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发帖数: 237 | 1 Why China's help to Japan carries weigh
Beijing, China (CNN) -- Disasters usually bring out the best and the worst
in
people.
At Beijing Language and Culture University this week, it's the best.
Japanese and Chinese students gathered on campus during lunch break to raise
cash
donations for Japan's quake and tsunami survivors.
"We know the situation in Japan is terrible right now, so we hope that our
activities can help the Japanese victims," said Chinese organizer Jing Yao,
a
junior aspiring to be Mandarin language teacher. "We want them to know that
there
are many people who care about them here in China."
Countless people across the globe are opening their hearts and wallets to
help the
Japanese, but the Chinese offer of help carries an extra weight.
China was one of the first to send a rescue team, a 15-member crew many of
whom
are now scouring disaster areas in Sendai searching for survivors.
Read more special coverage on China
China has also flown millions of dollars in relief to Japan. "China is also
a
country prone to earthquake disasters, and we fully empathize with how they
feel
now," said Premier Wen Jiabao. "When China was hit with the massive Wenchuan
earthquake, the Japanese government sent a rescue team and also offered
rescue
supplies." China is ready to give more, as Japan needs it, he added.
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China has been hit with two massive earthquakes in the past three years.
In May 2008, an 8.0-magnitude quake devastated Wenchuan in Sichuan province,
leaving over 80,000 people dead or missing. In April last year, another
major
quake, followed by a mudslide, left more than 2,200 people dead in
northwestern
Qinghai province.
Just last week, a 5.8-magnitude quake shook southwestern Yunnan province. It
killed at least 25 people, injured 250 others and destroyed many houses.
"We are still dealing with the aftermath of that quake, but it will not
stand in
our way to give aid to Japan," said an official in Beijing, who declined to
be
identified because he is not authorized to talk about the subject. "We
genuinely
sympathize with the Japanese people no matter what some netizens say," he
said,
referring to China's active online community that has not always been
unanimous in
supporting the aid effort.
At his school in Beijing, Japanese exchange student Makoto Hachiya
appreciates the
Chinese gestures of sympathy.
"Of course we are very moved and thankful for the support from our Chinese
classmates," said Hachiya, a sophomore studying Mandarin, whose family lives
near
the quake's epicenter. "It shows how friendly and good the China-Japan
relationship can be."
Returning to the devastation Man's quest to support survivors Provincial
residents
cope with disaster Inside power plant during Japan quake
Still, anti-Japanese sentiment runs deep among some Chinese.
On social networking sites, some bloggers were sarcastically "congratulating
"
Japan on the earthquake. Others have called the quake "baoying" (karma) for
Japan's occupation of China during World War II. Their numbers may be few,
but
their voices echo deep-seated animosity.
The Chinese suffered miserably under Japan's wartime occupation from 1931 to
1945.
Millions of lives were lost.
Nearly 70 years after the war ended, memories of Japan's war atrocities
continue
to bedevil the relations.
Even movies can reopen raw wounds.
I remember a controversy in the late 1990s when a big-budget movie, "Pride,
the
Fateful Moment," opened in Tokyo. The film, about wartime general Hideki
Tojo,
infuriated Japan critics in China because it claimed that Tojo was not so
bad
after all.
The movie also implied that the Nanjing Massacre, a killing spree by Japan's
imperial army, may not have happened at all. China condemned the movie as an
attempt to "whitewash Japanese wartime aggression."
Other irritants fester: the revision of Japan's history books, Japanese
officials'
visits to ancient shrines honoring wartime heroes, trade issues and
territorial
conflicts.
Of course we are very moved and thankful for the support from our Chinese
classmates |
