China says it supports cultural exchanges with Japan after academics branded ‘traitors’
- Foreign ministry says they are ‘common practice’ and conducive to developing relations between the two nations
- Chinese intellectuals who took part in a programme partly funded by Tokyo have been attacked on social media
Author Jiang Fangzhou and prominent legal scholar and activist He Weifang are among the group of nearly 200 intellectuals who have been targeted on social media network Weibo in the past few days amid a rise in nationalistic sentiment in China.
They were labelled “traitors” for taking part in an exchange programme organised and funded by the Japan Foundation, an agency overseen by the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and partly funded by government subsidies. They travelled to Japan for the programme, which aims to promote cultural exchanges with foreign countries.
After their trips came to light recently, some social media users have accused the Chinese writers, scholars and journalists of “promoting Japanese propaganda” because they wrote favourably about Japan and criticised China in their works once they returned.
But Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin dismissed the criticism, saying cultural exchanges were standard practice and that Beijing would continue to support such programmes with Japan.