Commentary
As I write this, relations between China and Japan are at their lowest point in 50 years. Fumio Kishida, the prime minister of Japan, recently accused China of aggressively infringing on Japan’s sovereignty and escalating tensions in the region. Now, as the two neighbors vie for influence in East Asia and beyond, some commentators fear that war between China and Japan is a distinct possibility.
It is now 50 years since China and Japan normalized diplomatic ties. It’s rather unfortunate, then, that anti-Japanese hatred appears to be on the rise in China. According to a poll conducted by a Japanese think tank and a Chinese publisher, some 66 percent of Chinese citizens have a bad impression of the Japanese, and 90 percent of Japanese hold an unfavorable view of China….