China, Japan, and Protests

Today's little snapshot of the melodrama is playing on CNN.

There's little doubt that the first of the protests against the Japanese - mostly aimed at what was perceived as "rewriting" textbooks of Chinese history to make the Japanese look better - was completely sanctioned by the Chinese government.

The problem is - at least from Chinese government's standpoint - is that they can rarely control what gets started. The last few times China has allowed such protests to happen, people in China discovered they liked this whole "protest" thing. And once they exhaust their ire at Japan (which admittedly may take awhile because the feud isn't new), China may find itself facing protestors who aren't too happy with the Chinese government.