A reporter at a Chinese Communist Party-affiliated outlet read a Global Times editorial attacking Japan and concluded that its logic had jumped. The editorial, published around the launch of Japan's new national intelligence agency on July 31, warned that the world would not accept a Japan that dreamed of walking its old militarist road.
The reporter, who works for a different party-affiliated media organization, told the Asahi Shimbun he shares the concern that Japan's rising defense spending and looser arms export rules are dangerous. What troubled him was how the editorial made its case.
The Global Times, which is published by the People's Daily group, tied the July 31 date to Unit 731, the Imperial Japanese Army's biological warfare unit. It declared that launching a new intelligence body on the day of "731" was a provocation against the postwar order by Japan's right-wing forces.
The number 731 comes from the unit's nickname. No connection between the date and the unit has been confirmed.
The reporter said the editorial likely went too far because it was chasing 流量 (ryūryō) — web traffic. "It may have become excessive criticism because it was too conscious of 'traffic,'" he said.
A wave of criticism since November
Criticism of Japan has run daily since Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's remarks on a Taiwan contingency in November last year, much of it led by China's foreign ministry. The Asahi Shimbun is running a series on the narratives behind Beijing's hard line toward Japan.
The Global Times editorial was not the only case the reporter saw as overreach. He also pointed to commentary that blamed Japanese right-wing forces for a fire in Mongolia, according to the Asahi Shimbun.