Hao Hao ReportThe best China news and blog posts

The rise of various Asian nations has led to the recent rise of Nationalism. As news of evidence of the horrific 1937 "Rape of Nanking" comes to light, Asian holocaust deniers crawl out and attempt to distort history...to the point of asserting that "the Chinese are inferior to the Japanese".

Ara claimed that the term "Nanking Massacre" never appeared in Chinese history textbooks during the entire Mao Zedong's reign. Mao died in 1976.

To Ara, that proved Mao Zedong "knew that Nanking Massacre was a propaganda of Chiang Kai-shek."

There is another reason, however, that Chinese people almost seem to automatically express their hate for the Japanese when the subject is broached. State controlled television in China has for many years now been showing programs that constantly remind the Chinese of the horrors perpetrated upon them by the Japanese. According to some of my Chinese friends, the television channels in China are full of programs and movies that allow the Chinese to at least partly relive the Japanese incursion into China.

Opposition lawmakers yesterday proposed a legal amendment that English-language competency should be mandatory for all presidential aspirants.

Presidential hopefuls who fail to pass the intermediate level of General English Proficiency Test (GEPT) would be disqualified from running in the presidential election

Beijing Newspeak comments on a recent Xinhua article in which a teacher in Gansu was convicted of raping 18 grade 3 and 4 students. The young journalist that did the reporting was not eager to find out more details to expose the case because "it would not be good for China’s image."

This case mimics closely another child rape case in the same area that happened a couple years ago. At the time, NYT report Jim Yardley summed up the situation well with this quote:

Japanese comics are excellent, and the Japanese troops were "a bit cruel" during war... Chinese and Japanese children take a look at history.

CNN: Millions of Chinese-made toys for children have been pulled from shelves in North America and Australia after scientists found they contain a chemical that converts into a powerful "date rape" drug when ingested.

A day before Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi is expected to visit a controversial shrine honouring war dead, China announces plans to film a movie based on the Nanjing atrocities. Tuesday, August 15 marks the anniversary of Japan's surrender to the allied powers (or as China would say "China's victory over Japan).

The Japanese Maritime Self-Defence Force unsuccessfully tracked an unidentified submarine that intruded on Japanese waters on September 15. The last submarine to illegally enter Japanese waters was a Chinese submarine in 2004.