Liberals
as defined in American English may not like Sankei
and Yomiuri—okay, they definitely don’t like Sankei and Yomiuri—but they have
to give them plaudits for keeping so much content outside their paywalls and
for so long. In this respect, Asahi
and Mainichi are distinctly
illiberal.
Anyway,
I predicted that “[t]he Chinese authorities will make sure that public protests
are orderly, drawing the line at flag-burning.” It turns out that they’re
clamping down on protests, period. According to news reports from Yomiuri (here)
and Sankei (here), only a few individuals showed up in
from of the Japanese embassy in Beijing to protest despite an online call for
demonstrations, as the authorities denied requests for permission*.
Wait,
there’s more. I got it wrong in the other direction, too! Flag-burning did
occur in front of the Japanese consulate in Hong Kong, which reverted to China in
1997. I curse the heavens for the "One China, Two Systems." Prime Minister
Abe was also put to the torch in effigy, in Seoul. We do not know if North Korea
wasted any bullets in this cause.
*
This does not necessarily mean that there will be no sanctioned public protests
at a more auspicious time in the future when the initial outrage has tapered
down to a low simmer, enabling the authorities to better manipulate the crowd. But
for not, the authorities are drawing the line at public protests, at least
organized ones.
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