China Encouraged Protests, Now Fears Them

This is kind of funny, actually. China at the very least implicitly encouraged a recent wave of public demonstrations against Japan. Unfortunately, their one billion citizens decided they LIKED raising a ruckus in public and have planned another wave of protests this weekend and in May and June. Now the Chinese government is freaking out. "Express your patriotic passion in an orderly manner," is one oh so Chinese missive from the police.

A similar wave of anti-Japan protests in the mid-80s soon blossomed into protests over the CHINESE government and led to the ouster of the then-head of the Communist Party. As you know, tens of millions of Chinese literally roam the countryside looking for work and vague reports of mass protests in outer provinces are far from unusual. My favorite detail from the plans by organizers for this weekend's rallies: a plea for people to avoid bringing Japanese cameras or other electronic goods. Yes, you hate them but you love their toys.

So China woke up the dragon and now, hopefully, it's turning on its jailers.