TightWind is written by Kyle Baxter. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

Protests across China over a dispute with Japan erupted this weekend:

That showdown at sea was followed by a weekend of dangerous street theatre around China. Tens of thousands took part in marches in dozens of cities Saturday and Sunday that were officially condoned and disturbingly xenophobic. “Declare war on Japan!” thousands shouted as they marched past the Japanese Embassy in Beijing. Some waved portraits of Mao Zedong, and pelted the embassy gate with eggs and bottles as rows of military police looked on.

Japanese restaurants a few blocks away were forced to close, draping their exteriors in red Chinese flags so as to leave no question as to where their loyalties lay. An adjacent Chinese restaurant on the same street drew crowds by putting up signs declaring “pet dogs welcome, but not Japanese dogs.”

Toyota and Honda plants were set aflame by protestors in Qingdao, and a Japanese consulate’s windows were broken in Guangzhou.

Last year, when there was talk of a “Jasmine Revolution in China (protests against China’s lack of freedom and rule of law), police flooded the streets and arrested people they suspected would protest before it ever occurred. It’s quite telling, then, that the Chinese government has stood by and allowed these protests to accelerate.

It’s not that they’re “fake” protests; people’s anger at Japan is very real and deep-rooted. But China has found an issue to unify themselves around during a very tumultuous transition of power. Ai Weiwei said this:

“It’s all staged. Only the Japanese could help us to have such a demonstration,” dissident artist Ai Weiwei told The Globe and Mail while wandering past Sunday’s protest in Beijing. “We haven’t had such street protests for decades. The Japanese are helping us get back our rights.”