Republished on July 4, 2022. This chapter examines China’s acquisition of Japanese Shinkansen and maglev technologies, the recruitment of Japanese engineers with exceptionally high salaries, the potential military application of superconducting and electromagnetic technologies, and the presence of Chinese Communist Party organisations within foreign companies operating in China. I argue that the Japanese people must confront the reality of China’s efforts to acquire Japan’s advanced technologies and exert influence within Japanese society in order to protect Japan’s national interests.

Even within foreign companies operating in China…every corporate activity is monitored, and every technological development is laid bare.
2022-07-04
The following chapter must be reread not only by the Japanese people, but also by people throughout the world.
I am republishing, with revised paragraphing and other adjustments, a chapter originally published on September 3, 2020, under the title: “Once Again, a Team of Approximately Thirty Japanese Engineers Involved in Central Japan Railway Company’s Maglev Shinkansen Has Been Recruited with Exceptionally High Salaries, and a Maglev Train Described as ‘Made in China’ Is Now Under Development…The Superconducting and Electromagnetic Technologies Used in Maglev Trains Can Be Directly Diverted to Military Applications.”
The following is taken from an article by Hiroshi Yuasa entitled “Xi Jinping, the Unrestrainable ‘Wounded Dragon,’” published in the current issue of the monthly magazine Hanada.
As readers know, I feel intense anger toward Kawakatsu, the governor of Shizuoka Prefecture, whom I regard as a contemptible man and virtually a traitor to his country.
The events that have occurred since construction finally began on the maglev Shinkansen, one of the finest embodiments of Japan’s world-leading technology, are only now beginning to connect and form a visible pattern.
They were the result of forces operating behind the scenes to delay the construction project.
They demonstrate the extent to which Chinese influence operations have penetrated Japanese society.
First, for some reason, prosecutors moved to investigate and prosecute the major general contractors.
As previously stated, this column raised questions about that action.
Who set the prosecutors in motion?
Next, as readers know, Shizuoka Governor Kawakatsu—a notorious supporter of China who is said to regard the Quotations of Chairman Mao as his favourite book—invoked environmentalism, the ultimate form of pseudo-moralism exploited by countries conducting influence operations.
He interfered by making accusations such as claiming that the headwaters of the Tenryū River would dry up, and ultimately delayed the completion of the maglev Shinkansen project, which had been decided upon only after so many years.
While reading the article mentioned at the beginning last night, I learned that what I had written as speculation about the truth behind these events was entirely factual.
The preceding portion is omitted.
Emphasis within the text, apart from the heading, is mine.

Recruiting the Maglev Team

FBI Director Wray has also pointed out that China bypasses the long accumulation of effort required for technological innovation, “steals intellectual property from American companies, and then competes against the very companies it has victimised.”
Through the “Thousand Talents Plan,” which recruits outstanding people from overseas by offering them favourable treatment, China tempts scientists and attempts to make them take American knowledge and technology back to China.
China does not hesitate to use any means available, even when this involves the theft of classified information or items subject to export controls.
Its ruthlessness lies in using stolen technology to market products throughout the world, driving the American companies that created that technology out of business and seizing their markets.
Regrettably, examples of this can also be found in Japan.
It is widely known that China acquired the intellectual property embodied in Japan’s Shinkansen technology, copied it almost in its entirety, falsely claimed that it was “China’s own indigenous technology,” and marketed it throughout the world.
Once again, China has recruited a team of approximately thirty Japanese engineers involved in Central Japan Railway Company’s maglev Shinkansen by offering them exceptionally high salaries, and is now developing a maglev train that it describes as “made in China.”
The superconducting and electromagnetic technologies used in these maglev trains can reportedly be directly diverted to military applications.
According to retired Vice Admiral Fumio Ota, a member of the Planning Committee of the Japan Institute for National Fundamentals, these technologies can be used in inexpensive railguns—electromagnetic acceleration weapons capable of continuous firing—and in electromagnetic catapults used to launch aircraft from aircraft carriers.
＊Recently, China completed its third aircraft carrier. Reports stated that it was the first Chinese carrier to be equipped with an electromagnetic catapult for launching aircraft. As the United States had pointed out, Japanese technology was used, yet Japan’s political hacks, the Asahi Shimbun and other media operating under Chinese influence, and NHK did not report a single word about it. It is no exaggeration whatsoever to say that this country is dying from pseudo-moralism. It is the height of stupidity.＊
The day will eventually come when weapons employing such advanced technologies are directed at the Japanese archipelago.
Sensible Japanese citizens believe that the signs are already apparent in the activities of Chinese vessels in waters that include Japan’s territorial seas, and that this cannot be overlooked. Yet, for some reason, political hacks—whom it would not be an exaggeration to call traitors—and the media remain silent. If their silence is the result of honey traps or money traps set by China, the situation is even more appalling.＊
The fuel-cell vehicle technology that Toyota Motor Corporation is to develop jointly with Chinese companies can likewise be diverted to engines for submarines capable of navigating silently.
China’s enormous market may certainly be impossible to ignore, but how much of the national interest is being sacrificed for short-term economic gain?
Moreover, even within foreign companies operating in China, if there is a certain number of Communist Party members, the company is required to maintain a “cell” as a branch of the Communist Party.
Every corporate activity is monitored, and every technological development is laid bare.
Indeed, the Xi Jinping administration has done whatever it pleased: military coercion, predatory diplomacy, unfair trade, disregard for international law, cyberattacks, and various forms of espionage.
President Xi has only one objective: to realise his dream of China “standing tall among the nations” by 2049, the centenary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China.
The pandemic, however, exposed the anti-civilised misconduct of the Chinese Communist Party.
The Trump administration has shifted its definition of the Chinese Communist Party up one gear, from “strategic competition” to a “strategic threat,” and is accelerating its actions accordingly.
Even if China underestimates President Trump’s own ability to govern, it would be unwise to underestimate the national power of the United States or the will and capabilities of the United States military.
With the confrontation between the United States and China having reached this stage, a clash may occur accidentally, and the United States may at times actively exploit China’s vulnerabilities.
Shifting the well-intentioned policy of “engagement” pursued by successive American administrations toward China into a strategy of deterrence against China has now become the unspoken consensus among Washington’s foreign-policy elite.
Therefore, even if a Democratic administration led by Biden were to emerge from the presidential election in November, America’s hard-line policy toward China would not change.