Last year, Sin0-Japanese relations hit an all-time low. Protests that bordered on the brink of riots broke out in China over China and Japan’s tug-o-war over a little speckle of islands, called Diaoyu in China and Senkaku in Japan.
During the worst of these protests, vandals and misguided people took advantage of the situation to wreak havoc upon regular people. Now, one of the most recognisable faces of this protest gone bad has been sentenced to 10 years in prison.
China and Japan have been having an on-going conflict over the Diaoyu/Senkaku islands. This little uninhabited island chain set off a wave of protests and riots last August that lasted about a month. Last week, a group of 12 protesters, who since then have been sentenced to prison, took it too far — they attacked owners of Japanese cars. They attacked Chinese people who owned Japanese cars.
The most high-profile criminal of the 12, Cai Yang, reached infamy when photos of him shirtless smashing a Toyota with a bicycle lock surfaced online. At around 1pm on September 15, Cai came across a Toyota on the street. Cai picked up a bicycle U-lock and smashed the car’s windshield. The owner got out of the car and tried to defend himself and his vehicle, hitting Cai on the head with a brick. Cai subsequently smashed the car owner’s head with his U-lock. Seeing the owner crumple down, Cai ran away from the scene. He caused thousands of dollars’ worth of damage to the car.
Seeking to get a better deal, Cai gave himself up to the police the next day. After being sentenced to 10 years in prison, he was also ordered to pay $US42,194 in reparations to the Toyota owner he attacked.
Despite the fact that Cai and some of his compatriots are being sentenced for doing terrible things, Chinese media seems to be pulling a fast one on video games. Similarly to the early reports of the Newtown shootings last year, Chinese media is trying to throw the buck of Cai’s antics on to video games.
Xinhua, China’s central news source, reports that Cai was an avid gamer. Xinhua says that Cai spent a lot of time playing Cross Fire, a first-person shooter, holding a record of 4824 kills and 7997 deaths. He has a rank of corporal. Xinhua reports that after the attack on the Toyota driver, Cai wrote online saying that he felt he was “so cool” and that he said his actions were “patriotic”.
Now, the directing of blame at video games aside, this is good news. Crazy people are getting their just deserts for doing terrible things. Apart from a super misleading headline, Xinhua doesn’t explicitly connect Cai’s gaming to his violence, which is a good thing.
Cai was an angry Chinese man who attacked another Chinese man for driving a Japanese car. People in China who drive foreign cars are usually people who have the money to afford them. They usually do so because foreign brands have better reputations than domestic car brands.
[砸日系车车主者获刑10年 平日喜玩枪战游戏] [People’s Daily]
Picture: Gina Buliga/Shutterstock
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