As Tensions Flare Over Islands, Chinese Worry About Their Japanese Cars - And Japanese Porn Stars
Anti-Japanese demonstrations grew ugly in China over the weekend, and it were cars that took the brunt. Chinese took to the streets after Tokyo said it would nationalize the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands. The uninhabited rocks are administered by Japan but claimed by China. Tens of thousands protested this weekend – and vented their rage on cars.
One of the first victims was a Honda CR-V, oddly owned by the police in the southern city of Shenzhen. Shenzhen’s finest were unable to protect their property.
As it becomes increasingly dangerous to own a Japanese car in China, people devise unorthodox ways to protect their cherished car.
In Chengdu, says the China-blog Ministry of Tofu, “a car owner taped a Chinese national flag onto the Toyota marque and blanketed the rear of the car with stickers that say “Boycott Japanese Products”, “Paralyze Japanese Economy” , “I Bought the Car First, Before Japan Got Bitchy. From Now On, Boycott Japanese Goods”. The picture of the car immediately went viral on Sina Weibo, a Twitter-like microblogging platform.”
Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.
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The artificial inflation of fears here in China over Japan is so ridiculous it's almost comical. Shanghai just had an air raid warning drill for the first time in like 10 years. All because of what's going on with these islands. The rhetoric all over Chinese news and radio is ridiculous, it's quite obviously being pushed by the government. Getting Chinese mad just to push this agenda. It's stupid and could quite possibly backfire as there is a rather large manufacturing base in China from Japanese companies, and if they all pull out. Wouldn't that be interesting? Want to bet that might be a financial blow that they propped up by toothpicks, smoke, mirrors, and duct tape Chinese economy might not recover from?
What goes around come around. Japanese wouldn't buy Korean or American cars and now Japan is being shut out of China, the world's largest market.