[People News] Anti-Japan propaganda inside China’s state-controlled media continues to intensify. A flood of anti-Japan, Japan-demonizing articles keeps appearing, evolving from vulgar personal attacks against Sanae Takaichi—intended to incite hatred among Chinese people—into attempts to provoke Japanese public sentiment, stirring dissatisfaction against Takaichi, synchronized with military intimidation. The goal is to use propaganda and coercion to interfere in Japan’s internal politics and force Takaichi out of office.

Although the CCP is skilled at this type of political “unrestricted warfare” and propaganda offensive, this nationalism-drug political fentanyl is now an expired product. The state-media system launched a coordinated offensive, but collectively crashed—producing the exact opposite effect. Netizens labeled this anger-pushing, hatred-redirecting model as “low-level red, high-level black.”

On November 22, the Party-run Farmers Daily published a video titled “Sanae Takaichi, the Japanese Have No Rice to Cook.” The video stated: “A government that cannot keep its own people’s rice bowls steady is stirring up trouble on the international stage. … Yet while Takaichi is lighting fires everywhere, Japanese people are struggling to fill their stomachs—5 kilograms of rice costs the equivalent of 198 RMB, and ordinary families can barely afford a full meal.”

The comment section exploded: “‘A government that cannot keep its people’s rice bowls steady…’ Who exactly are they talking about? Everyone knows.” “South Koreans supposedly can’t afford tofu and fried chicken, Japanese supposedly can’t afford rice… turns out we Chinese are the happiest.” “A place that starved tens of millions to death not long ago is now mocking Japan for not having enough to eat.”

The internet was full of sarcasm. Some said this was clearly a textbook “high-level black” video. Japanese netizens even uploaded a 4K video of rice shelves at Tokyo Life supermarket to Bilibili, captioned: “Thank you Chinese friends for your concern. We indeed have no rice, so we can only make do with sushi, sashimi, and beef bowls.”

Japan’s per-capita GDP in 2024 was about USD $32,859. In 2024, China’s per-capita GDP was about USD $13,306—numbers that are still heavily inflated.

Some netizens reposted influencer Hu Chenfeng’s “purchasing power abroad” videos. In one episode filmed in Osaka, Japan’s second-largest city, the daily wage of an Osaka cleaner—8,333 yen, about 400 RMB—could buy: 7 chicken legs, 1 jin of pork belly, 400 g of shrimp, 10 eggs, 2 liters of whole milk, 6 small green peppers, 2 baby bok choy, 6 apples, 6 small onions, 1 bunch of celery (leaves removed), 1/4 head of napa cabbage, 4 bananas, and 10 jin of rice.

China’s economy has been in deflation for three consecutive years, falling with no bottom in sight. Real-estate collapse, exploding local debt, massive layoffs in banks, big tech firing anyone over 35, and “flexible employment” surpassing 270 million. Government workers can’t be paid. In 2025, young people picking discarded vegetable leaves from market trash bins became a common scene. Local governments are so broke that Qiqihar even filmed a puddle of mud on a riverbed and claimed it was worth 800 million RMB.

According to official data, China’s latest youth unemployment rate is 18.9%. There are about 65.1 million non-student labor-force participants aged 16–24, so unemployed youth = 65.1 million × 18.9% = 12.3039 million. This excludes 12.22 million new college graduates this year, and nearly 300 million migrant workers.

Farmers Daily also reported that on November 13, China’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs held a national meeting in Chuxiong Yi Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Province, on cultivating rural craftsmen and stabilizing employment among people lifted out of poverty—“two stabilizations and one prevention”: stabilize the scale of migrant-worker employment among the formerly poor; stabilize their income; prevent unemployment-driven large-scale return to poverty.

In the CCP’s eyes, youth unemployment is no longer just a “cannot take off the gown of Kong Yiji” problem, nor merely an economic issue, but a political battle to protect social stability and regime security. Throughout 2025, the political atmosphere shifted quietly. At the beginning of the year, the Central Propaganda Department and the Communist Youth League released the “Beautiful Life for Returning Youth” series to encourage graduates to return to their hometowns. By year’s end, they moved directly into stability-maintenance mode to prevent large-scale youth return.

