Japan brandname firms shut China plants after protest violence

[mwooldri]

3. Relations between PRC & Japan have always been rocky.

The PRC is going through a leadership change, so politics is very sensitive right now... and nothing, absolutely nothing must upset the Communist Party.

If there is anything else going on that can divert the public attention away from issues in the Communist Party, the regime will use it. In this case the nationalization of some Japanese islands in the China Sea - PRC claims sovereignty over them.

So when the to-be President of PRC goes AWOL for a while and there is this issue with some small bit of uninhabited rocks... sure the state media there is going to whip it up.

I don't know that much about Chinese politics but it is not a transparent political system. Not as bad as DPRK but it's much easier for them to cover up unfavourable events.