Student sent back to China over Japanese rising sun flag incident in Russia

Read the original at South China Morning Post ↗
Cite

Jiaxuan, C. (2026, October 20). Student sent back to China over Japanese rising sun flag incident in Russia. South China Morning Post. https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3371475/student-sent-back-china-over-japanese-rising-sun-flag-incident-russia

Dated from the outlet's own feed. Check the original for its byline.

South China Morning Post · collected 2026-10-20 · by Cao Jiaxuan

Quick Summary

A Chinese student at Moscow State University was sent back to China after displaying a Japanese rising sun flag, which is associated with Japan's imperial military past and is considered offensive in many Asian countries, including China. The university expelled the student following criticism from the People's Liberation Army (PLA) and state media, as well as public pressure from an online petition.
Written locally by qwen2.5:14b on 2026-10-20, using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the same event (that is the story summary below).

AI analysis runs on qwen2.5:14b, locally

Story summary

A Chinese student from Nanjing studying at Moscow State University was expelled after being accused of wearing a Japanese rising sun flag in the classroom, which is widely seen as a symbol of Japanese militarism and aggression. The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) criticized the incident on social media, calling it "egregious" and an offense against human conscience. Following PLA and state media criticism, along with public petitions, Moscow State University expelled the student, who was subsequently sent back to China. The flag in question is still used by Japan’s Maritime Self-Defence Force but remains controversial due to its historical connotations of Japanese imperialism across Asia.

Written for “Chinese Student Flag Incident” on 2026-10-20, grounded in this article and the 1 other(s) covering the same event.
Why this leaning score
The article's own words the score was based on. Each is quoted verbatim and was checked against the article text before being stored, so you can find it in the original.
Reading Leans left (beta estimate) Confidence high
Leaning: leans left for article 92743 (high confidence, 1 verified quote) · logged 2026-10-20

Story

📰 Chinese Student Flag Incident
Politics · 2 article(s) covering the same event. See how they differ ↓

Compared with similar articles

This article reads leans left and hedges 0% of its claims. Each row says how that neighbour differs.
South China Morning Post · 0.87 cosine similarity
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 25% hedged 1 of 4 📰 publisher trust 64
“Both articles describe the same incident involving a Chinese student wearing a Japanese rising sun flag at Moscow State University, leading to criticism from the PLA and subsequent actions by the university.”
How this article was measured signals, leaning charts, publisher record, byline, topics and claims

Signals How these are calculated →

Claims extracted
2
sentences that state something as happening or true
Uncertain
0%
0 of 2 hedged ("reportedly", "may", "according to")
Leaning
Leans left
of the writing, not the subject · beta estimate
Publisher signals
64/100
South China Morning Post's corrections and hedging, across everything collected from it. Not a measure of accuracy.
Outlets on this story
2
Politics
Same framing elsewhere
1
articles that frame the event the way this one does
Analyzed 2026-10-20 · how these are computed

How this is being covered How these are calculated →

Article leaning vs. publisher reliability
Source leaning vs. consistency

Publisher

South China Morning Post · 2697 article(s) · 6 correction(s) detected
Running correction rate · 6 correction(s)

Who wrote this

Cao Jiaxuan
18 article(s) here · 0 carrying a prediction
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Also by Cao Jiaxuan
Nothing else under this byline is closely related to this article, so these are simply their most recent.
All 18 articles by Cao Jiaxuan →

Topics

China Chinese Japanese Moscow State University Russia

Subjects

Japanese NORP · 3× China GPE · 2× Chinese NORP · 1× Japan GPE · 1× Maritime Self-Defence Force ORG · 1× Moscow State University ORG · 1× PLA ORG · 1× Russia GPE · 1×

Narrative

Student sent back to China over Japanese rising sun flag incident in Russia Moscow State University said to have expelled the Chinese student following PLA and state media criticism and petition The flag was used by the Japanese military during its imperial expansion and is still used by Japan’s Maritime Self-Defence Force.
framing: assertive · carried by 1 article(s) · first seen 2026-10-20
2026-10-20 · South China Morning Post
Student sent back to China over Japanese rising sun flag incident in Russia · assertive framing

Claims (2 extracted, 0 hedged)

Student sent back to China over Japanese rising sun flag incident in Russia Moscow State University said to have expelled the Chinese student following PLA and state media criticism and petition The flag was used by the Japanese military during its imperial expansion and is still used by Japan’s Maritime Self-Defence Force. asserted
flag → send → Force
It remains a symbol of Japanese militarism and aggression in China and other parts of Asia. asserted
It → remain → Asia
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