A Diplomatic Incident in China

The Japanese ambassador to Beijing, Uichiro Niwa, and his wife were riding in their limo this week when an unknown Chinese man approached and tore the mini-flag off the hood. There is some debate about whether the limo was blocked in a coördinated effort by two cars, or if it was simply stopped by traffic. The distinction only matters because it could contain a hint of whether this was a crime of passion or premeditation—an opportunistic move by an overzealous patriot, or something closer to the first physical manifestation of an ugly period in Sino-Japanese relations. There is no debate about why it happened, however: The two countries are in the midst of an intense spasm of animosity over five disputed islands in the East China Sea. (For an update on that fight, I suggest a recent op-ed in the Times by Peter Hays Gries, a University of Oklahoma professor who has made a specialty of nationalism in China.)