Anti-War Demonstrations in China
Apathy in East Asia
by
Kim Petersen
Dissident Voice
February 20, 2003
To fight and conquer in all our battles
is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy's
resistance without fighting.
-- Sun Tzu
The weekend of 15-16 February saw large and small cities awash in
a sea of protest against an impending re-conflagration of the Persian Gulf War.
The display of people power gave impetus to the anti-war movement and saw
setbacks to the chickenhawks in Washington; in Turkey, where popular opposition
to the war is steep, the newly emboldened government postponed ratifying use of
its territory as a staging point for war.
The anti-war
euphoria though was not quite evident everywhere. Robert Fisk berated the
paltry Arab anti-war rallies: “Could anything be more pathetic than the Arab
demonstration against war?” (1) East Asia must have come very close. China saw
no multitudes protesting war. Hong Kong and Taipei produced only a smattering
of people. Protest ennui raised its pathetic head in Korea. Japan managed an
unimpressive result. The numbers reported at the various rallies vary according
to the source but even if the numbers herein are doubled the results are still
low.
Even though
the Tokyo rally was prominently featured in most media it drew only 5,000. That
is the same number as my hometown, little Victoria, Canada, with a population
of 300,000 compared to Tokyo’s 26.5 million (2001 data, source UN Population
Division).
Polls in
Japanese show a public dead set against an attack on Iraq. Yet the turnout was
quite meek for a constitutionally pacifist nation. The constitutional anti-war
clause enjoys widespread public approval; nonetheless, Prime Minister Koizumi
attempts to finagle a constitutional deletion or re-interpretation allowing a
projection of Japanese military power beyond its borders. The hawkish Mr.
Koizumi went so far as to condemn the anti-war rallies declaiming that they
gave succour to Saddam Hussein. (2)
Being the only
country to have suffered the scourge of nuclear bombs, Japan is fervently
anti-nuke. Even though information about US war plans has disclosed that US
attack includes the possible use of nuclear weapons the turn out was paltry. It
is difficult to know how many people are aware of US war plans.
South Koreans
have a history of expressing dissent. But Seoul, a city of 9.9 million (2001
data, source UN Population Division), only saw a sparse anti-war crowd of 2,000
people - double the 1,000 mainly students that protested against the presence
of US forces in Korea in October of last year. In October there were scuffles
that broke out between the protestors and the police. This was in defiance of
President Kim Dae-Jung who deplored the protests, stating that the US-South
Korean relationship was vital to the nation’s security. Newly installed
President Roh Moo Hyun is said to take a more distant line regarding the US.
The meagre
gathering from South Korea is in absurd juxtaposition to the fact that it might
be embroiled in the next episode of Mr. Bush’s series of endless wars. North Korea has solid claim as the cynosure
of Mr. Bush’s next so-called War on Terror. Finn Havor, a writer based in South
Korea commented just before the demonstrations: “As the clouds of war gather in
the Middle East, not many people in [South] Korea seem especially perturbed.
Most are simply happily living their lives.” (3)
True public
sentiment is hard to gauge as Havor alluded to a manufactured consent in the
Korean media, seen as pushing for war in Iraq. Despite low turnouts in Korea,
as in Japan, polls show public opinion is against the war in Iraq without UN
authorization.
China is a
different case. It is not surprising that in a nominally Communist state
protests would be non-existent. The right to demonstrate is constitutionally
guaranteed but requires state approval, something seldom granted. The most
recent demonstrations were not state approved. In 2002 elderly unpaid
state-owned-enterprise workers began assembling in Liaoyang to protest. The
protests spread in northern China and reportedly peaked at over 50,000
demonstrators. The reaction by authorities was ruthless. The protest leaders
were arrested and charged them with “organising illegal protests” and
“subversion,” the latter of which carries a possible death penalty. (4)
No wonder the
city streets were devoid of anti-war protestors in China; if ordinary workers
complain about corrupt Communist apparatchiks pocketing their pay, they risk
getting thrown in jail and facing a firing squad. The Chinese government, while
remaining low-key, has come out in opposition to war. The China media has
scrupulously avoided much mention of the Chinese government position and
focussed instead on the leading doves of France and Germany.
Anti-war
demonstrations are not unknown in China. The NATO bombing of the Chinese
Embassy in Belgrade led to a massive outpouring of demonstrations in Beijing
and other cities. Beijing’s denunciation of the lethal bombing served as the
fillip for demonstrations against the US and NATO for “deliberately ‘spilling
Chinese blood.’” Then Vice-President Hu Jintao, who gave the green light for
the protests, urged that the demonstrations be carried out in a legal and
responsible manner. Beijing was taken aback, however, by the vehemence of the
protestors and the how quickly the protests escalated with tens of thousands
expressing their apoplexy. (5)
With the
reverberations from the protests over the Belgrade Embassy bombing still fresh
in memory, Beijing quickly went into spin control following the capture of a US
spy plane and crew, which were interned on Hainan. The US spy had caused the
downing of a Chinese jet fighter with the disappearance of the pilot. Two small
demonstrations did occur on Hainan University campus but they failed to attract
support from many students. Apparently Beijing kept a close hand on this
incident. (6)
Political
discourse is widely refrained from in China but one school teacher, ostensibly
unfamiliar with Martin Niemoeller, quipped: “Why should I be concerned about
what happens in Iraq? It is so far away.” This apathy hasn’t pervaded through
to all the students, however. The same school’s newspaper featured the letter
of an elementary school pupil who wrote a letter to Mr. Bush urging peace.
The Chinese
authorities have consistently opposed war. China abstained from voting on UN
Security Council Resolution 678, which gave the US and allies the UN imprimatur
to liberate Kuwait. It opposed the American-led NATO bombing of Yugoslavia.
Lin Yutang,
considered pacifism a key essence of the Chinese character. Of the people he
stated: “[Chinese] hate war, and always will hate war. Good people never fight
in China. For ‘good iron is not made into nails, and good men are not made
soldiers.’” (7)
Kim Petersen is an English teacher living
in China. Email: kotto2001@hotmail.com
(1) Robert
Fisk, “A million march in London but, faced with disaster, the Arabs are like mice,”
The Independent, 18 February 2003, http://argument.independent.co.uk/commentators/story.jsp?story=379380
(2) Editorial,
“Koizumi attacks global antiwar rallies,” Japan Times,18 February 2003, http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?nn20030218a5.htm
(3) Finn
Havor, “Bombing Perfect Strangers (Part I),” rabble.ca: everyone’s a critic, 13
February 2003, http://www.rabble.ca/everyones_a_critic.shtml?sh_itm=1c5971774113713ba5aced6f3db98d77&r=1
(4) Pranjal
Tiwari, “Free the Liaoyang Four: Labor Organizers face execution in China,”
Znet, January 13, 2003, http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=1&ItemID=2859
(5) Peter Symonds,
“Mass demonstrations in China express outrage at NATO bombing,” World Socialist
Web Site, 10 May 1999, http://www.wsws.org/articles/1999/may1999/chin-m10.shtml
(6) Jeremy Page,
“China Dampens Anti-US Protests, Frustrates Students,” Friday, 6 April 2001,
Yahoo! News, http://www.cise.ufl.edu/~dcc/pub/china/china_free_speech.html
(7) Lin
Yutang, My Country and My People (Foreign language Teaching and Research Press,
2000).