Inward-looking great powers

By Miwa Hirono

Since Japan detained Chinese fishing trawler captain Zhan Qixiong in the sea around the disputed Diaoyu/Senkaku islands on 7 September, Sino-Japanese relations have reached their lowest ebb in five years. On 24 September, a prosecutor from Naha City in Okinawa Prefecture, where the captain was being detained, decided to release the captain ‘in consideration of Sino-Japanese relations’.

This decision came after a number of attempts by China to protest against Japan, including repeatedly summoning the Japanese Ambassador in China, Niwa Uichiro, to an audience with State Councillor Dai Bingguo; cancelling planned top-level government contacts, a planned trip by 1000 Japanese youth to the Shanghai Expo, China-Japan talks at a scheduled APEC meeting, and the sale of tickets to a concert given by Japanese pop group SMAP, to name a few. China also halted exports of rare-earth minerals to Japan. The released captain returned to China to a hero’s welcome, not unusual given the coverage this matter has received in the Chinese media. The Chinese government now demands a Japanese apology.

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Take it easy: China is now the World’s No. 2

By Zhengxu Wang

It’s official now. China has passed Japan as the world’s second-largest economy.

The New York Times reported this week that “[a]fter three decades of spectacular growth, China passed Japan in the second quarter to become the world’s second-largest economy behind the United States.” It went on to say that this is “the most striking evidence yet that China’s ascendance is for real and that the rest of the world will have to reckon with a new economic superpower.”

The latest prediction is that China will surpass the US as well. How soon? In another 20 years, or 10, or even nine. By 2019, China might become the world’s largest economy.

How should one deal with a China that carries such economic weight? In recent years, the rise of China has inflicted much fear. There have been fears over its insatiable appetite for energy and natural resources and of the world running out of natural resources much faster because of China’s rise.

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Why is Chinese football such an embarrassment?

By Zhengxu Wang

If anything, the ongoing World Cup tournament that is exciting fans around the world only serves as a reminder to football fans in China of one of their greatest embarrassment in sports. Whereas the Chinese team had topped the medals table for the 2008 Olympics, the Chinese men’s football team was defeated in the World Cup qualifying games at the Asia group stage in the following year. In fact, in recent years, football has degenerated into such a sorry situation that parents have stopped sending children to football schools or the junior teams of football clubs. Teenagers show very little interest in this sport, a phenomenon that is hard to find in any other country. In a country of 1.3 billion people, the number of registered junior players has dropped from 600,000 in 2000 to only 30,000 in 2007.

The decline of Chinese football is caused by deep institutional factors. Starting from late 2009, there has been a government anti-corruption crackdown on the football industry, which has led to the expose of shocking cases. The top official of the Chinese Football Association was detained for taking bribes, while head coaches and club managers were investigated, implicating current and past football stars. Referees were also involved as some of the award-winning referees proved to be most corrupt. They were found by the police to have taken bribes that sometimes amounted to almost half a million yuan per game (about 73,000 USD).

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