China-Japan row ratchets up online, with clever wordplay and catchy music videos

Chinese social media disparages Japan’s PM while Japanese netizens reappropriate cartoons

- Kok Yufeng

Mr Masaaki Kanai, head of the Japanese Foreign Ministry's Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau, and his Chinese counterpart Liu Jinsong whose suit of choice "suggested it was a symbol of defiance against Japanese imperialism" PHOTO: AFP

(AFP)

Set to a catchy hip-hop beat and featuring taunting animation, a Chinese music video on social media is calling Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi a “troublemaker” and warning her against “playing with fire” by interfering in the affairs of China and Taiwan.

Put up by Chinese state broadcaster CCTV on Nov 18, the video is just one from a flood of chest-thumping posts on Chinese social media amid an escalating diplomatic row between Beijing and Tokyo after Ms Takaichi told the Japanese Parliament on Nov 7 that an attack against Taiwan could trigger a military response from Japan.

The use of such content that disparages the Japanese leader is part of China’s arsenal of tools to pressure Tokyo and to influence public opinion both at home and abroad over the spat.

“This... is very youthful and creative,” said the top comment on CCTV’s WeChat post of the video, which has been liked by more than 100,000 accounts and forwarded as many times.

“I love this style so much,” said another commenter.

The music video bears the watermark of a cartoonist with the moniker Tiantan View, whose Facebook page carries an email address that CCTV has previously used to solicit video and photo submissions from netizens.

Its lyrics use the Chinese term “gaoshi” or “make trouble”, which is the homonym of Ms Takaichi’s last name in kanji, “gaoshi” or “high city” in Chinese, to describe her remarks.