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China owes Japan for riots

The Yomiuri Shimbun

The Chinese government is failing to uphold the international treaty on the protection of diplomatic facilities, a senior Japanese official said Monday, demanding that Beijing apologize and pay compensation for damage caused to Japanese missions in the recent anti-Japanese protests in China.

"The Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations and other international laws make parties responsible for maintaining peace and order around other countries' diplomatic facilities, and China is failing to fulfill that duty," Vice Foreign Minister Shotaro Yachi said in a press conference.

Paragraph 2 of Article 22 of the convention that Yachi cited says, "The receiving state is under a special duty to take all appropriate steps to protect the premises of the mission against any intrusion or damage and to prevent any disturbance of the peace of the mission or impairment of its dignity."

The Chinese authorities did not make enough efforts to prevent anti-Japanese protests from turning violent, the Japanese government has concluded.

Windows of the Japanese Embassy in Beijing and those of consulates in Shanghai and other cities were smashed by hurled stones, and the buildings' walls were defaced with ink and paint. Hundreds of PET bottles were hurled into the missions' yards.

Japanese experts in international law, also citing the Vienna Convention, criticized the Chinese government's reaction to the recent incidents.

"Japan is absolutely right to demand compensation based on the Vienna Convention. The damage to the diplomatic facilities is so visible that Japan's demand is a convincing one," said Wakamizu Tsutsui, professor emeritus of Tokyo University.

Prof. Shunji Yanai of Chuo University, a former ambassador to the United States, said China should accept Japan's demand for compensation.

"Judging from what I've heard and read in media reports, the Chinese efforts to police and prevent the incidents were far from adequate. There's no way China can avoid apologizing to Japan," he said.

The government is not planning to seek compensation for damage to Japanese restaurants and other private property. "Damage to private sector buildings should be dealt with by the parties concerned," a Foreign Ministry official said.

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Question mark over Olympics

Japan is demanding that China arrest and punish those who attacked Japanese diplomatic facilities, Senior Vice Foreign Minister Ichiro Aisawa said Tuesday.

Speaking at a Liberal Democratic Party committee meeting, Aisawa also said the government had yet to confirm a report that a local government in Shanghai was willing to compensate Japanese restaurants for damage they suffered.

Committee member Katsuei Hirasawa said the recent series of demonstrations might have put in doubt Japanese participation in the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.

"We can't send Japanese athletes to Beijing if this trend continues," said Hirasawa, a member of the House of Representatives.

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Firm offers to pay for damage

Yomiuri Shimbun Correspondent

BEIJING--The Beijing real estate company that is leasing the building of the Japanese Embassy in the capital has offered to pay for the repair of smashed windows and other damage inflicted in the recent anti-Japan protests, a diplomatic source said Tuesday.

The source said the embassy had yet to decide whether to accept the offer, but the move by the company, which has ties to the Chinese Foreign Ministry, could be a sign China is seeking a compromise with Japan that will allow it to save face by continuing to ignore, at an official level, demands by Japan for an apology and compensation.

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Anti-Chinese backlash spreads

The Yomiuri Shimbun

With anti-Japanese demonstrations spreading in China, 25 cases of illegal harassment and intimidation, including the sending of razor blades to places related to China, have been reported in 10 prefectures since April 9, police said Tuesday.

Fourteen of them involved the Chinese Embassy and consulates and the rest targeted places such as Chinese companies and language schools. Seven of the incidents took place in Tokyo, four in Nagasaki Prefecture, three each in Kanagawa and Osaka prefectures and two in Hokkaido.

National Public Safety Commission Chairman Yoshitaka Murata said Tuesday during a press conference after the Cabinet meeting that he had ordered police forces to boost security throughout the nation, pointing out there are 106 public facilities related to China in the nation.



Copyright 2005 The Yomiuri Shimbun