A Japanese schoolboy was killed in China, raising concerns about increasing xenophobia

He was killed on the anniversary of the Muken incident

Originally published on Global Voices

On September 18, 2024, the 93rd-anniversary of the Muken incident — a false flag operation that was used as the pretext for Japan's invasion of China in 1931, a 10-year-old Japanese schoolboy was stabbed by a 44-year-old man near a Japanese international School in Shenzhen, a southern Chinese city and a hub for tech companies. The boy died of his injuries.

This is the second attack targeting Japanese school kids in China. The last attack, which took place in Suzhou on June 24, resulted in the death of a Chinese female bus attendant as she attempted to restrain the assailant from further attacking an injured Japanese mother and child. 

Back in June, many blamed the spread of anti-Japan sentiment fueled by extreme Chinese nationalism for inciting hostility towards Japanese people. Even though the spokesperson of the Chinese foreign minister claimed that the violent act was an  “isolated” case, Chinese government censors demanded online social media platforms remove anti-Japanese comments. Reportedly, Sina Weibo suspended 36 user accounts and deleted 759 posts that spread extreme nationalistic sentiment, promoted hatred, and applauded criminal acts. 

Yet, within three months came the second attack. That the attack occurred on a politically sensitive day charged with nationalistic sentiment only further proved that the violence against Japanese people was not an isolated issue, but more likely hate crimes driven by a collective sentiment.

Japanese expat living in China are in shock and concerned about their safety moving forward. In an email sent to Japanese citizens residing in China, the Japan Consulate urged its nationals to pay attention to their surroundings and protect their safety. Japanese schools in Beijing and Guangzhou also urged their students not to speak Japanese in public and to stay out of the streets. 

Japan’s prime minister, Fumio Kishida, called the attack “a despicable crime” and urged China to protect Japanese people in the country and reveal details of the investigation. However, mainland Chinese media outlets downplayed the news. On Weibo, the censors also deleted comments and hashtags about the attacks and prevented the topic from appearing on the hot-topic list. 

China's Foreign Ministry spokesperson expressed “regret and sadness” over the incident, but stressed that the attack was just another isolated crime.

China is trying to prevent the deadly stabbing of a 10-year-old Japanese boy in Shenzhen from becoming a diplomatic row between Beijing and Tokyo, characterizing it as a lone act and downplaying the political implications. https://t.co/nL71fpWATc

— The Japan Times (@japantimes) September 20, 2024

As the news of the death of the schoolboy spread across social media, some Weibo users could not suppress their anger and spoke out against the surge of extreme nationalism in China. An IT blogger, for example, said: 

深圳10岁的日本男童被刺后，最终身亡！这就是这些年来，煽动民粹，盲目排外的后果。在网络空间，稍微有点理性的声音就会被禁言噤声，而那些宣扬极端民族主义的却大行其道……

养蛊必被反噬，大家都会是受害者……

A 10-year-old Japanese boy in Shenzhen was stabbed and eventually died! This is the result of inciting populism and xenophobia. In cyberspace, the slightest voice of reason is banned and silenced while those promoting ultra-nationalism flourish ……
Raising Gu will backfire, and everyone will be a victim ……

Gu, which originally referred to black magic using poisonous insects to manipulate individuals, nowadays refers to toxic ideologies and propaganda that misleads people. 

Anti-Japanese narratives in China

While anti-Japanese sentiment in China is rooted in historical conflicts, particularly the Japanese invasion of China during World War II, there has been a resurgence of anti-Japanese sentiment in the past decade, largely due to a flood of anti-Japanese films and dramas and the rise of online nationalism that spread hostility and conspiracy theories targeting Japanese people. In recent years, the territorial dispute over the Diaoyu or Senkaku Islands and the discharge of treated radioactive water from Fukushima have further intensified animosity against Japan among Chinese nationalists.

