Japan and China both have legitimate security concerns. But an informed debate needs major media outlets to stop systematically erasing the historical context that shapes how the region understands current events.
When Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi told parliament that a Chinese military move against Taiwan could constitute a 存立危機事態 (sonritsu kiki jitai, “survival-threatening situation”) for Japan, some big Western media outlets uniformly framed China’s furious response as irrational overreaction.
Democracies good, China bad – and history not required