China’s Deliberate Smear Campaign Against Japan and the Media That Enabled It

This essay exposes China’s ongoing food import bans against Japanese disaster-hit regions as deliberate reputational damage, while highlighting the synchronized role of Japanese anti-nuclear media narratives.

March 16, 2017

Chinese authorities have imposed a complete ban on imports of food products produced in ten prefectures, including Fukushima and Miyagi, as well as Niigata and Tochigi—according to page seven of today’s Sankei Shimbun.
Reading this article, I was astonished that China continues to engage in actions that amount to nothing less than deliberate reputational damage against Japan.
At the same time, I could not help but notice how closely China’s actions align with TV Asahi’s “Hōdō Station,” under the Asahi Shimbun group, which since the era of its former anchor Furutachi has repeatedly broadcast reports claiming that Fukushima remains contaminated by radiation.
What makes this all the more unbelievable is that China itself is blanketed by air pollution at levels that defy belief.
Moreover, Chinese government officials reportedly do not purchase food from the same markets as ordinary citizens, instead buying and consuming only products from producers whose safety has been verified regarding soil and pesticide contamination.
This alone testifies to the extent of contamination rampant in China.
Despite the fact that the products from the Japanese regions in question have been scientifically proven to be completely harmless, China has imposed a total import ban—whether to manufacture an excuse or to support anti-nuclear movements promoted by organizations such as the Asahi Shimbun.
This stands as a textbook example of “bottomless evil” and “plausible lies.”
At the same time, it forced me once again to recognize just how profoundly culpable the Asahi Shimbun is.
While Chinese government officials avoid food sold on the general market, Japan has imposed no import restrictions whatsoever on Chinese products.
Furthermore, there have been regions in China where normal background radiation levels are higher than those in Japan.
Yesterday, the Sankei Shimbun was denied access to Premier Li Keqiang’s press conference following the close of the National People’s Congress, which in itself served as proof of just how consistently accurate and uncompromising Sankei’s reporting has been.