Bale was in China to promote his movie about the Rape of Nanking by Japanese troops in 1937.

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The ultra-nationalists' main bone of contention is that the Rape of Nanking, during which the Chinese claim some 300, 000 men, women and children were slaughtered, was a figment of foreign propaganda.

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People know the horrific history of the Opium Wars (a war that was fought to allow the British to continue drug trafficking), the subsequent colonization of Hong Kong, and the atrocities of the Rape of Nanking.

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Ishi-hara Shintaro is best known for being an outspoken nationalist who over the years has denied the Rape of Nanking, vilified the communist government of China, and most recently insulted Chinese and Koreans in Japan by saying sangokujin, a derogatory term for foreigners seldom heard since the early post-war years, could run riot in the wake of an earthquake.

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