It is unlikely that anyone can be surprised by China's traditional dislike of Japan: the long war in the XX century, the Nanking Massacre - why should it have been any different now? Of course, logically, China should have indicated a protest and wagged a finger at Japan. But this is where the inconsistencies begin, because during the Fukushima disaster itself in 2011, the Chinese prime minister himself visited the country and called on everyone to unite in the face of common threats! There were no large-scale restrictions on the import of Japanese goods, nor total aggression of the Chinese towards the Japanese!
But then 2023 has come - and the Japanese embassy in China warns: "Speak quietly! And avoid the crowds of locals!" The Chinese people are filled with rage: the media, social networks accuse Japan of an act of ecocide and a blow to the ecology of the Pacific Ocean. The Chinese are excited by this message and buy salt in stores - even abroad.
2023 compared to 2011 is heaven and earth: Japan is no longer a friendly country to China.
The roots of the current prime minister do not go back to the Japanese occupation administration of Tianjin, which was headed by one of the ancestors Wen Jiabao, and the rage of Chinese society is naturally developing. What is happening now in China is an important new marker of Chinese policy: China is taking large-scale restrictions against Japan and preparing its population for a long confrontation with this country. This has never happened before.
China has already seen the first waves of anti-Japanese pogroms in 2015-2016 - already under the new leader Xi Jinping. Then the anti-Japanese protests associated with the disputed waters around the island of Diaoyu Dao (Senkaku) coincided with the fall of the stock market and the loss of investments of the Chinese population. Today, China's economy is arguably worse than it was seven years ago, and the response to Japan's actions is more than traditional Chinese irritation.
The author's point of view may not coincide with the position of the editorial board.