Why does the CCP fear this? Because this kind of return is not “coming home to visit family” in glory, nor is it a sentimental return to one’s roots—it is a helpless, defeated “lying flat” after having nowhere else to go. Large-scale return will create huge pressure on local employment, resources, education, and governance. In previous years, the annual Spring Festival travel rush was touted as a symbol of political prosperity and economic vitality. This year, it is completely different: they fear that the Spring Festival travel season may turn into a “people’s movement” or even a large-scale uprising, so stability-maintenance preparations began early.

During economic decline, instead of addressing structural and systemic problems—resting the economy, cutting taxes, and revitalizing growth—the CCP keeps expanding the military, acting like a “wolf warrior,” pumping resources into “national strategic sectors” like AI, chips, biotech, nuclear power, to compete with the U.S. and dominate the Indo-Pacific. When in crisis, the regime treats its own people as enemies; when needed, it uses 1.4 billion people as shields, stirring hatred and picking fights with the world.

In the past, one shot of nationalist anesthesia was enough to make the poor ignore wealth inequality under the fantasy of a “rising great nation,” to make youth overlook brutal competition under “whoever offends China will be punished no matter how far,” and to make the middle class forget political rights under consumerist euphoria. This time, it no longer works.

No grand narrative, glorious lie, or polished drama can cover up the absurd reality of being unable to pay mortgages, insufficient pensions, children possibly disappearing in school, or not knowing where to deliver food tomorrow. Patriotism cannot be eaten. Xenophobia cannot solve injustice. The “love for the motherland” the CCP demands is nothing but a spiritual ecstasy pill planted in people’s minds since childhood.

Public awakening has made state-media propaganda crash again and again, revealing its ugliness.

On November 21, Guangming Daily published a bizarre article: “Wholeheartedly, For My Beloved Motherland.” The writer claimed: “I am an ordinary assembly-line worker. To counter Sanae Takaichi’s provocation, I applied to my team leader to work 5 extra shifts per month without pay.” The article was so heavily criticized that it was deleted.

On Weibo and Baidu forums, netizens overwhelmingly attacked the piece for packaging unpaid overtime as “patriotic retaliation.” They called this “low-level red, high-level black.” Others mocked: “This feels like going back decades,” calling it “tomb-style rhetoric, outdated version.” Many pointed out that labor laws clearly prohibit unpaid overtime and that adding 5 shifts a month equals 40 hours—beyond the legal limit of 36 hours. Netizens concluded: “Guangming Daily, you just admitted to breaking the law.”

Recently, Hu Xijin published “China Must Settle Accounts with Japan’s Right Wing,” with extremely fiery language. Netizens said reading it was like being forced to drink a shot of hard liquor—hot, exciting, invigorating. But once sober, they realized: Takaichi is still there, U.S. military bases are still there; nothing changed except for shouting their voices hoarse. One netizen mocked: “Let’s drink less ‘emotional hard liquor’ and more ‘realism boiled water.’ It has no flavor, but relieves thirst—and doesn’t make you dizzy.”

On November 19, the official propaganda account “Silk Road Vision,” operated by the Political and Legal Affairs Commission of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps First Division, released a short video solemnly reading Article 431 of the Criminal Law of the PRC—the “crime of surrender.”

As soon as the video went up, netizens flooded the comment section. One line became legendary: “All Party members, government employees, and state-enterprise staff—please charge forward FIRST!” Within hours, thousands posted the same comment, dripping with sarcasm.

The Party-state’s most expensive equipment, its most powerful censorship machine, and its tightest grid-style filtering still produce the lowest-quality, most fragile lies. The fire of hatred the CCP propaganda system desperately tries to ignite has finally begun to burn back on itself.

(People News — Original Publication)