www.bbc.com/news/articles/c99wjqzqyr7o
China honours woman who died saving Japanese family
Courage of this caliber goes beyond words.
Hu Youping, respect for your sheer bravery in protecting what matters most in this world.
RIP, saving a mother and their child is truly honorable. Hope the attacker gets what he deserves.
He’ll get death penalty in china once proved guilty.
Finally, CCP justice I can agree with. maybe they can grab a kidney first
There's a great couple of books by Larry Niven set in a near future world where organ transplants are common enough that the rich are basically immortal by changing in new body parts. The death penalty for crimes is now being disassembled and sent to the organ banks. Unfortunately there's never enough organs to go around, so less and less serious crimes are constantly voted to have the death penalty. Run three red lights? Deathbpenalty. False advertising? Death penalty.
Late to work. Believe it or not. Death penalty.
Early to work. Believe it or not. Death penalty.
We have the best workers in the world
Not the best worker? Believe it or not. Death penalty.
Best worker 5 times in a row? That's suspicious. You must be up to something. Death penalty.
The Jigsaw Man is the short story you describe, but organ harvesting and ‘organlegging’ also feature in some of Niven's other works.
I was thinking about Long Arm of Gil Hamilton, didn't know it had been featured in other stories too!
There's a whole series of stories set in the era of Gil the Arm. Timewise, from when transplant becomes routine to the development of lab-grown organs. IIRC the last story in that realm is Protector. There's no actual organlegging in that book but it's still a factor in society.
Kinda reminds me of that Stargate Atlantis Episode where that one nation fed the prisoners to the Wraith for immunity.
Not just a mother and her child. The attacker wanted to board the school bus to attack the children on it. If he had succeeded, there would have been dozens of children killed or injured, making it the largest terrorist act in a decade in China. Fortunately, Hu stopped the attacker.
The Chinese nationalists wrote on weibo saying the attacker is a national hero and the woman is a traitor to her country. The comments on weibo are disgusting. There are comments that honor this brave women, too. It’s a mixed bag.
The Chinese nationalists
I think we should have all learned by now that it's best not to judge a country, any country, by what their batshit crazies write on social media.
Seriously, I discovered Sky News Australia the other day. I can't imagine that's how Aussies want Americans to see them.
It's probably along similar lines to those incel assholes who praise young men for going on terrorist rampages.
Sadly, the pattern for these knife attacks in China appears to be mostly angry, older men at the bottom of society with no money, no partner, no status and no job (or at best a menial one). They decide to lash out at innocent children because they're bitter and resentful towards those who do have the resources to get married and have a child.
No. The Japanese hate speech is allowed and prominent on Chinese social media like weibo and Chinese tiktok. It’s the standard speech to say you hate Japan and Japanese people. You can’t even write you love Japan. Young people wearing kimino were being bullied on the street and harassed and asked to remove the Japanese clothes. Japanese business were forced to close in Japan. This is a large scale, state sanctioned hatred towards countries like Japan, the U.S., Taiwan, and other countries.
This is an anti-Japan attack. Yes people are stabbed everyday in China due to other societal, financial, and personal problems. But this is not one of those. The attacker was targeting a school bus full of Japanese children.
Then why is she being honored and why does this article say hate comments are being removed?
everything i ever read about chinese social media discourse just sounds absolutely insane.
Hu Youping will forever be a legend. Courage and resolve beyond words.
She really showed incredible bravery by trying to protect a Japanese family during a knife attack, even though it tragically cost her life.
RIP to Hu Youping for saving people!
RIP. She was a brave women and not one of the usual bystanders with a phone in the hand.
Sacrificing yourself to protect others. The definition of heroic in my book.
I’m pretty sure it counts literally as well
Heroic has many definitions, some of which I might not completely agree with. Simply being brave or fearless can warrant being considered a hero according to a dictionary.
Doesn’t dying for something you believe in also technically count?
Depends on what you believe in. Steve Jobs believed in alternative medicine and that cost him his life. I also wouldn't call a soldier fighting on the side of the nazis or communists as heroic (though their respective regimes might).
I was mistaken
That’s just called being a martyr.
Your right, I was mistaken. I’d thought I’d read somewhere that the original definition was someone who died for something they believed in, but I couldn’t find any sources so martyr seems to fit better for that context
Rest in peace. This is what heroism looks like
What a hero.
