MR O, give it a rest. The amusement of your comments has worn off. But keep trying to be a legend in your own lunchtime.

Hi Michi

I respect your very old age mate. But you are also a systemic apologist for Japan's 1930s-1940s hyper nationalist, anti-democratic, fascism.
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More on topic:

Here are some insights from a knowledgable Western anti-China source:

"This week, the Australian, Sky News Australia, and Britain’s Daily Mail all ran stories about a list of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) members in Shanghai. The list, which appears to date to 2016, is an interesting data source for researchers. But the somewhat hysterical tone of the stories shows how easily unnecessary panic can be created, even about as serious an issue as CCP influence.

The stories described a “state-sponsored spy ring,” called the presence of party members in foreign firms “infiltration,” and presented the list as a dramatic new development. None of this is true.

The presence of CCP cells in Western companies operating branches in China is unremarkable. The party’s constitution requires companies with three or more members to form a cell. Cells are much less prevalent in foreign firms than in domestic firms. In the majority of cases, cell meetings are tedious box-ticking affairs, although they’ve increasingly become a tool of direct influence inside private business under President Xi Jinping. Foreign firms have raised concerns about party cells influencing business decisions under the new regime, but their presence is well known.

Equally, consulates and embassies have always been aware that some staff are CCP members, but that doesn’t make them any more of a risk than other local hires. All mainland Chinese citizens are subject to pressure to spy from state security forces, and foreign embassies recognize that. The Australian’s story claimed as a scoop that hiring for consulates in Shanghai goes through a government-run body. But this is the case in every Chinese city—for both consulates and foreign media—as it has been since they began operating in the People’s Republic of China."

MORE TO FOLLOW BELOW

FROM ABOVE

"Treating CCP membership as a sign of loyalty to the state is also dubious. People primarily join the party as a resume booster, often in university or soon after. There isn’t a way to leave, only to get kicked out."

The English-speaking, upper-middle-class staff of foreign companies are probably more likely to be party members than most people, simply because of the strata of society they often come from.

Questions of Chinese influence are going to be a major subject of debate over the next few years. There are real issues with Chinese influence in Australia and other Western countries, but they need to be discussed carefully. Drawing clear lines about what’s important or threatening, what is merely concerning, and what is hysterical or racist will be vital. Expect similar stories in the future—and be prepared to read them critically and with an eye for context."

ENDS

Do you have any impression if Japanese are different from two others?
Michi,
I have spent the bulk of my life in one of the most racially diverse societies. The Japanese, Chinese, non Muslim Indonesians & Malays don't even give you the feeling you're talking to someone from another race. The only ones who invariably refer to their adopted ethnicity are the Pacific Islanders & Indians but only as a last resort !

Bronwyn: Its (China's) long history clearly demonstrate clearly it to be a peaceful nation.
It is apparent and no difficult to see in Chinese history that China had been imperial and expansive and imperialistic. Its history abounds in genocide and mass murder.
I said in my comment, It Is Not China's Fault, nov. 16, 2005, on Michael Pillsbury/The Hundred-Year Marathon, amazon usa, "It is not China's fault. It is an American fault" to fail to see the ugliness, which is so obvious. I wonder if it may be because some of you might feel it white supremacy to acknowledge it.
Henry Kissinger is tricky as ever like Richard Nixon. He says, quoting a Chinese saying (p. 218, World Order, Penguin Books), "China in the late Qing Dynasty had neglected its military technology partly because it had been unchallenged for so long but largely because of the low status of the military in China's Confucian social hierarchy, expressed in the saying 'Good iron is not used for nails. Good men do not become soldiers.' Even when under assault by Western forces. the Qing Dynasty diverted military funds in 1893 to restore a resplendent marble boat in the imperial Summer Palace."
The Qing (Manchurian) Dynasty entered Beijing and punished the resisting Korean Yi Dynasty which paid loyalty to the Ming Dynasty severely until it totally capitulated and began to send tributes. It was under the Manchurian Dynasty that Sinkiang and Tibet were ruthlessly incorporated.
"Good men do not become soldiers" tells how ruthlessly people were treated by mandarin bureaucrats. Deng Xiaoping did not ride a tank and machinegunned protesting students at Tiananmen Square; soldiers and policemen did it, namely Deng's job.
A lot of funds that went into the repair of the palace was not peace-loving. Empress Dowager embezzled them, which was normalcy; she availed herself in 1900 of the Boxers' Rebellion and started war on the Western powers including Japan.

In passing, two events most shocked the Chinese diplomatic circle in the twentieth century. After the Qing was defeated in 1901, they had to take a seat on the defeated side, and on the victors' side sat the US, Great Britain, Russia, etc. What humiliated them most was that Japan sat there, too. (Japan made the greatest contribution to defeating the Qing and Boxers. But it received the least indemnity.)
The other shocking event was that Japan was a permanent member of the Council of the League of Nations, a privilege denied to China.

This story is too long to be told in some details here; the story usually told is mistaken, due to the traditional arrogance of the West and China over Japan, so I will now tell briefly about the first Sino-Japanese War, 1894-95.
China and Korea as Confucian countries had looked down upon Japan
tremendously. But neither of them had an intent of conquering Japan and Japan did not have any on either of them. So, as far as the trilateral relations were concerned, they enjoyed peace.
This international peace was suddenly disturbed and shaken with the arrival of Western imperialism in the middle of the nineteenth century.
Great Britain and Russia were in serious imperialistic rivalry, in the Balkans (Crimea), Central Asia (Afghanistan) and North East Asia (the Korean Peninsula). The peninsula gave strategic advantage to an occupier of military dominance of the Sea of Japan and putting pressure on China. Great Britain wanted to keep its interests in central China and India. If the game was left, each country was in danger of being carved up. But China and Korea were oblivious of it as Confucian countries; they thought the Western blue-eyed barbarians would ultimately recognize cultural and civilizational greatness and kowtow.