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Las Vegas SUN

April 26, 2005

China Detains 42 for Anti-Japanese Protests

By ELAINE KURTENBACH
ASSOCIATED PRESS

SHANGHAI, China (AP) - Authorities have detained 42 people accused of "disturbing social order" during recent anti-Japanese protests, in the government's sternest warning so far against further unrest, state media reported Tuesday.

State-run Shanghai Television ran film footage identifying several of those suspected of throwing bottles at the Japanese Consulate and smashing in windows of restaurants thought to be owned by Japanese during the demonstrations in Shanghai, which involved up to 20,000 people.

"I regret my behavior very much," said one of the detainees, identified as Zhang Jianyong of southern China's Hubei province. "I should not have broken the law."

Zhang was accused of climbing onto the roof of a building and throwing stones and bottles at Japanese bars and shops, the state-run newspaper Shanghai Daily reported.

The reports did not condemn the protests, saying most participants were peaceful. But they said violence and other forms of "disturbing social order" would not be tolerated.

"Regarding the recent anti-Japan protests, we do not approve of the excesses," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said Tuesday.

Qin said authorities were working to protect Japanese missions in China and Japanese citizens. He would not answer questions about the number of protest-related arrests nationwide.

As is often the case in communist-ruled China, authorities were keeping close track of protest participants. On the television news, several people shown smashing windows of Japanese restaurants near the consulate, in the city's Hongqiao district, had their heads circled in red.

The same people were later shown in handcuffs, expressing remorse for their actions.

Demonstrators were protesting new Tokyo-approved history textbooks that critics say whitewash Japan's World War II atrocities.

Of the 42 people taken into custody after the protests, 26 were put in "short-term detention" and another 16 formally arrested, state media said.

Police allowed the massive protest on April 16, one of many across the country, to proceed despite warnings against unauthorized demonstrations. But last week the Public Security Ministry warned against organizing any further rallies.

Last weekend, police and riot troops were stationed near the Japanese Embassy in Beijing and the Japanese Consulate in Shanghai, apparently to deter any further violence.

Japan's foreign minister, Nobutaka Machimura, said in Tokyo on Tuesday that he believed protesters were put off by the stepped up security.

"We will continue discussions with China about our demands for compensation and an apology in order to clear up this dispute," Machimura added. At the Japanese Embassy in Beijing, 25 windows were broken during an anti-Japan riot on April 9.

Activists' have called for more protests on the May 1 Labor Day holiday and on May 4, the date of a 1919 student uprising over a treaty that ceded part of China to Japan. But several of the activists' Web sites have been closed down amid warnings against organizing protests online or through cell phone short messages.

Police urged those who committed crimes during the protests to surrender and said other residents should inform on people involved in the violence, the Shanghai Daily said.

It identified one of the people detained as a university physical education teacher, Yin Xiufeng.

"I let down my university, my teachers as well as my students," Yin was quoted as saying. "I hope others can learn a lesson from me."

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