Giving the general resentment between Chinese and Japanese, this is truly an act brave and kind
Given the resentment, it’s also kind of a big deal the country is officially honoring her bravery.
Separately, the newspaper reported that Weibo had removed 759 posts that "incited nationalist sentiment" following the attack. These posts contained "extreme opinions" that "promoted group hatred and even applauded criminal behaviour in the name of patriotism".
Yeah, despite what people on Reddit seem to think, hyper-nationalists are actually one of the most frequent targets for censorship on social media. At the end of the day, it's all about social stability, and xenophobic riots/attacks are bad for social stability.
Up to a point. Before that, they're encouraged and sometimes paid to push points on foreign social media via VPN.
Not the extremists. The guys who are like "we must invade Russia to reclaim lost Qing territory, and one day our children will raise red flags over the smoldering ruins of Tokyo" aren't getting any support.
I think Weibo probably started to remove the hate posts AFTER the women was announced passed away. Before that, the comment sections were just full of vile comments.
This is the thing. It really feels like they were going to let it keep going until she actually died from it.
Average citizens of both don't really think along these lines. Met many Chinese in love with Japanese culture.
Cannot speak for Chinese, but when I see the far-right parade in Japan and the hate some of them (especially the eldery) have against Chinese people... It's scary
It's funny to see Korea, China and Japan hates each other but love Europe, while France, England and Germany have been in war for centuries but love Asia. You really never get along with your neighbours...
European don’t understand Asia and their past conflicts, and asians don’t understand Europe and their past conflicts. To the outsiders they are really just a concept and a jumbled combination of their culture exports.
All they need a Asian Union and all their troubles will be sorted
Until Nippexit or something
Google Greater Asian Co-prosperity Sphere
Free the nipp
most ordinary people in China simply want to live in peace and enjoy their daily lives. However, due to CCP propaganda, brainwashing education, and the manipulation of nationalism, those without access to outside information easily fall into the traps set by the CCP. The CCP is the true culprit behind these incidents, and I believe the Japanese government is well aware of this.
She's a hero
A true hero, so sad for her family, I hope they can find some peace in knowing that heroes are immortal.
This woman showed the true definition of selfless service and altruism! She defended her passengers safety, by laying down her life, that was truly an act of courage and righteousness!
FYI, the Japanese family was stabbed simply because they were Japanese. Japanese hate in China can be crazy due to CCP propaganda weaponising the history of the Japanese invasion of China.
Rest in Peace, Hu Youping.
CCP propaganda weaponising the history of the Japanese invasion of China.
The Japanese invasion of China was so brutal that I very much doubt that it takes more than a standard history book
I also come from a country brutalized by Imperial Japan but we don't have people blaming today's Japanese civilians and resorting to violence against them.
This isn't a common occurrence, though. It's not like Japanese people in China are getting assaulted all the time. While people are still angry at the government, Japanese products and cartoons are popular, and Chinese people tend to have a very positive view of Japanese women because the ones who live there are usually very polite and make effort to learn the language.
My cousin is from Fujian, and he has an unusual name with an additional syllable in it. It superficially resembles a Japanese name. He has legitimately been harassed at school and work over 'being Japanese'.
Anti-Japanese xenophobia is stirred up by the CCP as easy nationalistic propaganda, and it's out of control on Chinese social media even for the CCP.
This. Even without the history it would.be something nationalists would use as fuel for the fire, comparing your country to another country next door is classic
Forget "country next door", even "province next door" can be a reason for harassment when you're in China. A few years ago China forced all social media and forums to reveal the province or country if abroad of comment posters, and since then nationalists would use this info to attack posters who come from stereotypically more western friendly or liberal provinces like Shanghai or Guangdong. And if you're from Hongkong, Taiwan, or US? LOL they may straight call you a traitor or something.
Chinese/ Asian students are also harassed in USA, Australia, etc…
Kids are assholes
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Not all of them. The Japanese loving young people dressed in kimono in one of those Japanese themed places and were based bullied by people on the street and told to remove their Japanese clothes. Chinese media is spreading Japanese hate. It’s on their Chinese tiktok and weibo. There was a tiktok video of a teacher physically abusing a child in a classroom in front of his classmates simply because the student wrote “I love Japanese people” on his drawing. The student was asked to tear up that paper. Ironically enough, the teacher is wearing an American hat with an eagle with American flag pattern.
