There is something uniquely pathetic about the way two of Asia’s most self-important powers choose to wage war. Forget the flash of bayonets or the hum of drones; in the 21st century, the front line of international conflict is apparently the luxury handbag aisle of a Tokyo department store. We are currently witnessing a masterclass in performative petulance as mainland Chinese tourists—those high-spending harbingers of economic growth—have decided to shun Japan because their feelings were hurt by a few choice words regarding Taiwan. According to Japan’s transport ministry, the number of mainland visitors dropped by a staggering 45 percent in December. That is approximately 330,000 fewer people buying overpriced sake and electronic rice cookers, all because someone in the Japanese government dared to suggest that a literal invasion of a neighbor might require a response.

On one side, we have the Japanese leadership, a collection of grey-suited bureaucrats who seem to think they are still living in the Meiji era. The Prime Minister’s suggestion that an invasion of Taiwan could spark Japanese military involvement is a delightful piece of fiction. It is a bold stance from a nation whose military identity is currently built on a foundation of 'self-defense' and polite apologies. The idea of Japan’s 'Self-Defense Forces' engaging in a modern theater of war is less 'Saving Private Ryan' and more 'The Office,' yet they persist in these verbal provocations as if they have the stomach for anything more violent than a slightly heated board meeting. It is posturing for the sake of posturing, a desperate attempt to look relevant on the global stage while their birth rate craters and their economy continues its long, slow slide into a dignified coma.

On the other side, we have the Beijing apparatus, which has perfected the art of the 'weaponized vacationer.' The Chinese Communist Party has realized that they don’t need to fire a single missile to cause panic in Tokyo; they just need to tell their citizens that it is unpatriotic to buy Uniqlo thermals this winter. The fact that tourism numbers can be halved by a diplomatic row is proof that for all our talk of globalism, we are still just tribal idiots who think that withholding our presence from a Ginza boutique is a revolutionary act. It is a peculiar form of fiscal flagellation—China punishes Japan by forcing its own wealthy elite to spend their money elsewhere, perhaps in some other nation that hasn't yet offended the delicate sensibilities of the Middle Kingdom. The 330,000 people who didn't show up are being treated as soldiers in a trade war, their credit cards the primary weapon of choice.

The irony, of course, is that these 'high-spending' tourists are the very people the CCP claims to represent while simultaneously keeping them on a leash that can be yanked the moment a foreign leader says something inconvenient. It is a toxic symbiosis. Japan needs the cash to keep its stagnant economy from flatlining, and China needs to prove it can control the flow of capital like a spigot. Neither side cares about the actual residents of Taiwan, who are merely the decorative backdrop for this tiresome theater of the absurd. The security of Taiwan is a convenient excuse for both sides to flex muscles they don't really have, or aren't willing to use.

Let’s be honest: the only thing actually 'at risk' here is the quarterly revenue of Japan's transport ministry and the vanity of Beijing's diplomats. The drop in tourism isn't a sign of principled stance; it’s a sign of a world where everything, including a holiday to see the cherry blossoms, is filtered through a lens of nationalistic insecurity. It is a race to the bottom where the prize is being the most easily offended. Japan acts as if it is ready for a fight it cannot win, and China acts as if its citizens’ travel habits are a strategic asset. In the end, we are left with empty hotels in Tokyo and a lot of very angry retail managers. It’s a fitting end for a century that promised us space travel and gave us a geopolitical tantrum over duty-free shopping. Humanity continues its descent into the trivial, proving once again that we are less concerned with the survival of our species than we are with who gets to claim moral superiority over a 45 percent decline in visitor statistics.