Như trò chơi Tôn Giáo, Trò chơi chủ nghĩa Ái Quốc Tổ Cò tại Trung Quốc đang đưa chính bọn nhà nước vào thế lưỡng nan.
Sau cuộc sụp đổ ngoạn mục của Cái Nôi Cộng Sản của thế giới, hình ảnh khuôn mẫu lý tưởng của một Liên Sô Vĩ Đại và một Mát Cơ Va đầy huyền thoại đã vữa nát khiến những đám quyền lực cai trị những nhóm quần chúng ngây ngô như Trung Quốc,Viêt Nam, Miên, Lào, Cuba v.v phải tìm cách thế chấp "lý tưởng Cộng Sản Vĩ Nhân Vô Sản như Mao, LêNin, Marx trong một hoàn cảnh tư bản thị trường hiện đại. Với nhiều biến chứng xã hội do bản chất suy thoái khủng hoảng tất yếu của nền đại bản quyền chính, Chủ nghĩa Ái quốc Dân Tộc là một giài pháp tiện lợi nhất để vừa đánh lậc hướng quần chúng, vủa kháo não tư duy quần chúng, vùa bịt miệng đối kháng... Nhưng khó khăn ở chỗ, cũng như tôn giáo, muốn xiển dương thiên đàng thì phải tạo một địa ngục "ghê gớm", chủ nghĩa quốc gia dân tộc cũng cần phải có "đối tượng" cụ thể. Đám lãnh đạo đã vất vả nhồi nhét tuyên truyền hàng năm trời ... và cơ hội "va chạm biên giới lãnh thổ" là cơ hội vàng đã đến..
Chủ nghĩa ái quốc dân tộc đang tiếp tục thể hiện tính man rợ của nó. Tại Trung Quốc những đám đông đã nhân danh yêu Hán Tộc chống Nhật sãn sàng ăn hôi đập phá tài sản bất cứ nơi nào có liên quan đến Nhật, kể cả những hiệu buôn hàng Nhật nhưng do người Trung Quốc làm chủ! Có những đám đông giăng biểu ngữ sẵn sàng hiếp dâm bất cứ phụ nữ Nhật" nào để trả thù dân tộc!!!
Trong khi đó, nơi thượng tầng, những cuộc trao đổi kinh tế hàng ngàn tỉ mỹ kim vẫn đang diển ra, bởi bọn cầm quyền và đại bản hiều hơn ai hết, khi tẩy chay mặt hàng Nhật, hay hàng TQ, thì chính CÔNG NHÂN TRUNG QUỐC MẤT VIỆC, và ĐẠI BẢN ĐẦU TƯ mất lợi nhuận... Vì hàng hóa sản phẩm nhãn hiệu Trung Quốc, do Công Nhân Trung Quốc làm, nhưng vốn ĐẦU TƯ đa số là từ nước ngoài, như Sony, Samsung, Toshiba, Panasonic v.v
Cứ lấy thí dụ điển hình giữa Viêt Nam và TQ, hai bên tẩy chay "hàng hóa văn hóa phầm" của nhau..thử xem ai sẽ là kẻ thiệt thòi?
Chủ nghĩa tôn giáo, quốc gia dân tộc, nó nguy hiểm cùng cực vì khi nhiễm nó, thì dù có ăn học đến mức nào cũng trở thành mù quáng cực đoan, và có những lập luật và hành xử cực kỳ nghịch lý và man rợ.
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SUN WUKONG
Beijing faces protests dilemma
By Wu Zhong, China Editor
HONG KONG - Large anti-Japanese street protests took place in dozens of Chinese cities over the weekend after Tokyo's purchase of the disputed Diaoyu Islands (called Senkaku Islands in Japan) from their private Japanese owners in order to nationalize them. Japanese media described these as the largest scale anti-Japanese demonstrations since the two countries normalized their relations four decades ago.
Today marks the 81st anniversary of the September 18 Manchuria Incident - Japan's invasion of northeast China in 1931. More protests are expected in Chinese cities. Some Japanese-invested factories in China are reportedly to close down today to stay away from trouble.