Once I wore a japanese football club shirt to China and was verbally assulted.
Hopefully stabbing isn’t a common occurrence, but anti-Japanese sentiment is very strong. That said, it’s the same in Korea, and Japan brings some of it on itself.
If there's any sort of random violent attack in China, it's done with a knife. It's almost always carried out by a middle aged or older man who is bitter against against society because he hasn't been able to get ahead, hasn't been able to get married and have kids, etc. The worst instance was of a guy who attacked kids at a kindergarten and killed several. It shocked the whole country -- it had the same impact as Sandy Hook did in the US. That's why for a while in Beijing if you wanted to buy a knife over a certain size you had to give your name and ID number.
The guy who stabbed the two Americans in Jilin fit the same profile. An older, unemployed guy without a family. There was a guy in Hong Kong who attacked a lesbian couple in Hong Kong a year or so ago -- he was an older man too, also without a family, I think.
I'm mixed Japanese and in school there was a kid who was mixed Korean and he told me that his mom told him that if we became friends, she would disown him.
Wasn't there some massive ccp pushed prop, in regards to japanese fish/water somewhat recently? For there to be prop, means that there are many who think alike and/or fell for it.
A lot of Chinese people were worried about water from/close to the Fukushima nuclear power plant being released into the ocean. Is it that? That's kind of died down, I think.
I have lived in Asia for the past 30 years and in my experience it isn't only Chinese people who resent Japan for past deeds, especially since the Japanese government has never really taken responsibility for its own history.
South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, they all hold some general resentment for Japan's past imperial ambitions. Especially since it's still pretty fresh and many adults nowadays at least met people in their life or had grandparents who actually suffered through those times.
As someone who is mixed Japanese living in the US unfortunately there is still a very strong anti-Japanese sentiment here and other western countries even from people who are supposedly progressive and still against the new generation like millennials age
Violence against Japanese in China is far lower than violence against Asians in America during Covid hysteria
I'm pretty sure your country also has crazy people bro.
Every single country has its share of psychopaths asshats.
Every country has crazy people but why are you defending a goverment that's incentivizing racism and violence, bro.
How's it incentivizing it exactly? There's plenty of Japanese stores and culture in the form of anime and shit in China
Just last year after Japan released the Fukoshima water, Chinese citizens threw rocks and eggs at schools, harassing people speaking japanes fueld by their goverments propaganda.
"The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said citizens visiting or living in China should avoid speaking Japanese in a loud voice, and pay close attention to their surroundings if going to the embassy or consulates.The ministry also advised those traveling to China to leave an itinerary and contact numbers with their friends, family and employers at home."
From a news article last year. Yeah, that's totally normal behavior.
You left out the part where that's a statement from the Japanese foreign ministry.
But you did that on purpose, of course. You did it to make it look like veiled threats against Japanese from the Chinese government.
If there was a failed nuclear power plant in Alaska dumping waste water into the ocean, do you think there wouldn't be any Canadians protesting? No matter how many assurances of the water's safety?
I don't really care about China's rep one way or the other. The Chinese government are certainly not saints. But it sounds like you're not immune to propaganda either.
Except the water being dumped is headed west towards Hawaii, but the Americans didn't say shit since the water is as treated as it can be and seawater happens to be great for containing radioactive wastewater
No it just proves that you have no clue what you are talking about. There wasn't a single institution out there except for the chinese goverment that made a fuss about this. Any credible institution affirmed that there is no issue and it's not even affecting China in any way. In a sense it's funny that you mention Alaska as the Kuroshio Current is in fact traveling towards Alaska/Canada/United States and not towards China.
It's not usually directly from the government, but from Chinese Tucker Carlson equivalents who go on the News for their twice weekly block and yell about how 'The Japanese are doing X AND Y and ITS RUINING OUR KIDS' and in small letters it says 'opinion' at the bottom
Pretty sure other countries have way more racism and violence, bro
This is a very rare occurrence. It's inevitable that there are crazy people in a country where nearly 1/5th of human beings on Earth live. Yet you can walk down the street at night in China without fear of being racially assaulted, but you can't even do that as an Asian person in a place like New York City or San Francisco.
