Tea Leaf Nation

Five months since Japan’s “nationalization” of the disputed Senkaku islands, called Diaoyu in Chinese, the issue remains as combustible as before — and now, with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sounding off on the topic, the reactions of Chinese and Japanese social media users highlight the uneasy reality of geopolitics over these remote isles. [...]

On Sunday, Japan’s conservative Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) returned to power, winning 294 of the 480 seats in the lower house of the nation’s parliament, which is empowered to choose the nation’s Prime Minister. Ex-prime minister Shinzo Abe, who held the position in 2006-2007, will thus lead the country once again as its seventh prime [...]

If China Central Television (CCTV) wants to strike fear deep into the hearts of the Pentagon and the Japanese Ministry of Defense, it has to be more careful with footage selection. In its October 15 evening newscast, CCTV showed clips of a military exercise by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army that simulates seizure of an [...]

It’s not easy being a famous woman, especially in China. In a post that went viral yesterday on Sina Weibo, China’s Twitter, Chinese model and singer Lu Jing, who describes herself as possessing “the most beautiful natural breasts in China,” was run through the proverbial ringer after posting an update in which she said she [...]

The protestors may have gone home for the time being, but the dispute between China and Japan over the Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands are far from over. TLN author Helen Gao and editor David Wertime were joined by NYU professor David Denoon and University of Pennsylvania professor Avery Goldstein on Huff Post Live to discuss the historical underpinnings of the [...]

China has just taken another step in the direction of becoming a military power. On Tuesday, it put into service its first aircraft carrier, named the “Liaoning” after China’s northeastern Liaoning Province. According to the Ministry of National Defense, the carrier’s entry into service “has important meaning for raising the level of the modernization of [...]

The protest, argued all those engaged, was a spectacle of solidarity, and it appeared so at first glance: Beginning September 16, anti-Japanese grievances that had been simmering for months over the Diaoyu Islands, called the Senkaku in Japanese, overflowed into Chinese streets, engulfing more than a dozen cities in an arc along the country’s eastern [...]

Recent tensions between China and Japan over the Diaoyu/Senkaku islands have brought out the best and worst in Chinese society, and have also led to some unusual displays of patriotism. Recycling tycoon and eccentric philanthropist Chen Guangbiao, known as “Brother Biao” (标哥) by his fans, announced on September 18 that he would personally replace any [...]

When it comes to the conflict between China and Japan over the Diaoyu/Senkaku islands, who speaks for today’s China? Is it the Chinese protesters who have smashed Japanese-made cars and attacked Japanese stores and restaurants in the mainland? Is it the netizens who have urged calm and restraint? Or those netizens who say they are [...]

“Human flesh search” (人肉搜索) is a hot button issue on the Chinese Internet. This powerful tool allows an overwhelming number of Chinese netizens to mobilize quickly in order to find obscure information or identify individuals, often from a single obscure image. In recent years, human flesh search has gained notoriety as both a valuable tool [...]

Li Chengpeng, an influential writer and social commentator, has published an article on his blog denouncing the boycott of Japanese goods and the violent anti-Japan sentiment currently sweeping China as the two wrangle over the Diaoyu Islands, called the Senkaku in Japanese. Li made news in 2010 when he ran for political office as a [...]

Mega-famous Chinese blogger Han Han has just taken to Weibo, China’s Twitter, to denounce the violent anti-Japanese protests currently sweeping through China, many of which involve smashing Japanese-made cars. His latest Chinese-language post, entitled “Chess pieces that jump off the board,” (跳出棋盘的棋子) has already garnered over 126,000 retweets and over 25,000 comments. The chess metaphor [...]