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Chinese police attack Japanese press in custody

Chinese border police apologized yesterday for their treatment of two Japanese reporters covering a deadly assault in the northwest of the country, state media said.

The apology came after the border police “clashed” with the Japanese reporters, who had arrived in Xinjiang Province after an attack there on Monday left 16 police officers dead, according to Xinhua.

A photographer for the Tokyo Shimbun newspaper was forcibly detained late on Monday in the city of Kashgar, his employer said.

A reporter for the Nippon Television Network was also detained and manhandled by Chinese police who pushed his face to the ground, the network said.

Masami Kawakita, 38, was detained “and then kicked by police,” said a Tokyo Shimbun spokesman. “He was released two hours later.”

Nippon Television Network said Shinji Katsuta was held for two hours and then questioned for about an hour at his hotel, describing the incident as “extremely deplorable.”

The network received word that local police had requested a meeting to apologize for the incident, a spokesman said.

“We heard that the Chinese side pointed out that it is forbidden to film military facilities, and it seems like there was confusion because the scene of the assault was just 50m from a military facility,” he said.

Security checks on roads and public buses were stepped up in Xinjiang yesterday with Xinhua reporting that authorities had reinforced the police presence on roads leading into Kashgar and ordered a full security alert in public places, including government office buildings, schools and hospitals. Police boarded vehicles at checkpoints to search passengers’ bags, Xinhua said.

Meanwhile, a 6.0-magnitude earthquake hit Sichuan Province yesterday, near the area devastated by a quake earlier this year, the US Geological Survey said.

An official with China Earthquake Administration confirmed that an “aftershock” hit the area.

“So far, we have not received any report of casualties,” he said.

Xinhua said the quake was felt in the Sichuan capital Chengdu. The Olympic torch relay passed through Chengdu yesterday, its last leg before reaching Beijing.

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