The Ghost of Pan-Asianism: Why China Cannot Face Its Betrayal of the Yellow Race

I. The Ghosts of Yesterday: Memories of Southeast and Northeast Asia

In Southeast Asia, people still remember how Japan's emergence shattered the myth of European colonial invincibility. Whether in the Philippines, Indonesia, Burma, or Vietnam, white regimes had ruled securely for centuries, but Japan's offensive was the first to prove: "Whites can be defeated, and the Yellow race is not inferior."

In Northeast Asia, the Korean Peninsula and Manchuria share similar memories: Japanese rule was sometimes brutal, but its expulsion of Western colonial forces was real; its local development was also real. The Soviet plundering of Manchurian industry after the war precisely demonstrates that Japan had indeed left behind traces of construction there. Taiwan's case is even more straightforward—many Taiwanese still say today that Japan genuinely wanted to build Taiwan well during the colonial period.

These memories have never disappeared from local historical narratives. They exist like ghosts of the past, appearing and disappearing, sometimes regarded as shame, sometimes as pride, but always reminding us: Japan was once the vanguard that shattered the white colonial order, proving that "we Yellow people are not inferior to whites."

II. China's Traitorous Identity

Unlike Southeast and Northeast Asia, China has never dared to confront these memories. The reason lies not in the slogan of "Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere," but in the core proposition of Pan-Asianism: "Asia for Asians."

If this proposition holds true, China must face its own role: it was not a contributor to the Pan-Asian struggle, but a destroyer; not a supporter of the Yellow race's fight for equality, but an active traitor.

From Sun Yat-sen's acceptance of Soviet aid to the Soviet model of the Whampoa Military Academy, the DNA of China's modern state is a Soviet espionage project. The so-called "Chinese nation" concept is not a product of Yellow people's self-liberation, but a traitorous discourse that masks dependency relationships, used to hide the fact of its betrayal of the Yellow race.

This betrayal did not end with the founding of the nation. After Japan's defeat, the banner of Pan-Asianism fell abruptly. If Asia truly sought a new subject, it should have been the Yellow people themselves continuing to push for "Asia for Asians." But "China" could never assume this role, because from the beginning, it was a Soviet white-produced spy agent.

After the war, China continued, under Soviet directives and its own power ambitions, to export communism to Southeast Asia. The revolutions and civil wars in Indonesia, Malaya, and Vietnam were essentially violent experiments jointly manufactured by the Soviet Union and China. China not only provided funds and weapons but also developed spy networks through Chinese communities, attempting to subvert local regimes. Indonesia's 1965 massacre was precisely the violent backlash ultimately triggered by such infiltration.

Because once Pan-Asianism's legitimacy is acknowledged, it equals acknowledging that China's legitimacy is traitorous legitimacy.

Thus, China's traitorous identity is even more thorough: it was not a single betrayal, but decades of continuous defection.

III. Ghosts and Fear

This is precisely why Chinese people cannot "understand" the ambiguous attitudes of Southeast and Northeast Asia toward Japan. Once understood, it equals negating the righteousness of their own existence.

China's legitimacy superficially relies on an "anti-imperialist" narrative, but that is merely an illusion fabricated by literati in recent decades. Pan-Asianism, however, acts like a ghostly mirror, revealing that the one who truly dared to confront whites was not China, but the so-called "aggressor" Japan that China denounces.

Thus, Pan-Asianism becomes a ghost. It haunts the historical memories of Asian nations, yet is completely sealed off in China's narrative. Because once summoned, it would expose "China's" identity as a "traitor to the Yellow race." This is an unhealable wound; once torn open, it means endless bleeding.

Conclusion: The Whisper of Annihilation

Pan-Asianism has not perished. It lurks in Asia's historical memories and genuine feelings like a ghost, constantly reminding people: Asia could have taken another path. The one truly afraid to face this is China—because China's very existence represents Pan-Asia's previous failure and the Yellow race's previous failure.

What makes ghosts terrifying is not their illusory nature, but their constant whispering in Asian ears, forcing betrayers to see that the concealed truths have never left, that the departed will return. And when it returns, the betrayer's name will have nowhere to hide.

The ghost is not a historical remnant, but an unfinished present; it emits whispers of annihilation in every suppressed memory of Asia, waiting to be summoned again.