Nothing in his comment defended a government
And the funny thing is that it’s usually the other way around with the especially older generations having hatred for the Chinese. Koreans too. Like dude, the Chinese and Koreans didn’t do anything to you, I don’t know why you’re hating. Japan forcibly occupied their lands and committed war crimes that would make modern US presidents blush. Sit this one out ojiisan.
It definitely makes a difference. Germany has such history in Europe too and there is no anti-German hate on such a scale.
Germany is also openly and continually remorseful for their actions during the war. The lack of this from the Japanese government and outright refuting of war crimes kind of further entrenched the hatred.
The lack of this from the Japanese government and outright refuting of war crimes kind of further entrenched the hatred.
The postwar government was full of pardoned war criminals placed into power as pro-American puppets by the US. Of course there won't be much remorse - that was by design. Shinzo Abe's grandpa (Nobusuke Kishi) was literally a Class A war criminal that the US pardoned, released, and supported to become postwar prime minister. All the victims across Asia were denied justice when the US did this, and all the wounds from the war never had a chance to heal.
I completely agree with you.
And don't forget building a shrine to commemorate war criminals.
Also asking OTHER countries to take down monuments to the victims of those crimes.
This is it
Someone else said it too but the difference is Germany is open and truthful with their history and have admitted their mistakes. Japan has done none of this, and instead the government have even denied that they did the things they did. Japan also managed to get a light punishment because of agreements made with the US. Germany did not get off so lightly.
Does top German politicians go pray in a Church which houses Nazi war criminals bodies or produce school books which omit the heinous crimes the Nazis committed in Europe? German and Japanese government attitudes towards WW2 are totally different.
I mean, Japan doesn't even think they did anything wrong. They literally have a shrine for their WW2 'heros' that is visited regularly. At least Germans aren't praying at Hitler statues and teach at their schools how bad the Nazis were.
Please check Japan's "Goryo Shinko". People enshrined in shrines are not necessarily well-liked.
I wrote it down below too, but there are 2.5 million people in that shrine and afaik 14 known war criminals. They don't "literally" have a shrine for that and every visit by a conservative politician is controversial.
The fact that people are comming out of the woodwork with this after a japanese child was stabbed in China says more about your morals than the Japanese state.
I was going to say that last part. Bro, someone stabbed a kid. I don’t really care about disagreements between governments in this scenario
According to Wikipedia there are 1066 convicted war criminals honored at the shrine. The figure of fourteen refers to Class A War Criminals (eleven were executed, two died before conviction and one was only found guilty of Class B War Crimes.
This particular response is to how the hatred is purely about the CCP propaganda making the Chinese hate Japan when the issue is much deeper than that. There is no denying that Japan treats their involvement in WW2 the same way the American south treats their involvement in the American civil war. So while the stabbing of any person in cold blood is horrible, you trying to deflect Japan's denial of their actions is also horrible.
50th anniversary statement by Murayama, 60th anniversary statement by Koizumi, even Emperor Akihito talked about great suffering that Japan inflicted on China at a banquet in China.
Just stop talking about things you know nothing about man, unless you are lying on purpose.
https://thediplomat.com/2021/11/why-did-the-2015-japan-korea-comfort-women-agreement-fall-apart/
https://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/15/opinion/comfort-women-and-japans-war-on-truth.html
Also Japan imposed sanctions on Korea when a Korean court said that Japanese companies that benefitted from slave labor should reimburse the victims. The last of those sanctions only recently got lifted.
Sure, but playing anti Japanese movies on major networks around the clock doesn’t help either.
They're weaponizing it by saying that the Japanese are still out to colonize China, that the Japanese schools are teaching kids to die for the Emperor and that the Taiwanese presidents are Japanese plants. (They're not).
"the sins of the father are not the sins of the son"
That would be true if the ruling party in Japan had not been in power for almost the entire period since the end of the war and had not been formed from Japan's wartime leadership.
due to CCP propaganda weaponising the history of the Japanese invasion of China.
The japanese invasion of China does not need to be weaponized, it was brutal beyond anything you can imagine. The japanese hate in China can be crazy because of everything Japan did to chinese people during the war and because they deny to aknowledge what they did.
