Is it possible that this was released without government sign-off? I know about them generally taking a seat on the board but not every ad is shown to the board prior to release, right?

Chinese diplomacy presents itself as a manhua protagonist. It will never attack first but will destroy you without mercy if you dare be aggressive.

meanwhile, China's diplomacy is consistently defensive and willing to back down, like they accept that peaceful resolution is what's best for humans and not worth sacrificing for something so ephemeral as nationalist mythmaking.

Yeah, it definitely feels like a contradiction to have a private military contractor turning up the rhetoric like that.

the japanese are more than capable of being satanicly evil racists on their own, actually

You’re missing a lot of steps here.

Post-war Japan fought a 20-year trade war with US and won each time. By 1980, Japanese cars were cheaper and more energy efficient and had already overtaken American car manufacturers. The same went for their shipbuilding, electronics and various high-tech industries that handily beat their American counterparts in the world market.

And this was a time when the American industries were nowhere near as dilapidated as they are today. Japan really was the OG China before today’s China. And there is no way that the Americans don’t understand the lessons during their long struggle against Japan 40 years ago.

What did the Japanese in was their hubris during the Plaza Accord, which resulted in the poor handling of the crisis in the 1990s.

And to understand this, you need to understand the post-war political situation of Japan. Even though Japanese economy was soaring, on the international stage, they were not part of the permanent members of the UNSC, and their constitution actively forbade the formation of a conventional military (they are only allowed self defense force that is used for defensive purpose only - any other country with a conventional military are allowed for both offensive and defensive purposes). This constricts their ability to power project as a global power.

So when Japan began to overtake the US economy in the 1980s, they were not satisfied with just becoming an economic powerhouse. Japan wanted to own America. Hence, by 1989, Mitsubishi bought the majority stake of Rockefeller Group with $1 billion as though it was nothing. Japanese businessmen spent lavishly in America as though it was nothing. This tells you how much Japan yearned to become the master to the Americans.

So it is wrong to say that Japan has merely been a colony of the US. Yes, it appeared subservient to the US, but if you look throughout history, most vassals are ready to rebel against their hegemon when the opportunity comes. Abe, and now Takaichi (who was Abe’s protege) are doing whatever they’re doing precisely because of this. These are all calculated moves. Of course Takaichi knew that her words about Taiwan would cause fury from the Chinese side. Of course she knew how the Chinese would react on the international stage. They’re not stupid, these are all calculated. They wanted to use this opportunity to amend the constitution such that Japan can begin to form its conventional military again. And you can see that her popularity soared to 69.9% after her speech that veers on reviving the Imperial Japan militarism. None of this is a coincidence.

There has been a whole lot of non-historical analysis that pervaded even the Western online leftist spaces that only see the EU and Japan as some sort of mindless vassals that simply obey what the US tells them to. The EU are stupid! Japan is stupid! This would assume that these countries don’t know what they’re doing, and such superficial understanding of the world often comes from people who don’t think deeply about how material forces (i.e. capital) shape global geopolitical tensions (plenty of them on Twitter). The EU’s economy is being destroyed not because they are stupid, it’s because they lost in their maneuvers against the Americans.

I've heard from a few Chinese friends that things these days feel pretty different to how they did just a few years ago, seems like everyone over there knows it is not a matter of "if" but "when" the US attacks them.

The VOLCEL POLICE are on the scene! PLEASE KEEP YOUR VITAL ESSENCES TO YOURSELVES AT ALL TIMES.

نحن شرطة VolCel.بناءا على تعليمات الهيئة لترويج لألعاب الفيديو و النهي عن الجنس نرجوا الإبتعاد عن أي أفكار جنسية و الحفاظ على حيواناتكم المنويَّة حتى يوم الحساب. اتقوا الله، إنك لا تراه لكنه يراك.