For years, Chinese leader Xi Jinping has pushed ethnic minority groups like Tibetans and Uyghurs to adopt an identity rooted in Chinese nationality and allegiance to the ruling Communist Party.

Now, that push has been codified into a sweeping new law that reaches into classrooms, neighborhoods and homes – and gives Beijing the right to target people outside of its borders that it believes violate its rules.

The statute, officially known as the Ethnic Unity and Progress Promotion Law, came into effect on July 1. It bans acts that “undermine ethnic unity or create ethnic division” among China’s 56 officially recognized ethnicities, which include a Han Chinese majority that makes up over 90% of the country’s 1.4 billion people.

  • fritobugger2017@lemmy.worldEnglish
    32·
    15 hours ago

    What you state is pretty much limited to Korea and China. I have been living in East Asia and SE Asia for the last 22 years and most folks outside of those two countries are fine with Japan and don’t stoke hatred and hard feelings about the past. Yes the Japanese did horrible things in the Philippines but so did the Spanish before the Americans and then the Americans again after world war II. Similar situation in Vietnam, where China invaded and/or occupied Vietnam many times over a 1000 year period, them came the French, then the Japanese during WWI, then the French returned, then the Americans, and then in 1979 the Chinese attacked again.

    • TranscendentalEmpire@lemmy.todayEnglish
      62·
      14 hours ago

      I mean Korea and China were definitely where they did the worst war crimes, but I have met plenty of Filipino, Malaysian, Singaporean, Vietnamese, and Indonesian who hold a lot of prejudice against the Japanese. For the most part it’s mainly aimed at the Japanese government, and not as directed towards individuals.

      I am Korean, and Korean and Chinese people are definitely more vocal about it. But it’s not something a lot of Asians would really speak openly about to white people, even if you’ve been there a while. And just because a country has been occupied by different countries in their past it does not mean make any other instance feel any better, there are just more people to dislike.

      • Dr. Moose@lemmy.worldEnglish
        43·
        9 hours ago

        Nah that’s not true - I live in Asia. Generally people in Asia have very little care for ww2 history outside of China and Korea because they’re too pragmatic and busy developing themselves to focus on what happened almost 100 years ago.

        For example got to Vietnam as an American and you’ll be more popular and liked than you ever were America. Go to the Philippines as a Japanese, and you’ll make more friends than you ever had in Japan.

        It’s mostly propaganda that still keeps this history alive though in all fairness Japan not accepting responsibility officially is exactly what allows this propaganda to exist.

        • TranscendentalEmpire@lemmy.todayEnglish
          3·
          4 hours ago

          Again… Not saying all people are holding it against individuals. However there is still plenty of animosity against the Japanese government, which is still denying war crimes.

          There are plenty of Koreans that are completely fine with Japanese tourists, have Japanese friends, or have gone to school in Japan. That doesn’t mean there isn’t animosity concerning the Japanese state.

          You can hate Nazis without hating the German people. The only difference is that Japan essentially still has the same ruling class with the same beliefs in their government.

          It’s mostly propaganda that still keeps this history alive

          What propaganda? People are allowed to be upset at a government that still denies the war crimes their parents/grandparents committed. It doesn’t require propaganda to dislike the fact that a national unapologetically enslaved, killed, tortured, or raped your family members and tried to rewrite your cultural history.

      • fritobugger2017@lemmy.worldEnglish
        42·
        14 hours ago

        I’ve heard my Vietnamese family and friends speak far more negatively about Koreans and Chinese than Japanese. Koreans committed some war crimes against Vietnamese during the American war and are considered some of the most rude tourists. The Chinese govt’s continued aggression against Vietnam keeps them at the top of the unpopular list though.

        • TranscendentalEmpire@lemmy.todayEnglish
          2·
          4 hours ago

          Yeah, Korea did a lot of fucked up shit in Vietnam. That doesn’t make the fucked up shit Japan did any better. Have you talked to your grandparents about their views about the Japanese government? I mean they did cause a famine that killed a couple million people in Vietnam.

        • Dr. Moose@lemmy.worldEnglish
          31·
          9 hours ago

          Korean tourists are infamous in Vietnam and I don’t think it’s because of history but because they are just rude. I lived in Da Nang for a while and everything is double priced there for Koreans just because of “rude tax” lol

          • fritobugger2017@lemmy.worldEnglish
            31·
            9 hours ago

            Some of the worst behavior I’ve seen in Hanoi has been from Koreans. That said, drunk Aussies can act quite badly also.