Japanese pop singer Ayumi Hamasaki was originally scheduled to hold a concert in Shanghai on Nov. 29, but she received a last-minute notice to cancel the show the day before — despite the fact that it took a team of more than 200 from Japan and China five days to prepare the stage.
Media reports focused on Hamasaki’s professionalism, after she insisted that the show would go on, performing to an empty venue. She expressed her regret on social media at being unable to apologize in person to all her fans who had come from across the world, adding that she was unwilling to comment on affairs that she did not understand.
The incident was caused by the growing tension in Japan-China relations, following Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s remarks on Japan’s response to a potential Taiwan contingency. China launched a ban on Japanese entertainers late last month.
If a ban was really intended, China could have notified the Japanese side long ago. The delay was due to Takaichi’s refusal to retract her comments, leading Beijing instead to target Japanese civilians. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) seems to feel this is a victory to be proud of. Hamasaki and her team had come from Japan, taking five days to set up the stage, while her fans traveled long distances to Shanghai. They all spent a considerable amount of money for this, with the CCP gloating over their misfortune.
The Shanghai foreign district used to be a shining beacon of architecture and style for China, but this was extinguished when the CCP got its hands on them. With China’s reform and opening up, jazz was heard once again in the Peace Hotel at the Sassoon House, as Shanghai regained some of its past glamor, giving people an illusion of the better days. Now even this mere illusion is about to be extinguished.
Even in the extreme communist era, Shanghai was the best managed city in China, thanks to the foundation laid by the past foreign concessions, but the city has devolved into a politically-oriented sprawling CCP concession.
Shanghai CCP Party Secretary Chen Jining (陳吉寧) is a Chinese academic with multiple degrees. After graduating from China’s Tsinghua University, he earned a doctorate from Imperial College London. During his study in the UK, Chen was fully aware of the tragedy of the Tiananmen Square Massacre in 1989.
However, after returning to China, Chen has had to bow before Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), whose doctorate from Tsinghua University might be questionable. This time, Chen has caused a global sensation by banning the Japanese pop diva. Why?
The CCP often dons its best Western attire to conceal its unmannered nature, but when it comes to confrontations with other countries, it switches to its Mao suit to intimidate. Chinese diplomats are not even trying to conceal their nature when meeting with their Japanese counterparts, even as Chinese officials rushed to Dalian to placate Japanese enterprises, assuring them it was still safe to conduct business in China. Xi is clearly at his wit’s end.
Paul Lin is a political commentator.
Translated by Eddy Chang
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