Chinese people's anger over Japan's move to nationalize the
Diaoyu Islands is quite understandable. The Chinese believe the islands belong to China since "ancient times" and regard Tokyo's unilateral move to change the status quo of the islands in the East China Sea as a provocation and also a fresh reminder of their collective memory of humiliations and misery inflicted by previous Japanese aggression.
To a certain extent, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) may not be unhappy to see the rise of patriotic sentiments. In past decades, the Party has devoted great efforts to introduce patriotism to Chinese youths in the hope of filling the "ideological vacuum" orthodox Marxist believe was abandoned to pave the way for economic reform and opening up advocated three decades ago by Deng Xiaoping.
In practice, anti-Japanese protests could help divert the attention of Chinese people from worrying about the slowdown of economic development and other domestic problems. They could also lend support to Beijing for taking a tougher stance in territorial disputes with Japan and other neighboring countries. Of course, all this would work provided that street protests inspired by growing patriotism remain rational, peaceful and law-biding.
Unfortunately, the weekend protests in a number of cities turned out to be very violent, somehow reminding people of the Boxer (Yihetuan) Rebellion in the turn of the 20th century. In some places, protesters even turned their anger to the Chinese government and military, blaming them for being "too weak" in dealing with territorial disputed with other countries.
Riots have been reported in many cities such as Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Dongguan in Guangdong province; Changsha, Hunan's provincial capital; Xi'an, capital of Shaanxi province; and Qingdao, in Shandong province.
On footage of Hong Kong TV news broadcast on Sunday, one could see protesters in Dongguan smashing doors and windows of Japanese restaurants - though are all owned by Chinese investors. The Chinese owner of one such restaurant tried to stop the mobsters by waving a five-star red flag - China's national flag - and shouting: "I'm Chinese! I'm also a patriot!", but in vain. He then had to order his workers to chisel away the business sign board cemented on the wall, amid cheers of on-looking protestors. A Japanese man was reportedly attacked on street.
The Chinese owner of a Japanese restaurant in Beijing complained on his weibo mini-blog that these days, some people would often walk in and order food to eat but refuse to pay their bills. When asked to pay, "they would display the national flag, saying they won't pay because they don't want to become 'national traitors'."
Also in Beijing, some notices were posted on street lampposts to recruit a "dare-to-rape" team of men to rape Japanese women, according to Hong Kong's Economic Times.
Although many Japanese-brand products are manufactured in China, protesters not only called out for a boycott of Japanese products but to smash them.
In Xi'an, nearly 10,000 protesters took to the street on Saturday. They stormed into a four-star hotel to smash facilities, accusing it of accommodating Japanese visitors. On their way, they damaged shops selling Japanese-brand mobile handsets and Japanese restaurants. When they saw a Japanese-brand car driving by, they stopped it, pounded it and crush its windows, then gave the driver of the car a five-star flag. At least more than a dozen Japanese-brand cars were seen severely damaged that day, according to Hong Kong media reports. In Qingdao, protestors set fire to a retail shop of Guangzhou Toyota Motor Co.
In Changsha, protestors stormed and looted a Japanese department, despite it being closed for business to avoid trouble. Everything valuable such as Rolex watches and Gucci products were robbed. Some protesters even set fires on streets. Later, a netizen boasted on the Internet that he was "lucky" to get a "free" Rolex watch.
On Sunday in Guangzhou, provincial capital of Guangdong, tens of thousands anti-Japanese protesters took to the streets. They also stopped Japanese-brand cars and damaged them. Some stormed the five-star White Swan Hotel by the Pearl River, home to the Japanese Consulate locates, smashing hotel facilities.
In Shenzhen, the richest and most open city in mainland China and bordering Hong Kong, the anti-Japanese demonstrations on Sunday turned out to be the most violent. Early in the morning, several hundred people gathered in the center of the city and began to march, shouting: "Down with Japanese devils!" "Boycott Japanese products!" "Diaoyu Islands belong to China!" "Declare war on Japan!"
