Chinese Responses to the 2011 Japanese Sendai (Tohoku) Earthquake

A couple of weeks ago, our colleague, Adam Minter wrote an article looking at  the Shanghainese response to the recent Sendai Earthquake.  It was a good read, but I wanted to flesh out the topic a bit,  expand it to the general Chinese internet blog/BBS (netizen world)  response to the earthquake.  Then, perhaps, look at at the official Chinese government response.

China’s take on the earthquake is informative to Sino-Japanese relations not only because China and Japan, the world’s 2nd and 3rd largest economies respectively, are neighbors and historic political revivals in the region.  Since the first century CE,  Japan’s relationship with China was that of an restless lesser developed younger brother.  Sporadically, Japan tried to venture outside it’s historical role, twice on the Korean Peninsula, in 661-663 CE to aid the Korean Baekje Kingdom and again during the Imjin Wars (1592–1598 CE), both times they were put in their place by their big brother, Imperial China.   It was not until the 19th century when the roles began to reverse. A stagnant Qing Dynasty China, struggling to reform, began learning from Japan, who had industrialized and somewhat Westernized it’s institutions.   In relative short order, Japan joined with the European Powers, inflicting on China, what the Chinese consider “humiliations” in the forms of unequal treaties; then came the Japanese WWII atrocities.  All of which still reverberate through modern Chinese foreign policy in 2011.

It is not shocking, as Minter noticed, that there is a good bit of Schadenfreude in some quarters in China concerning the recent bad luck for the Japanese.   Here an example of what Minter observed:

At Starbucks I tapped the shoulder of a thirty-ish young man in a dark suit whom I noticed switching between his email, Chinese news sites, and a stream of microblogged comments on a relatively new Lenovo laptop. His family name is Cai, he told me, and he works for a machine parts manufacturer with clients in Japan. “I feel bad for my customers,” he said in extremely polished English. “This is really going to hurt their orders and probably us too.” When I asked him if he sensed sympathy from the Chinese netizens he was following on his screen, he laughed uncomfortably. “Not everybody in China has such warm feelings for Japan.” How about you, I asked. “I feel for my customers!”

Minter went on to discuss the fact that many Chinese saw what happened in Japan and were not only amazed by the Japanese ability to largely withstand the disaster with their wits largely in check, but also that the Japanese government was readily response, and the infrastructure stood up relatively well to the earthquakes and tsunami.  This foreign disaster became an excuse fo self-reflection on the part of many Chinese as to the nature of their society and government.

Take, for example, a message that was lifted to Weibo’s front page late in the day (similar to Twitter’s front page of popular tweets), that read, in part: “How many Japanese would write, ‘Congratulations on the Wenchuan earthquake?'” It’s an uncomfortable question that was, in a sense, revised and extended onto Twitter by a Chinese user who, tacitly invoking the crumbled buildings in the aftermath of the Wenchuan quake, pointed out, late in the day: “The casualties from an 8.9 event in China would be hundreds of times higher than in Japan.” That kind of comment, most likely, wouldn’t last long on China-based Sina Weibo, which is heavily “managed.”

Since foreign policy is usually the domain of national elites, reporting at the highest levels often reflects “elite thinking” and misses the completely misses the true cultural zeitgeist. Well, until the masses take to the streets, as we see happening in the MENA. The Chinese pop culture blog China Smack routinely translates comments from popular Chinese  social media sites such as Tudou, Sina, NetEase, and KDNet.  Here are a few of the comments they recorded:

“Because its Japan
I’m so happy (因为是日本).”

[response]

“The entire world will look at the reaction of Chinese people, can you please not make us lose face? Don’t forget that only yesterday Yunnan had an earthquake, do you want to completely lose face for Chinese people (全世界都会看中国人的反应，你们别丢人好吗，别忘了昨天云南才地震，难道让中国人把脸都丢光吗)?”

[and]

“First, I hope there isn’t too much damage. Second, I really regret seeing some people taking pleasure from this disaster. Third, the Japanese are surprisingly calm and orderly when facing an earthquake. I saw photographs on Sina of people coming out of the subway station, and they were still lining up. Fourth, one must learn common earthquake knowledge, to be prepared. Fifth, treasure every minute every second of life (第一，但愿没有太大伤害。第二，很遗憾地看到一些人对此幸灾乐祸。第三，日本人在地震面前的镇静和有序让人吃惊。看到新浪图片从地铁站出来的人，还是排着队的。第四，要学习地震常识，做预案。第五，珍惜生活的每分每秒).“

[and]

“Our compatriots will get better, and have already gotten stronger. But history will never be forgotten! This is where we and the Japanese are different, we can separate who is right and who is wrong, we won’t lump them together. However, the more we post this kind of stuff the more we will remember Japanese fascists cruelly murdering thousands upon thousands of Chinese compatriots (国人会好起来的，也已经强大起来了。但历史永远不会被凝望！就是这样我们和日本人有区别我们分的清谁是谁非，我们不会混成一谈，但我们越发这样我们就越会记的被日本法西斯残忍杀害千千万万中国同胞！)!”

[and]

“The era of resisting the Japanese has already passed. Stop gloating at others’ misfortunes. No matter what, the Japanese are also people (抗日时期都过去了。别再幸灾乐祸了。无论怎么说日本人也是人啊)!!”

[and]

“The character of our country’s people [can be seen here, is embarrassing], the way everyone is laughing at the Japanese now is how others will look at the Chinese [later](国人的素质，大家这时候看日本人笑话似的，别人会怎么看中国人).”

[and here]

“In China, I bet [people] would have immediately broken into and looted the surrounding convenience stores/supermarkets.” (在中国 估计直接打砸抢周边超市了)”

[and]

“In Japan, the cars yield to the people. In China, the cars can’t wait to run over your body, even if you have the green light and the car is making a turn (在日本人车让人，在中国车恨不得从你身上压过去，即便你是过绿凳，车是打弯).”

[and]

“I’ve been a fenqing [angry] before in the past, but it wasn’t until I went to Japan that I realized how one-sided I was, and that Japan indeed has many areas worth China learning from 以前也愤青过，去了日本才知道自己的片面，日本确实有很多地方值得中国学习。”

[and]

“I’ve always been curious how Japan developed such an orderly society. And have always been anxious for when my own country can also be like this (一直很好奇，日本是如何形成这种秩序的)“.

Since the incident China has sent search and  rescue teams to Japan, in a bit of a reciprocation for Japan having sent rescue teams to China  during the 2008 Sichuan Earthquake, a magnitude 8 quake which killed 68,000 people.  There is no final estimate on how many have died in Japan, but the current total is ~10,000 dead, and over 17,000 missing.  The China government has donated over 20,000 tonnes of fuel and 4.5 million dollars in blankets, tents, and other humanitarian aid.

The Sendai quake has affected Mainland Chinese in other ways too.  There is a “rush”on salt at grocery stores in many areas of China, similar to in Japan, and for the same reasons, fear of nuclear contamination.  The idea being that the iodine in iodized salt will help fight the effects of radiation exposure, specifically stopping radiation from getting into the thyroid.  This is despite the fact that most experts have stated the situation in Japan will most likely not result in a transnational Chernobyl-type event.  So no one outside of Japan, specifically Northeastern Japan, has anything to fear from the nuclear plant radiation leaks there, let alone someone ~3,500 km (2,170 miles), but “facts” have never stopped public panic anywhere before, so…