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Anti-Japan protests rage for second day in China

A group of about 600 protesters march on a downtown street as they chant anti-Japan slogans in the southern China city Shenzhen yesterday. PHOTO: AP

Anti-Japan protests erupted for a second day in China yesterday, as Tokyo demanded an apology and better protection for its citizens and interests a day after demonstrators smashed windows at Japan's embassy in Beijing.

Demonstrations against Japan have spread in China since Tokyo approved a new history textbook that critics say glosses over atrocities by Japan's military in the first half of the 20th century, including forcing tens of thousands of women into sex slavery. Beijing slammed the decision, calling the book "poison" for youthful minds.

Some 10,000 protesters surrounded a Japanese-run Jasco supermarket in Shenzhen on Sunday, said Ide Keiji, a spokesman for the Japanese Embassy in Beijing.

They shouted "Boycott Japanese goods!" and some threw plastic bottles of mineral water at the store.

About 3,000 people marched toward the Japanese Consulate General in Guangzhou for a "spontaneous demonstration" and police were maintaining order, said a spokesman with the Guangzhou municipal government who refused to give his name when reached by telephone.

Police prevented demonstrators from getting near the consulate, Keiji said.

Hong Kong Cable Television showed a huge crowd of people protesting outside a shopping center in Guangzhou. They were trying to knock down police barriers set up around the center, and police were shoving the crowd as they struggled to contain it. A correspondent said protesters threw eggs at Japanese restaurants as they passed by.

On Saturday, about 1,000 protesters hurled rocks and broke windows at Japan's Embassy in Beijing, demanding a boycott of Japanese goods to oppose the new schoolbook. They also urged their government to prevent Tokyo from gaining a permanent seat on the UN Security Council.

China said yesterday it had ordered anti-Japanese protesters in Beijing to stay "calm and sane" and mobilized extra police to maintain public order but Japanese officials complained that not enough was done.

When the protesters arrived at the embassy, security forces allowed people to throw stones, said Keiji.

"They let them do that, they didn't stop, they didn't arrest," he said.

Japan's ambassador to China, Anami Koreshige, called the incident "gravely regrettable" and called on Chinese authorities to protect Japanese citizens and businesses, as well as the embassy and other consulates in China, Keiji said.

Japanese Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura also summoned China's ambassador yesterday to protest the rally and demand compensation for damages.

Keiji said Japan used diplomatic channels to "repeatedly request" protection of Japanese interests last week following demonstrations in Shenzhen and Chengdu and were given assurances from Beijing.

Saturday's protest outside the embassy came after a noisy rally by more than 6,000 people in the university district in Beijing's northwest, where some burned a Japanese flag.

Most protests in the Chinese capital are banned, but the government occasionally allows brief rallies by a few dozen people at a time outside the Japanese Embassy on key war anniversaries. Anti-Japanese sentiment runs deep among Chinese, with many resenting what they see as Tokyo's failure to atone for its wartime aggression.

Saturday's protest was the biggest in Beijing since 1999, when the US Embassy was besieged after NATO warplanes bombed Beijing's Embassy in Belgrade during the war over Kosovo.

A trade association for Chinese chain stores called last week for a boycott of beer, coffee and other products made by Japanese companies that it claims supported the textbook revision.

Protesters also oppose Tokyo's campaign for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council -- a status held now by only China, the US, Russia, Britain and France.

The Chinese government has not said whether it will oppose a Security Council seat for Japan. But Beijing regards Tokyo as its rival and could be unwilling to give up its status as the only Asian nation with a permanent council seat, which carries veto power over UN actions.
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