Here's an article that is referring to a trade dispute between China and Japan over energy and borders.

The Chinese Govt is using the issue over modern history books which the Japanese use in their schools that tone down the Nanking (today Nanjing) massacre in order to raise protest levels by Chinese University students to put pressure on Japan by other means.

There were serious riots in Beijing, Guangzhou and Shenzhen last weekend where students attacked the Japanese Embassy its consulates and business. Protests like this are not spontanious in China.

Spontanious ones get put down heavily, these are usually protests by farmers against local govt officials ripping them off, or by city dwellers whose property has been destroyed to make way for new developments. This type of protest attracts fast and swoft police reaction. The protests in Beijing did not.

What has also made smile wrily is that Chinese school textbooks do not mention the millions of Chinese who died or were imprisoned in the 100 Flowers Movement, Great Leap Foward or the Cultural Revolution and Tiananmen.

Maybe both sides should revise their books.

Are there other examples of revisionist history books in use in schools today.

Offshore gas claim fuels row between Beijing and Tokyo
By Richard Spencer in Beijing
(Filed: 14/04/2005)

Japan escalated a bitter row with China yesterday by announcing licences to drill for gas in disputed territory in the sea between the two east Asian powers.

Japan's trade ministry said it was beginning to process applications to drill in the East China Sea, on its side of what it regards as the border between the two. But China disputes that border, and has begun drilling nearby.

The Japanese prime minister, Junichiro Koizumi, denied that the decision was connected to demonstrations in Chinese cities at the weekend that led to the Japanese embassy being stoned.

But the protests have prompted an exchange of insults, with Japan's trade minister calling China a "scary country".

China blames the protests, which were triggered by Japan reissuing a history textbook glossing over its Second World War atrocities, on Tokyo's refusal to show sufficient remorse for its past.

Although not actively supported by the Chinese government, the fact that the protests were allowed to take place at all indicates approval.

They serve two current foreign policy goals: the search for energy, often in competition with Japan since the two countries rank second and third in world oil consumption, and stopping Tokyo's bid for a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council.

Last week China indicated that it did not support a quick reform of the UN, and since it has a veto, there is little Japan can do. Its request for an apology and compensation for the demonstrations was also met with disdain.

Meanwhile, Japan has joined the United States in declaring that it has a security interest in a peaceful resolution to China's claim over the island of Taiwan, a move that infuriated Beijing.

The protests have been matched in South Korea, where the textbook issue has also caused anti-Japanese feeling, while Japanese Right-wingers have started their own protests against the Chinese embassy.

Meanwhile, North Korea has also joined in criticism of the textbook. "This is a grave insult to the peoples of Korea and the rest of Asia," a foreign ministry spokesman was quoted as saying by the Stalinist regime's mouthpiece, the Korean Central News Agency.