I asked because I wasn't sure if I was dealing with a reasonable poster, with balanced views of the PRC, or a fanboi, and now I'm sure.
That's a rather unreasonable position to take - "if you do not agree with my view, you are a fanboi" Really?!
While we do not always agree on things, I always respected your maturity and reasonableness. Such sentiment is unlike you.
The charge of the Chinese government "stoking anti-Japanese sentiment" is by itself a highly loaded one to start with. And to be honest, I see little evidence to support it.
In almost every single instance where China has been accused of "stoking anti-Japanese sentiment", all China did was react to things done by Japan.
Is the Chinese government not allowed to express their strong dissatisfaction when the Japanese government and or prominent Japanese politicians does or say something pigheaded, incendiary and frankly, stupid?
And note, it is not just China who have such reactions, if anything South Korean reactions, both officially and on the streets, are usually more extreme than those seen in China. Yet amusingly, South Korea is never accused of stoking anti-Japanese sentiment. That alone should speak volumes towards the validity of the charge levied against Beijing.
The other often trumpeted evidence that China is "stoking anti-Japanese" sentiment is all the war films made. That is as stupid as it is ridiculous. There are plenty of Hollywood WWII films, is anyone moronic enough to suggest they stoke anti-German sentiments?
Yes, many of the atrocities depicted in those war films are brutal, inhuman and disgusting, but I have never heard of a single case where it was accused that what was depicted in Chinese films was fabricated. The films show what they show because that was what happened. What, is China supposed to whitewash and sanitise history like Japan is trying to do?
Many Hollywood WWII films, especially those dealing with the holocaust, also show every strong and often graphic and disturbing depictions of atrocities. Does anyone see the Germans bitching and whining about it?
To even suggest China is doing something wrong by making factually accurate and historically correct films is by itself incredibly insulting. Just as the Jews would be rightly outraged if anyone suggested films like Schindler's List, The Pianist and other classics are somehow stoking anti-German sentiment, with a strong unspoken insinuation that those films are somehow distorting history.
The Chinese government sometimes does exploit the Chinese people's underlying amenity towards the Japanese government to further its own ends, but all the major powers have done that at some point, and I see zero reason why China should be singled out for it.
Compared to democratic governments, the only thing remarkable about Beijing's treatment of Japan is how restrained it has been.
If anything, the Chinese government expends far more effort trying to rein in the feelings and emotions of the Chinese people rather than trying to inflame it. Indeed, the most common sentiment amongst ordinary Chinese people is that Beijing is far too soft on Tokyo.
If China was a democracy, you can bet your bottom dollar some hardliner would have run on a fiercely anti-Japanese platform, and with the breadth and depth of anti-Japanese feeling amongst ordinary Chinese people, he would be almost a shoe-in to win.
I think that if historians are honest, when they look back on this part of history in a hundred or two hundred years, they will remark on how backwards the West has things with China.
Far from being the great and terrible threat, the CCP is actually the moderating force keeping the pent up fury of the Chinese people in check and making sure China's rise was largely peaceful, as opposed how all western democracies got to where they are today in the world - through fire and blood and war.