Wednesday Morning Rant

Last month, Japan began to discharge treated wastewater from its Fukushima power plant into the Pacific as a part of that plant's decommissioning. Whenever this happens, there is always a lot of commentary about how awful waste discharge is. There's also always political maneuvering depending on which country is discharging wastewater and where, and which neighboring countries want to exploit the opportunity. This is semi-routine. Every country with a nuclear power infrastructure has to deal with wastewater treatment and disposal.

Japan's discharge from Fukushima is being done in accordance with all applicable international standards. The IAEA is monitoring the process, with Japan's cooperation. Neighboring countries - notably South Korea, and again with Japan's cooperation - are also monitoring the discharge to ensure that nuclear materials in the output remain below acceptable levels. No neighboring countries have sued to prevent the discharge under the various applicable international treaties.

None of that has stopped Red China from using the Fukushima discharge to stoke up anti-Japanese resentment among the Chinese. CCP-controlled media have been running a fear campaign about the discharge. The CCP has been running online ads on popular platforms and in multiple languages (without disclaiming that they are state-funded, of course) about the risks of the discharge and the indifference of Japan to the food supply and, by logical extension, human life. The goal of all this, as always, is to distract the domestic population and maintain focus on the external demon from the Land of the Rising Sun and the puppet masters from across the sea.

And it works. Per reporting, anti-Japanese sentiment in Red China has been growing, accelerating since the Fukushima discharges began. Japanese schools and embassies get bricks and eggs thrown at them. There is a lot of online content about how to avoid Japanese products and food. Red China also banned imports of Japanese seafood, and the CCP has put out a fair amount of publicity about that. Some creative Chinese (or the Party itself - as with all of this, there's no way to know the real source) also started a trend of randomly calling Japanese businesses in Japan to harangue whoever picks up the phone about how awful the Japanese are because of the Fukushima discharge. Just random calls to shout at at random Japanese.

All this, of course, happens against a backdrop of the typical indifference and corruption of Red China when it comes to pollution - atomic or otherwise. When that country discharges treated wastewater from atomic power plants, the levels of tritium (the element in question for Fukushima) are higher than the Fukushima discharge (though still within safe levels). Operational issues at some of Red China's nuclear power plants like Taishan give that country far from a sterling track record in the realm of atomic power. Not to mention that many of Red China's most useful coal reserves (in Inner Mongolia) are very high in radioactive elements, most notably uranium. Burning that coal creates radioactive emissions.*

But this is not discussed in Red China. With the near total control over the press and the internet, counterpoints are impossible. Japan bad, China good. Japan spreads atomic destruction, China does not. It cannot be publicly questioned or debated. You will hate the Japanese, you will fear their radioactive pollution, you will reflect this in your life and not only will you not contextualize it, you won't even know that you could.

Propaganda is one hell of a weapon.

* Yes, radioactive emissions from coal burning are not just a China problem. Many of China's coal stocks are particularly bad in this regard, but it's a general phenomenon. In the US, for example, a lot of our coal has thorium in it, and the exhaust from coal burning is often more radioactive than the background even though we take pollution much more seriously, especially particulates. The point isn't that this is a China problem, but that it will never be known at large in China.

posted by Joe Mannix at 11:00 AM

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