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New Anti-Japanese Protests Erupt in China
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By CHRISTOPHER BODEEN, Associated Press Writer |
April 16, 2005 |
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New anti-Japanese protests erupt in China despite government warnings
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SHANGHAI, China - Chanting "Japanese pigs get out!", protesters threw stones and broke windows at Japan's consulate and Japanese restaurants in Shanghai as tens of thousands of people defied government warnings and staged demonstrations Saturday against Tokyo's bid for a permanent U.N. Security Council seat. Protests were reported in two other cities. But Beijing remained calm as police stood guard on Tiananmen Square to block a planned demonstration in the heart of the capital, a day ahead of a visit by Japan's foreign minister. Paramilitary police surrounded the Japanese Embassy, where protesters smashed windows last weekend. The third weekend of anti-Japanese protests erupted despite government demands for calm. Communist leaders apparently worry that the protests might damage relations with Tokyo, which are at their lowest point in decades, or encourage others to take to the street to protest corruption or demand political reforms. In Shanghai, as many as 20,000 protesters gathered around the Japanese Consulate. Police in riot helmets kept them away from the building but let protesters throw eggs and rocks. A group of young men broke the windows of a Nissan sedan and flipped it onto its roof. In a nearby street, protesters broke windows at about 10 Japanese-style noodle shops and bars, many of them Chinese-owned. Others broke the windows of a police car, chanting "Kill the Japanese!", after a rumor spread that a man sitting inside was Japanese. The car drove away before the crowd could grab him. The violence followed a march from City Hall to the consulate by about 5,000 people. They carried banners saying in English, "Say No to Japan in the Security Council" and chanted "Japanese pigs get out!" A sign outside the consulate said, "Be Vicious Toward Japanese Devils." "We have protested to the Foreign Ministry many times today, asking them to stop this violence," said Keiji Ide, spokesman for the Japanese Embassy in Beijing. "They promised to do their best." Tensions between Tokyo and Beijing have been fueled by disagreement over the U.N. Security Council, gas resources in disputed seas and new Japanese textbooks that critics say minimize Japan's wartime offenses. A protest march in Hangzhou, southwest of Shanghai, attracted a total of 10,000 marchers and spectators who shouted "slogans condemning Japanese militarism," the official Xinhua News Agency reported. Hong Kong Cable TV said a few hundred people held a rally in Tianjin, east of Beijing. In Beijing, about 400 police stood guard in Tiananmen Square, stopping passers-by apparently at random to question them. About 200 paramilitary police with riot shields guarded the Japanese Embassy. Police also blocked a protest in the southern city of Guangzhou, shooing away people who tried to gather at a stadium. Japan's foreign minister was preparing to fly to Beijing on Sunday for talks aimed at defusing the tensions. Japan warned its citizens in China about possible danger in advance of the protests. The United States issued a similar warning. Some suggested Beijing permitted the protests last weekend to support a campaign to block Tokyo's Security Council bid. Beijing is alarmed at a proposal to give a permanent Security Council seat to Japan, which it regards as a regional rival. Such status carries veto power over U.N. actions and is now held by only five governments - China, the United States, Britain, France and Russia. "I think that permitting the demonstrations provides leverage by creating a very public symbol of the depth of anger among the Chinese people toward Japan," said Murray Scot Tanner, a China specialist at the Rand Corp. in Washington. Premier Wen Jiabao cited the protests Wednesday when he said during a visit to India that Tokyo wasn't ready for a Security Council seat until it faced up to its history of aggression. But other Chinese officials tried to distance the government from the protesters. A Cabinet official quoted Friday by the official Xinhua News Agency denied that it supported "extremist actions." Beijing is eager to preserve important economic relations with Japan, which has some US$280 million invested in the Chinese mainland. On Friday, police in Beijing warned that protesters could face legal action. Police appealed to the public to trust the Communist Party to deal with Japan and not to threaten "social stability." In Shanghai, police didn't try to stop the protest, though state newspapers said no one had received permission to hold one. At one point, police posted a sign saying, "March route this way." The march in Shanghai was the first in China's commercial capital in the recent wave of anti-Japanese protests. "The Chinese people are angry," said one marcher, Michael Teng, a graduate student at Donghua University. "We will play along with Japan and smile nicely at them, but they have to know they have a large, angry neighbor."
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