFA T-shirts and openly walk the streets are effectively expressing a desire to “destroy Japan.”
I want them to recognize the seriousness of what they are doing.
Ijima:
It would be even more frightening if they were doing it merely as a matter of fashion.
Kent:
It is troubling that so many people in both Japan and the United States support ANTIFA.
During the state of emergency in New York, people were arrested for going outside.
Yet when the demonstrations spread, no one was arrested, and the authorities instead moved to defend them.
What does this mean?
According to one expert, “Social problems are far more serious than the pandemic.”
Jonen:
No, no, that does not amount to a defence at all.
Kent:
I hope the demonstrations do not cause infections to spread again.
Jonen:
With apologies to the American people, these demonstrations may be described as a social experiment conducted at their own expense.
The United States, with an infection count on a completely different scale from Japan’s, lifted its lockdown immediately after passing the peak and then held outdoor events involving large crowds.
What will happen to the number of infections?
Should the number fail to rise substantially, it could be said that the “Tokyo ‘Death’ Roadmap” had no basis.
Conversely, should infections spread again, people will conclude that restrictions were necessary after all.
I would like sincerely to thank left-wing activists for participating in this social experiment at the risk of their own health.
Kent:
Even should infections increase, it would be easy to identify the cause and therefore easier to contain the spread.
China’s Wishful Expectations
Ijima:
China’s State Council has released its first white paper concerning the novel coronavirus.
It claims that “China was a victim and a country that contributed to suppressing the virus throughout the world.”
Regarding the continuing issue of compensation, it also emphasized that China “firmly opposes attempts to stigmatize China and turn the matter into a political issue” and that “China will not accept any claims for compensation.”
Kent:
This white paper is the kind of propaganda operation at which China excels.
It is not a genuine white paper.
China may face claims for damages from the United States.
The U.S. Congress is, in fact, considering severe policies toward China.
Because China caused tremendous damage to the global economy, it is facing strong opposition from around the world.
It probably released this document as a countermeasure.
It is not a conclusion based on scientific evidence, but merely an act of self-defence.
Jonen:
China appears to be extremely frightened by the compensation issue.
In fact, the U.S. Congress has adopted a harder line than President Trump.
Even were the pro-China Joe Biden to become the new president, he would probably be unable to restrain Congress’s hard-line position.
What China fears in particular are human-rights hardliners who raise the issues of the Uyghurs and Tibet.
They are more difficult to negotiate with than economic hardliners.
That is because they reject the Chinese system itself.
Kent:
Should Biden be elected, human-rights hardliners would gain even more momentum.
China’s intervention in the current U.S. presidential election is perfectly clear.
It is carrying out cyberattacks against both the Republican and Democratic parties.
China appears to support Biden rather than Trump, but that may be an overly optimistic calculation.
Jonen:
Economic hardliners can be calmed by giving them economic benefits, but such benefits are useless with human-rights hardliners.
They will come with full force to crush China.
I look forward to seeing how events develop.
(Broadcast on “Torano­mon News,” June 10, 2020)