The following is from a regular column by Nobuhiko Sakai, a former professor at the University of Tokyo's Institute of Archives, which appeared in the Sankei Shimbun on May 10.
Newspapers fail to speak out on China's ethnic and human rights issues
On April 12, a press conference was held in the Diet by the Indo-Pacific Council on Human Rights.
This liaison council, which has a long name, was established on March 30 by 13 organizations of people living in Japan from China's so-called "ethnic minorities," who had been working individually until now, to unite and have Diet members protest against human rights violations in China in Japan.
At the press conference, Mr. Obara Karden, the representative of the Tibetan community in Japan, Mr. Senda Kerim, the president of Japan Uyghur Association, and Mr. William Lee, a Hong Kong democracy activist, met each other and Mr. Yang Haiying, the president of World Mongolian Federation, who is known as a naturalized scholar from Inner Mongolia, gave a message.
In other words, non-Han Chinese and Hong Kong people are participating in this liaison council.
These people want the Diet to pass a resolution of condemnation and for Japan to clearly express its protest by recognizing the genocide.
As can be seen from the "Indo-Pacific" in the name of this liaison council, it is linked to a series of recent meetings related to the Indo-Pacific.
This press conference was very timely, especially since the Japan-U.S. summit meeting between Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga and U.S. President Biden, the most important one, also mentioned human rights in China.
However, only the Sankei Shimbun, which introduced the event with a photo on the second page, covered it extensively in the paper of the 13th, and the other five major newspapers, though I tried to look carefully, did not report it at all.
The other five major newspapers did not report it at all, though I tried to look carefully.
What is going on here?
Is it because it is directly related to China's greatest weakness, or Achilles' heel, the ethnic and human rights issues, deliberately suppressing the story?
Are they that afraid of China?
During the Cultural Revolution in China, the Asahi Shimbun was the only newspaper that avoided being expelled because it dared not write about things it knew about, under President Tomoo Hirooka's "theory of witnessing history.
Other newspapers that had been expelled at that time returned one after another, but only the Sankei Shimbun persevered for 31 years.
It is a medal that the Sankei Shimbun should be proud of.
The worst of all disciplines that refraining from writing about undesirable things to China is probably still alive and well in the newspaper world.