CCP propaganda
The same kind of "propaganda" honoring the Chinese woman who died protecting Japanese people from a crazy person?
That is awful. Such hate doesn't just exist in China, many elderly Asian people from a multitude of different countries still hold a deep seated hatred of the Japanese. The events are within living memory. However this is changing with a lot of younger Asian people including people in China. Unfortunatley not quick enough for this lady and the family to not be attacked.
many elderly Asian people from a multitude of different countries still hold a deep seated hatred of the Japanese.
I specifically remember a half-Filipino ex telling me about how her Filipino family still hates and distrusts the Japanese to this day because of their conduct in the past.
Because after WWII, the victims were denied justice when the US pardoned the Japanese war criminals and placed them as their puppets to run the post-war government instead.
Absolutely correct, a stain on the history of the US.
Same goes both ways.
Younger generation seems to be doing a good job and getting over the past and past prejudices, but not so much the older generation. I've seen it from all sides.
Its very difficult to remove that kind of generational trauma. I know someone who's 93 year old grandfather was alive during that time so of course parents had this instilled in them. Humans are really bad over all at having an understanding of how few generations it takes to be linked to an event.
Yeah, typically hate against the Japanese stems from absolute atrocities and attempted genocides, whereas the Japanese hate against Koreans/Chinese is based on feelings of racial supremacy.
My wife is Korean and has had quite a few negative experiences with older Japanese people, and she was pretty sure it stemmed specifically from her being Korean. I also have a childhood Japanese friend who moved back to Japan in Middle school and I met up with him in Tokyo as adults. He told me some stories of old Japanese people being absolutely awful to his Korean friends who had been born in Japan. I also have another Korean friend who said he will never like any Japanese people or go to Japan because his great grandfather was beheaded by Japanese occupied forces and his family is still very upset about it.
FYI, this comment is so low quality that it's obvious that the poster failed to comprehend the scale of atrocities committed by the Japanese towards the Chinese.
Not failed. It was on purpose.
Japanese hate in China can be crazy due to CCP propaganda weaponising the history of the Japanese invasion of China.
It's not exactly that. Most countries who were former colonies of Japan have widespread hatred of Japanese people.
Honestly propaganda probably doesn't have to do much.
WW2 was only a 80 years ago and the Japanese imperial army did a lot of pretty heinous stuff throughout. I feel a lot of the hate is just stories the newer generations heard from family that lived through it.
There's still a lot of Japanese hatred in a lot of places. My husband and I are mixed Japanese and there are a lot of western people who will say they aren't prejudiced against anyone but then turn around and have strong anti-Japanese sentiments not just about historical stuff of past generations but still take it out on people who were born in the past few decades.
I basically quit Facebook because of the racist hate messages I was being sent by random people about my wife
FYI, the Japanese family was stabbed simply because they were Japanese.
Where does it say that? There's been other stabbings in China in the past where the victims were all Chinese.
Yeah there's certainly a lot of tension there still to this day. To be fair, the Japanese haven't really publicly apologized or acknowledged their brutal and genocidal invasion of China. Which was horrific.
It's kind of crazy how Japanese went from this brutal, cold, ruthless warrior culture to how we see them today; cute animes, polite people, and goofy cultural entertainment.
That a whitewashing of history. They want to pretend that if no one remembers and they change their country narrative as a country that produces pop culture, people will forget about their brutal past.
Maybe it works for the southeast Asian countries but it doesn't work for China and Korea.
People just parotting that Japan has never apologized forever and ever.
Murayama and Koizumi also never existed in this parallel universe.
Any propaganda can't show even a fraction of what happened in WW2
when your whole family was raped and killed in the most gruesome way and instead of the killer apologising or receiving justice, they are being glorified for their bravery and honour there's a good of reason to be mad
Sometimes people are just crazy with or without propaganda or historical context
Japan has never officially apologized, unlike Germany. And their number one war criminal was never reckoned (yes the japanese emperor was the number one war criminal in wwii.) because of US-USSR tension and geopolitical reasons. So maybe stop victimizing what japan did in wwii?
It’s not just Japanese - there is a growing xenophobia in China. My friend was attacked when he went over (white Canadian) and nearly killed by a guy who followed him for blocks and he didn’t realize. The first hit was at the back of his skull.
