September 24, 2024
BEIJING – A letter supposedly written by the Japanese father of a boy fatally stabbed in China said the actions of a few “vile individuals with twisted minds” should not harm bilateral ties, even as Japan called for more details about the case.
The letter, whose authenticity has yet to be confirmed, was circulated on Chinese social media on Sept 20, a day after the boy – whose mother is Chinese – died after being attacked on his way to school. But it was scrubbed by Chinese censors after about a day.
The attack in Shenzhen city, in southern Guangdong province, has continued to spark unease among Japanese nationals in China, with some Japanese firms offering to allow their staff to move back to Japan, Reuters reported.
Japanese officials are pressing China for more information about the case.
On Sept 23, Japan’s State Minister for Foreign Affairs Yoshifumi Tsuge met China’s Vice-Foreign Minister Sun Weidong in Beijing, following Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s demand for an explanation and for China to ensure the safety of Japanese citizens.
China’s Foreign Ministry said both sides recognised each other’s efforts to deal with the unfortunate incident appropriately and calmly, and agreed to maintain communication to avoid cases of an infrequent nature from affecting bilateral relations.
Japan’s Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa was set to meet her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi in New York on Sept 23, and was expected to ask for better security following the stabbing, public broadcaster NHK reported.
The stabbing took place on Sept 18, the 93rd anniversary of the “918 incident” or “Mukden incident”, a false-flag operation by Japanese troops in 1931 that eventually led to a full-scale invasion of China in 1937. The boy died in the early hours of Sept 19.
Shenzhen police apprehended a 44-year-old man, surnamed Zhong, at the scene of the stabbing.
In the purported letter, the father wrote that the boy – whose surname was reported to be Shen by the Shenzhen police – loved insects, reptiles and drawing, and was fluent in both Japanese and Chinese.
The letter stated that the 10-year-old had spent most of his early years before the age of three in his mother’s family home in China, while the Japanese father himself has spent nearly half of his life in China and worked in Japan-China trade, acting as a “bridge” between the two countries.
The father wrote that “regardless of how the outside world might report on this tragedy, the fact that (the boy) has roots in both Japan and China will never change”, and that he will not hate China or Japan.
He added that he does not wish “for the actions of a few vile individuals with twisted minds to harm the relationship between the two nations. My only wish is that such a tragedy never happens again”.
Asked by The Straits Times about why the letter was taken down, international relations professor Shi Yinhong from Beijing’s Renmin University said his best guess was that the Chinese authorities did not want any insinuation that the killer was deliberately targeting Japanese people.
Beijing had earlier expressed “regret and sadness” for what it called an isolated incident that “could happen in any country”. It remains unclear if the attack was politically motivated.
The attack – the second knife attack involving Japanese nationals in China since June – has shocked the Japanese community in China.
The Japanese media has noted a growing sense of unease among Japanese families with young children living in China since the Sept 18 stabbing, with some reportedly telling their children to not stand out by not speaking Japanese in public.
The attack came at a time when relations between China and Japan are chilly, with Chinese military incursions into Japanese airspace in late August adding to tensions.
The University of Tokyo’s Professor Shin Kawashima said that following ministerial exchanges and other activities in July, there were hopes that relations would gradually normalise, but the stabbing incident might put a stop to such a trend.
“However, it seems that both Japan and China share the understanding that they need to manage their relationship and prevent the situation from escalating,” he added.
Dr Lam Peng Er, principal research fellow at NUS’ East Asian Institute, said both sides will likely do the necessary diplomatic niceties to resolve the current issue and maintain pragmatic relations for mutual benefits such as facilitating trade.
How the frosty relations between China and Japan will thaw depends largely on who will be the next Japanese prime minister, which will be determined by an upcoming race for the top position in Japan’s ruling party on Sept 27, said Dr Lam, who specialises in China-Japan relations.
On Sept 20, two days after the stabbing, Japan and China reached an agreement on the issue of Japan’s discharging of treated radioactive water from the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant into the Pacific Ocean from August 2023. Beijing had vehemently opposed the move and banned all imports of Japanese seafood.
Renmin University’s Prof Shi said if the consensus from the agreement is implemented quickly, it might help to ease tensions. But given the overall situation, the mitigation effect might be “quite limited”, he added.
Under the consensus, a long-term international monitoring arrangement within the International Atomic Energy Agency framework will be established, and China, after carrying out monitoring activities, will gradually resume imports of Japanese aquatic products that meet the regulation requirements and standards.
Prof Kawashima, an expert in international studies, noted that the agreement was already under way at the time of the attack and was more likely a capstone of outgoing Prime Minister Kishida’s term of office. “However, due to the recent incident, this achievement has almost completely disappeared from public awareness in Japan,” he said.