In China, the murder of a Japanese child heightens tensions between the two countries – Technologist

The death of a Japanese child, stabbed on Wednesday, September 18 on his way to school in Shenzhen, in southeast China, has sparked strong emotion and anguish in the Japanese expatriate community. It has also cast a new pall over the difficult bilateral relations between the two countries.

The 10-year-old boy, whose father is Japanese and whose mother is Chinese, was attacked with a knife. It was the second such attack in just a few months. Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida denounced a “particularly despicable crime.”

In a phone call with the Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Sun Weidong, Japanese Ambassador in Beijing Kenji Kanasugi “urgently requested” that all information on the crime be shared, and that security be stepped up around schools for Japanese residents in China. Chinese diplomacy considers this to be an “isolated incident.” The assailant, a 44-year-old man, has already been arrested several times in the past, mainly for disturbing the peace.

A year of diplomatic chill

Most of the major Japanese companies, including Toyota, Nissan and Toshiba, have called on their Japanese employees in China to exercise caution, and have said they are inquiring about safety protocols around schools. Panasonic is allowing expatriate families to return temporarily to Japan if they wish, and covering the costs.

In the weeks leading up to this attack, relations between China and the archipelago had already deteriorated, due to new Chinese military actions, while tensions have been rising in the South China Sea and off the Philippines in recent years. On August 26, a People’s Liberation Army reconnaissance aircraft entered Japanese airspace for two minutes, an unprecedented incursion. Then, on September 18, a Chinese aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, sailed into Japanese territory when it took a new route between two islands, Yonaguni and Ishigaki, located 140 kilometers east of Taiwan.

The Shenzhen attack took place on the day commemorating the start of Japan’s invasion of Manchuria in 1931. It comes after a year of diplomatic chill, with China accusing its neighbor of polluting the oceans by having begun to discharge water from the Fukushima power plant into the sea on August 24, 2023, despite reports from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that it complies with international standards. The intense media coverage of the issue had grabbed Chinese attention, who were genuinely concerned about the consequences for their health and the environment. Beijing has since suspended imports of all Japanese seafood products.

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