The following is from a serialized column by Akio Yaita that appeared in the opening pages of the monthly magazine Will, which went on sale on July 26th.
China is a dangerous country for Japanese people.
On June 24th in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, China, a Japanese mother and child were waiting for a school bus at a Japanese school when a Chinese man attacked them with a knife.
A Chinese woman who was trying to stop the man, a bus conductor named Hu Youping, was stabbed and killed.
On the Japanese internet, many comments praised and mourned Hu, calling him a hero who helped the Japanese without regard for his own safety.
However, on the Chinese internet, there were many criticisms of Hu, with abusive comments such as “Why are you helping the little Japanese (a derogatory term for Japanese people)?” and “Shame on China.”
Similar to the Chinese man who urinated on a stone pillar at Yasukuni Shrine in early June, many Chinese people praised the man who attacked the Japanese mother and child as a “national hero” and “anti-Japanese fighter.”
On the 26th, two days after the incident, dozens of people gathered in front of the police station in Suzhou where the man had been taken into custody, causing a commotion demanding the man’s release.　
Even though the incident was clear-cut in terms of right and wrong, many Chinese people became emotional and stopped thinking when Japan was involved.
It seems that the “anti-Japanese propaganda” that the Chinese authorities have been carrying out in recent years has had a significant impact on public sentiment.
After the incident, the Chinese media reported the events briefly but did not provide details such as the “motivation of the perpetrator.”
In Japan, there was a movement to collect donations for Ms. Hu, the victim. Still, her family made it clear through the local newspaper “Suzhou Daily” that they would not accept donations or gifts, and released a comment saying, “We want the person who died to rest in peace and for the family to return to a peaceful life as soon as possible.”　
According to a Chinese journalist covering the incident, Ms. Hu’s family is not wealthy. Still, they were greatly shocked by the many critical posts about Mr. Hu that appeared on the internet after the incident. They are now afraid that if they accept the donations from the Japanese, their family will be attacked as “traitors.”
Some Chinese media reported that the man who committed the crime was a “52-year-old unemployed man”, but they did not mention whether he had any connection with Japan.
On the other hand, various slanders about the Japanese school in Suzhou have been posted on the internet since before the incident, and it is possible that these influenced the man.
For example, there were rumors that “the Japanese school is a training camp for Japanese spies” and “the taxes of the Chinese people pay for all the expenses of the Japanese school.”
The most outrageous of these was the claim that “Japanese people are abducting children all over China, and Japanese schools are becoming bases for human trafficking.”
Of course, intellectuals with an understanding of Japan would not believe such things, but some migrant workers would.
Many people are said to think in a simplistic way that the recent economic slump has led to a loss of work or a decrease in income and that this is due to the influx of Japanese products into the Chinese market.
Many Japanese companies have set up in Suzhou’s industrial parks, and more than 5,000 Japanese people live there. There is even a street with a concentration of Japanese restaurants called “Japanesque Street.”
However, on the other hand, anti-Japanese sentiment has been growing in recent years due to the widening gap between the rich and the poor. In the summer of 2022, a Chinese woman who was taking a photo in a kimono was criticized as a “non-citizen” and taken away by the police for questioning. China has the world’s most powerful internet monitoring force, and any posts criticizing the Communist Party leaders or the government are not allowed.
You could be detained simply for writing “Winnie the Pooh,” which is reminiscent of President Xi Jinping. However, it is almost a lawless zone, free to criticize foreign countries such as Japan. There are also suggestions that it is being used to relieve the public’s frustration.
Not only Japanese leaders such as Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, but many posts incite hatred towards all Japanese people.　
In addition, with the recent US-China conflict, there has also been an increase in extreme insults and slander directed at the US.
Incidentally, on June 11th, about two weeks before the Japanese mother and child were attacked in Suzhou, four American university teachers were injured when they were stabbed by a Chinese man in a park in Jilin Province in northeastern China.　
At the end of June, about a week after the attack on the Japanese mother and child in Suzhou, major Chinese internet companies such as Sina and Sohu announced one after another that they would crack down on posts that incite anti-Japanese sentiment.
It is thought that the Chinese authorities, wary of similar incidents provoked by extreme posts, guided the companies.　
However, unless the Chinese authorities stop their anti-Japanese education and propaganda, it is clear that simply temporarily restricting internet posts will not solve the problem.
For Japanese people, China is still a dangerous country.