To my knowledge the youth in China mostly really likes Japan, it’s just the older generation that holds a grudge
The world needs more people like her, who look beyond the labels of friend or foe, compatriot or foreigner.
Separately, the newspaper reported that Weibo had removed 759 posts that "incited nationalist sentiment" following the attack. These posts contained "extreme opinions" that "promoted group hatred and even applauded criminal behaviour in the name of patriotism".
Dumbasses who remain stuck in the past and old grudges. You are not your country, and people aren't too.
Having traveled 2,5 weeks through China this month, there is a weird sentiment towards foreigners that you can't really ignore. I like to think these are isolated incidents and there is nothing more going on. But i feel like there is definitely something a bit rotten in middle aged men in China..
The majority of my time in China I have been helped and was treated like a literal king wherever I went, but I've had 2 encounters with 35-50yo groups of men who threw durian and beer at me. I wonder if things would have been worse for me on those occasions if I was built smaller. I am 6ft3 and not small by any means.
Rest in peace, Hu Youping. Your name and actions will never be forgotten.
you sure 35-50? to me, 60-80 are the absolute worst.
Nothing but honor and virtue for this woman.
All my respect for her! 🕯️
I bitch about china a lot but good for them, if this was significant enough for china to forget for a moment that they and japan are enemies then they get a W
That right there is good people. Walk tall into the light, Hu Youping.
What a hero. RIP. But also, wtf with some Chinese trying to knife every foreigner they see? First Americans, then a Japanese family?
A country of 1.4 billion people.. two knife attacks on foreigners, ‘why are they trying to knife every foreigner they see’. What a stupid statement.
Saint
lol some of the comments here really went : “In the light of this tragedy, we mustn’t forget that hatred towards the Chinese”
Spend good ten minutes on Chinese social media and you can see the people say otherwise.
That's not a great way to judge how sane people are reacting. I can't say I got to Twitter and Facebook comments and think "oh yes this is a good representation of what normal people think" do you?
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“Check if the lady is Japanese spy.” Read another comment.
Article claims those sort of posts were removed from Weibo
Yep the number of rabid nationalists cheering on the killer is so scary
At least they appear to have taken some action:
Separately, the newspaper reported that Weibo had removed 759 posts that "incited nationalist sentiment" following the attack. These posts contained "extreme opinions" that "promoted group hatred and even applauded criminal behaviour in the name of patriotism".
Spend a good ten minutes on any social media your bound to find vile people.
Twitter is filled with bigotry and racism but I'm not one to generalise a whole population by social media posts.
Thank you!
There's enormous amounts of knife crime going on in China lately. Especially so towards foreigners, while China may be honoring the person who gave her life to save others, they are the ones who have been spreading this hateful rhetoric towards foreigners for years. RIP.
“Enormous amount of knife crime especially towards foreigners”= 2 cases in a country where 1.4 billion people live.
Were you saying the same things during Covid when Asians were stabbed attacked and murdered on DAILY basis in the US and Europe?
I wouldn't say enormous but alarming for a civilised country. Knife crime is still tame by London standards though.
Just like the knife attack where Americans were stabbed in China last week. The CCP has pushed hate propaganda against foreigners extremely hard for the last several years and now, and it's materializing in these attacks. Oh, but they still want your tourist dollars. It sucks because it wasn't always like this.
Can you post a single propaganda piece by ccp where they are pushing hate towards foreigners?
I think foreigners are generally looked at quite positively in china. People are normally very welcoming and nice. Older people might be less so.
It’s so sad. What a heroine. CCP fed their Japanese and American hatred to the nationalists, and this is the product of that propaganda. And a brave woman died because of it. I wish she’s born in a free country.
That was an incredible thing she did.
This is what fucks me off though: it's the brave and virtuous that suffer in the end. She died, and now there's one less brave person in the world. I don't know if she was a nice person in her life, but she demonstrated the capacity for bravery and selflessness. Some asshole tried to attack vulnerable and now the world is down a brave human being.
RIP to Ms. Hu. Most of us hope that, if confronted with a situation like this, we would also step in with the bravery she showed, but who knows? I hope her family can take some comfort in the fact that her selfless act saved a mother and her children. I hope her murderer is given the most harsh punishment Chinese law allows.
Beautiful
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Takes a truly special person to become a heroine to both China and Japan. RIP.