The fatal stabbing of a 10-year-old Japanese boy in Shenzhen, China on the anniversary of Japan’s 1931 invasion of northeast China has triggered calls for Beijing to rein in online anti-Japanese sentiment. Three months earlier in the country's eastern city of Suzhou, a Japanese mother and her preschool child were attacked at a Japanese school's bus stop. A 54-year-old female Chinese bus attendant was fatally stabbed while trying to protect them. The motive behind each attack remains unclear, but anti-Japanese sentiment, especially online, has been rising in China since the release of treated, diluted wastewater from Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant in 2023.
Our guests:
Lai I-chung
- Prospect Foundation President
Brian Hioe
- New Bloom Magazine Founding Editor