Newsflash! There’s an e-mail going round (read it after the jump), detailing a protest march on Sunday at 9am, starting at Bailuzhou Park and terminating at the Japanese Consulate. I’d almost pay money to fly back from Hong Kong (I leave Xiamen today and will be there for the weekend! Yay!) to see this, since there is no Japanese consulate in Xiamen. It’s in Guangzhou, morons.

Here is the e-mail in Chinese:

厦门厦门各界人士请注意，请广大爱国者自发前往参加厦门抗日计划万人活动：
时间：2005年4月17日 上午9:00
地点: (厦门）白鹭洲（厦门人民会堂广场）-湖滨南路－莲前大道－日本领事馆
口号：勿*忘*国*耻、抵*制*日*货、爱*我*中*华
活动：聚*会*签*名、游*行*示*威*活*动
民间力量，虽然微不足道，但是，作为中国儿女，我们汇聚一股爱国热情。本次游衍无任何组织者，完全是中国人表达阻止曰本入常 爱国行为。同时，请避免4月9曰北京游衍时发生砸曰本使馆、曰本料理店和曰本尼桑车等行为（请大家自律），更请传给和我们一样有爱国心的中国人（30人），谢谢！！
请自带游行口号标语。。。

Everyone in Xiamen who supports China, please volunteer to participate in this anti-Japan activity:
Date: 17 April 2005 9am
Venue: Bailuzhou Park (outside the People’s Hall) — Hubin Nanlu — Lianqian Dadao — Japanese Consulate
Chant: Never forget, boycott Japanese goods, love China
Activity: Collecting signatures and protest march
As proud Chinese citizens, we must play our part, even if it is a very small one. There is no organiser for this event, it is a spontaneous national expression of opposition to Japan and love of China [methinks they doth protest too much -- Ed.]. In addition, please avoid the bad behaviour that occurred on 9 April in Beijing, when Japanese businesses were vandalised. Please forward this message on to all your friends who love China, thank you!
P.S. Please bring banners and signs.

A lot of us living in China know that there is a call out to boycott Japanese goods. I, for one, find this highly amusing, since:

A majority of Japan’s exports to China is accounted for by sophisticated production facilities, components with high value added, and materials (metallic products such as steels and chemicals such as plastics) needed by Japanese manufacturing plants in China; a considerable portion of the flow of goods from China to Japan comprises equipment and appliances assembled in that country using machinery, materials and technology brought from Japan.

You know what that means, short-term thinking people — the majority of city-dwellers who are factory workers / office staff? A meaningful and effective boycott of Japanese goods equals the closure of factories in China due to a lack of business, which equals the loss of manufacturing jobs in China. Let’s try saying that a different way:

Major items of Japan’s imports from China are now machinery, including office equipment and acoustic appliances, which account for 40% of the total, in place of past mainstay–textile products, processed foods and sundry goods. Today, “Made in China” is actually “Made in Japan” in a sense. Imported personal computers from China in 2004 topped 5 million units, 10 times the numbers of three years earlier, and they are estimated to hold almost half of the Japanese PC market. A similar pattern exists with copying machines; more than 50% of those sold in Japan are from China, where Japanese manufacturers such as Ricoh and Fuji Xerox assemble their products using key components shipped from Japan.

Chinese people are not doing themselves any favours by acting in such a mind-bogglingly ridiculous manner. I reckon the CCP knows they are as dependent on Japan as Japan is dependent on them, and while they’ll indulge protestors now, when there’s very little damage being done, they will clamp down when growth in GDP becomes threatened (or the protests turn to other matters).

Update: Oh, my colleagues are such a scream. Apparently protesting a Japanese textbook is indicative of China’s open and transparent democratic process. They’ve never heard of various Japanese prime ministers and emperors apologising, and their history books never lie massage the truth.