China attempts to sour Japanese-Mongolian sporting friendship

The latest target for China's anti Japan, anti friends-of-Japan, campaign appears to be act of solidarity between Japan's baseball federation and its fledgling counterparts in Mongolia.

In a move to promote amateur and professional baseball in Mongolia, the Japanese Baseball Federation supplied uniforms, bats, and other baseball equipment to groups promoting baseball in Mongolia, only to be met with sour words from the Chinese press.

Chinese state media belittled Mongolian efforts to promote baseball in the country and Japanese efforts to co-operate in the sports arena, and pronounced that in would be years, maybe decades, before Mongolian players would be considered strong enough to make it into international leagues.

Mongolia and Japan have enjoyed baseball ties since 1992 and have a long relationship in the fields of traditional Mongolian and Sumo wrestling, neither of which China actively participates in but remain popular in Japan despite recent encroachments from basketball and American rules football.

Japanese baseball coaches have enjoyed a long friendship with Mongolia, and several prominent coaches have assisted in the promotion of baseball in the country.

This attack comes after Chinese authorities denounced Japanese oil, gas and mineral exploration efforts off of Japan's western water, claiming them to be violations of China's maritime boundaries.

China still maintains very few sporting ties with Japan.

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