Captured US jets and wrecked U2 spy planes, permanently grounded at the Military Museum of the Chinese People’s Revolution in west Beijing, offer a stark reminder of the brutal history of the 20th century.
Yet current geopolitical tensions, sparked by China’s unilateral declaration of an “air defence identification zone” over much of the East China Sea, appear to be lost on today’s visitors to the vast museum hangers with their detritus of war.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about; I’ve never heard of such a thing,” said Mr Jie, 40, who was visiting the museum on Sunday from nearby Hebei Province, when asked what he thought of China’s new air defence zone, unveiled by China on November 23.
The new zone’s significance may be lost on Mr Jie but it has rattled China’s neighbours as it overlaps with one established by Japan in the 1960s and because it covers the Japanese Senkaku islands.
Two 19-year-old Beijing men at the museum, asking to remain anonymous, said they had heard about the new zone from state media reports but that those reports lacked detail and had not explained much of the background.
“I’m not so sure why we have set this zone up; maybe it has something to do with the Senkaku islands?” one of the young men speculated, correctly.
Their hazy grasp of the facts is understandable.
In stark contrast to previous rounds of territorial conflict with Japan or smaller neighbours in the South China Sea, China’s tightly-controlled state media have largely airbrushed the issue from the news agenda.
As a consequence, there have been none of the mass outpourings of anti-Japanese or anti-foreign venom that spilled over into large, government-sanctioned street protests late last year after Tokyo bought some of the uninhabited islands from their private Japanese owner.
On Sunday afternoon, the issue of the new air defence zone did not even rank in the top 30 most popular topics on Sina Weibo, the Chinese equivalent of Twitter, which is blocked by China’s “great firewall” censorship regime.
In the sub-category of current affairs, the topic only made it to number seven on the most popular list. Indeed, the most popular topic in the Weibo current affairs sub-category was a series of newly published details about a domestic aircraft crash that happened in 2010.
Chinese netizens’ lukewarm interest in the subject reflects Beijing’s decision to keep the issue for the most part out of the public eye.
Employees of popular online news sites say they received telephone instructions from propaganda authorities ordering them not to publish any reports on the matter apart from short factual pieces issued by centrally-controlled state media.
An explicit ban was issued on any non-sanctioned reports mentioning the US decision to send B-52 bombers through the newly-established zone.
Over the weekend, state media were far more focused on reporting the imminent launch of China’s first moon landing probe and on Friday, China’s foreign ministry spokesman said the new air defence zone “will not cause regional tensions”, according to state media.
On Sunday, the official Xinhua news agency did report that US airlines have, on advice from the US government, agreed to China’s demands to provide all flight information for aircraft passing through the new zone.
But the report did not mention that the major airlines of Japan and South Korea are refusing to provide that information to Beijing, following instructions from their governments.
Analysts say Beijing appears confident the issue will blow over quickly, leaving it in a stronger position than before since many commercial airlines from other countries have agreed to provide flight information and thereby implicitly acknowledge its claims to the disputed territory.
Even on the diplomatic circuit the issue has had a limited airing.
On Friday, as several uniformed officers of the People’s Liberation Army stood shoulder to shoulder with Japanese and American diplomats at a buffet lunch hosted by the Japanese embassy in Beijing to celebrate the birthday of the Japanese Emperor, there was no hint that their countries could be one mid-air collision away from armed conflict.
Meanwhile, back at the Beijing military museum on Sunday, 26-year-old Beijing native Song Guotao made clear that the relative apathy of ordinary Chinese people towards the latest standoff has nothing to do with a more tolerant attitude toward their neighbours.
“This is our territory and Japan is truly a barbaric country,” he said.
Mr Song said he had learnt a lot about the current tensions over the air defence zone thanks to his searches on the internet rather than from state media.
As a consequence, there have been none of the mass outpourings of anti-Japanese or anti-foreign venom that spilled over into large, government-sanctioned street protests late last year after Tokyo bought some of the uninhabited islands from their private Japanese owner.
On Sunday afternoon, the issue of the new air defence zone did not even rank in the top 30 most popular topics on Sina Weibo, the Chinese equivalent of Twitter, which is blocked by China’s “great firewall” censorship regime.
In the sub-category of current affairs, the topic only made it to number seven on the most popular list. Indeed, the most popular topic in the Weibo current affairs sub-category was a series of newly published details about a domestic aircraft crash that happened in 2010.
Chinese netizens’ lukewarm interest in the subject reflects Beijing’s decision to keep the issue for the most part out of the public eye.
Employees of popular online news sites say they received telephone instructions from propaganda authorities ordering them not to publish any reports on the matter apart from short factual pieces issued by centrally-controlled state media.
An explicit ban was issued on any non-sanctioned reports mentioning the US decision to send B-52 bombers through the newly-established zone.
Over the weekend, state media were far more focused on reporting the imminent launch of China’s first moon landing probe and on Friday, China’s foreign ministry spokesman said the new air defence zone “will not cause regional tensions”, according to state media.
On Sunday, the official Xinhua news agency did report that US airlines have, on advice from the US government, agreed to China’s demands to provide all flight information for aircraft passing through the new zone.
But the report did not mention that the major airlines of Japan and South Korea are refusing to provide that information to Beijing, following instructions from their governments.
Analysts say Beijing appears confident the issue will blow over quickly, leaving it in a stronger position than before since many commercial airlines from other countries have agreed to provide flight information and thereby implicitly acknowledge its claims to the disputed territory.
Even on the diplomatic circuit the issue has had a limited airing.
On Friday, as several uniformed officers of the People’s Liberation Army stood shoulder to shoulder with Japanese and American diplomats at a buffet lunch hosted by the Japanese embassy in Beijing to celebrate the birthday of the Japanese Emperor, there was no hint that their countries could be one mid-air collision away from armed conflict.
Meanwhile, back at the Beijing military museum on Sunday, 26-year-old Beijing native Song Guotao made clear that the relative apathy of ordinary Chinese people towards the latest standoff has nothing to do with a more tolerant attitude toward their neighbours.
“This is our territory and Japan is truly a barbaric country,” he said.
Mr Song said he had learnt a lot about the current tensions over the air defence zone thanks to his searches on the internet rather than from state media.
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