Increasing numbers joined them and some people began to damage doors and windows of stores with Japanese names. It was estimated there were more than 10,000 protesters at the peak.
The Shenzhen government sent riot police to keep guard and protesters began to target the police, who earlier last week arrested four suspects for causing damage to several Japanese-brand private cars during anti-Japanese protests in mid-August after Japan detained several Hong Kong and Macau men landing on one of the Diaoyu Islands.
Protesters besieged a Shenzhen government complex demanding the immediate release of the arrested, throwing objects into the building. They confronted the police, turning a police vehicle upside down. At one time, some protesters even shouted: "Down with the People's Liberation Army", for not taking any action in the face of Japan's provocation.
Hong Kong TV footage showed riot police tried to disperse them with tear gas and water cannon, but some protesters picked up tear gas grenades and threw them back at the police. Others managed to take control of a water cannon and smash it. It was not until the evening that the police managed to bring the situation under control.
It is astonishing to see that almost all protesters at the weekend were young people. Since China and Japan normalized their diplomatic relations in 1972, Chinese leaders have repeatedly expressed the hope of "letting the torch of China-Japan friendship pass down from one generation to the next". That hope now seems to be dashed given that young Chinese people have become the fresh anti-Japanese army.
It is also astonishing to see these young Chinese pick up the outdated slogan of "Boycott Japanese products!" When China was poor and weak, this slogan could be seen as the helpless moan of a weak nation in face of a stronger invader. In practice, it never worked. Thanks to globalization, China today can boast that it is the world's second-largest economy and an international manufacturing hub - so why are there some people still moaning?
In particular, many Japanese brand products are now manufactured in China - as much as 90% of some "Japanese-brand" cars are reportedly produced in China. "Boycotting Japanese products" - if it works at all - will only cost many Chinese workers their jobs. Hence this sounds like a stupid tactic of trying to hurt the enemy by hurting oneself first.
After the weekend violent protests, Canon, a leading Japanese multinational corporation involved in the manufacture of imaging and optical products, announced on Monday that it would suspend the operation of three of its four factories in China. Japanese electronic home appliance giant Panasonic also reportedly temporarily close down several factories in China. Certain Japanese investors are considering pulling out of the country altogether.
Ironically, the latest identity cards for Chinese its citizens are made with Fujitsu-Xerox technology and equipment. Will those young people shouting "boycott Japanese products" set an example by destroying their Chinese ID cards first?
The riots with the anti-Japanese protests over the weekend have alarmed rational Chinese intellectuals. For example, Hu Xingdou, a professor with Beijing Institute of Technology, said the riots happened because the quality of citizenship in Chinese society is poor.
"In China there are either obedient people or mobsters. There is no real citizen. The masses in general lack the awareness of citizenship. Therefore they can be easily controlled by extreme nationalism and resort to 'Boxer-like' conduct," he told Hong Kong's Chinese-language Ming Pao daily. He also blamed authorities concerned for "dereliction of duty" as they failed to prevent the riots.
Whatever, the occurrence of riots amid anti-Japanese protests has damaged the legitimacy of the anti-Japanese protests themselves, brought shame to the Chinese nation and smeared the image of China's "peaceful rising" that Beijing has tried very hard to polish.
Innocent people's rights have been criminally violated and their property damaged. The Chinese government must launch investigations and punish the culprits, as well as take measures to prevent similar violence from happening again. Patriotism must not be used as a loincloth to cover up crime.
It should also be pointed out that overzealous patriotism can easily become xenophobic and narrow-minded nationalism, which is a double-edged sword. As in Shenzhen's case, anti-Japanese sentiments could be turned and directed at the Chinese government itself.
If such sentiments continue to surge, then the Chinese government will have either to launch a harsh crackdown at home or allow its foreign policy to be "hijacked" by "popular will" to run into military conflict with Japan ... and then other neighboring countries. Surely, neither is desirable for the CPP - especially during a time of power transition.
(Copyright 2012 Asia Times Online (Holdings) Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact us about sales, syndication and republishing.)
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