Chinese government successful in ending anti-Japan protests

The "Anti-Japan Vanguard" Web site used to be plastered with fiery screeds demanding that Tokyo atone for its World War II aggression.

Now, a year later, it advertises industrial machinery sold by its owner. Only its inflammatory Web site address -- japanpig.com -- reminds visitors of its former character.

The site's fate demonstrates the effectiveness of Beijing's steps to curtail anti-Japanese activities among the public, a year after angry, sometimes violent protests against Japan in Beijing, Shanghai and other Chinese cities.

Fearful demonstrations could boomerang against the regime and scare off foreign investors, China has toned down state media's reporting about Japan and muzzled Web sites such as Anti-Japan Vanguard. The result: No new protests.

"The biggest reason that there haven't been more protests is that the government has taken effective measures to prevent them," said Jin Linbo of the China Institute of International Studies. "More cautious reporting by the media has been a big factor."

Anti-Japan last year culminated in a mob of about 20,000 people attacking the Japanese consulate in Shanghai on April 16, the anniversary of which is today.

The building and several Japanese businesses were severely damaged, but no one was seriously injured. China said it detained 42 people over the violence, but their fate remains unknown.

Japanese said Beijing has yet to make good on its promise to pay for damage to the consulate.

The protests stemmed from widespread anti-Japanese feelings nurtured over the past century. At the center is Tokyo's brutal invasion and occupation of much of China during the first half of the 20th Century -- horrors that the Communist Party keeps alive in school textbooks and through the state media.

More resentments have been stirred by a Beijing-Tokyo dispute over rights to gas fields in the East China Sea, and by Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's repeated visits to Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine, where Japan's war dead -- including indicted war criminals -- are worshipped.

Chinese was galvanized last year after Japan stepped up a campaign for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council.

Activists an online petition campaign against the Japanese seat, attracting millions of signatures and inspiring a series of small demonstrations, leading up to the one in Shanghai.

While groups are taking a lower profile, some say whether that approach lasts depends on Japan.

"As long as the Japanese government fails to take a proper attitude toward China and other Asian countries, I think there will be more protests of some kind at some time," said Feng Jinhua, a hero among the anti-Japanese campaigners for defacing a statue outside the Yasukuni Shrine in 2001, for which he was sentenced to 10 months in prison.

Even so, recent expressions of anti-Japanese sentiment have mainly been limited to government statements.

"The government knows that protests can provoke even more problems," Jin said.