Japan said yesterday it had lodged a protest with Beijing after spotting two Chinese fisheries patrol boats near a disputed island chain at the center of a bitter row between the Asian giants.
“Last night around 9pm our coastguard sighted them and afterwards the two [Chinese ships] left there and sailed north toward China,” Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshito Sengoku told a regular press conference.
“After the incident, we launched a protest through diplomatic channels,” he said.
Beijing and Tokyo have been locked in their worst spat in years that started after Japan arrested a Chinese trawler captain on Sept. 8 near the islands, known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyutais (釣魚台) in Taiwan and China.
In Japan, the Chinese embassy has received an envelope with a bullet and an anonymous note that warned: “Don’t come near the Senkaku islands” — the second time such a threat was sent — Jiji Press reported, citing police sources.
Sengoku reiterated Tokyo’s position in the row over the islands, which are located in rich fishing grounds and near suspected gas deposits, in waters between Okinawa and Taiwan.
“There is no doubt at all that the Senkaku Islands are an integral part of Japanese territory historically and under international law,” he said. “We are going to continue taking the necessary precautions and [conducting] surveillance.”
Asked about the wording of the protest, Sengoku said Japan told China that it disapproved of its ships sailing near the islands, saying: “What’s the purpose? Such activities are no good, are they? We have told them this.”
Meanwhile, more anti-Japan demonstrations were held in at least a half dozen Chinese cities over the weekend, reports said yesterday. Calls for more protests today also circulated widely on the Internet, including a planned march to the Japanese consulate in Chongqing.
The People’s Daily issued an editorial calling the protests “understandable,” but urging demonstrators to plunge into their work and studies rather than take to the streets. The government has encouraged nationalist outrage over Japan’s seizure of the captain in disputed waters, but it also is wary of public protests.
Protesters gathered on Sunday in Changsha, Baoji and Lanzhou, among other smaller cities. Japanese TV footage showed uniformed and plainclothes Chinese police watching closely, and in some cases, ripping down banners and escorting people away from the demonstrations. Several hundred protesters joined in, although there were no immediate reports of arrests or property damage.
Marchers carrying Chinese national flags chanted “love China” and “boycott Japanese goods.”
Other signs, however, also touched on sensitive domestic issues, ranging from freedom of speech to high housing prices. One particularly bold sign displayed in Baoji called for multiparty democracy.
In its editorial posted to popular Web sites, the People’s Daily empathized with protesters, but warned against actions that violate laws and regulations.
“Expressing one’s patriotic passions is understandable,” the paper said. “We believe that the vast majority will turn their patriotic passions into concrete actions in their daily life, and safeguard the bigger picture of reform, development and stability.”
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