[l332mn]

> Is it also political propaganda to show a patch of the Japanese flag?

In combination with Taiwan, of course it is. Why don't you think it is? The history here is that Japan had criminally occupied Taiwan for half a century, and once WW2 was over, the US has supported Taiwans independence from China ever since. Due to Japan's large scale genocide campaign in China, and the fact that they barely even apologised half a century after the war (with full US support), the Japan / Taiwan issue is naturally highly political and controversial in China. There's so much past wrongdoings, so pretending to be on a moral pedestal here is ridiculously ignorant. Even these days the US is threatening war with China over Taiwan, as they have been historically all along.

> Xi-era Chinese nationalism is so fragile and easily bruised

Easily bruised only in the eyes of people completely ignorant of history, or who holds false or extremely biased historical views.