The fact that Japanese schools in China have been attacked may be related to a circulating narrative that calls Japanese schools a “concession” (租界), as these schools are established for Japanese kids residing in China. Even though many have attempted to clarify that Japanese schools are no different than other foreign schools, the concession narrative keeps circulating and has led to conspiracy theories that the students are being trained as spies. Here is one xenophobic Weibo post that spreads such a conspiracy:

#日本无条件投降79周年#年轻的倭寇在中国烧杀抢掠后逃回日本，变老后又斗志昂扬进入中国大地养老，同时日租界学校在卖国贼团伙成员的扶持下，如雨后春笋遍地开花，从小就生活在完全中式的生活环境，学习我们的方言，熟悉我们的生活方式，之后就被投放华夏各地等待被激活。所谓的中日友好只不过是卖国贼团伙成员单方面的意淫罢了！倭寇自始至终都没有说出投降的字眼，人家只不过是打不过迫不得已下暂时的停战诏书而已！中国人何时才能觉醒

#79th anniversary of Japan's unconditional surrender #Young Japanese invaders fled back to Japan after burning, looting and pillaging in China, and then entered the Chinese land to retire in their old age, while Japanese Concession schools blossomed all over the place with the support of traitors. [The Japanese students] living in a completely Chinese environment since childhood, learning our dialect and familiarizing themselves with our way of life, and then they were placed in different Chinese region, waiting to be activated. The so-called Sino-Japanese friendship is nothing more than the unilateral masturbation of the traitors! The Japanese never uttered the word surrender, they were only forced to suspend the war because they were beaten down. When will Chinese people learn?

On August 15, 1945, the Japanese Emperor signed a document to end the war unconditionally. Under the hashtag #79thAnniversaryOfJapan'sUnconditionalSurrender (#日本无条件投降79周年#), which has been used on more than 33,000 posts, Chinese online nationalists commemorated the date with war memories and accused Japan of refusing to reflect and apologize. These kinds of hashtags also serve as aggregators of anti-Japanese hate speech.

On Weibo, in reaction to the Shenzhen stabbing incident, many condemned the hate crime, and a few spoke out against the country’s patriotic education and propaganda. One Weibo user said:

看见深圳10岁日本小男孩被国人杀害的新闻了 我发的这句话懂了吗 ？！在仇恨教育下继续繁衍战狼们吧 这是你们想要的结果吗 离愚昧和蛮荒更近 文明逐渐远去

Read the news about the murder of 10-year-old Japanese boy by our country national. Let me say this: wolf warriors rasied under education of hatred, you want such a result? [We are] getting closer to ignorance and barbarism and civilization is slipping away.

Another said:

这十几年天天在各大卫视给本就教育程度极低的民众播放抗日神剧，再加上抖音快手毫不控制的极端民族主义宣传，不发癫才怪。 ​

Such a craze is inevitable. In the past decade, anti-Japanese dramas have been broadcast daily on major TV stations to an already poorly educated populace, coupled with the uncontrolled ultra-nationalist propaganda spread on Douyin [the Chinese version of TikTok] and Kuaishou [another short video platform]. 

Chinese internet users found that there were more than 200 videos on Kuaishou advocating for the demolition of Japanese schools in China. On September 21, three days after the street murder, the platform deleted 90 user accounts that spread hateful content against the Japanese.

At the same time, cold-blooded comments are not uncommon and keep popping up on social media even though the platform administrators have stepped in to remove them. Here are some typical examples:

日本需要反思了，为什么就针对他们

Japan should reflect why they are the target?

太危险了，小日本应该全回日本去

This is too dangerous. Little Japan [a derogatory term for Japanese people] should all return to Japan.

死就死了呗，凶手也被抓了还能怎样

Dead is dead, the murderer has been arrested. What else can be done.

While the Chinese government has attempted to suppress the rise of extreme nationalism in the form of anti-Japanese protests back in 2012 and 2005, the xenophobic sentiment continues to haunt the country. A Canada-based Weibo user spelt out the danger of xenophobric outburst in the time of economic downturn: 

几十年来煽动民粹加上近年来的经济发展社会环境的恶化，注定会不断出现底层人的恶性犯罪事件。吉林袭击美国人，苏州袭击日本学校，深圳又来针对日本学校。有钱的时候底层人民好骗又好控制，没钱的时候根本就没办法预测其行为。历史经常在这样的处境下发生意外的转折。 ​

Decades of fomenting populism coupled with the deterioration of economic and social development, vicious crimes committed by the underclass are inevitable. Americans attacked in Jilin, Japanese school attacked in Suzhou, and then Shenzhen. When there is money, the grassroots people are easy to cheat and control; when there is no money, there is no way to predict their behavior. History often takes unexpected turns in such situations. 

In Shenzhen, many citizens placed flowers outside the Japanese school to mourn the death of the schoolboy. The Japanese Consulate said they had received more than 1,000 bunches of flowers. Some overseas Chinese co-signed a statement expressing regret for the incident and criticizing the anti-Japanese education for inciting hatred.

Written by Oiwan Lam