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Thousands in Beijing march against Japan
Protesters attack businesses, embassy
Compiled from wire reports
BEIJING -- Thousands of Chinese protesters held a rally here Saturday, chanting "Down with Japan" and pelting the Japanese embassy and businesses with rocks and bottles.
No Japanese in the Chinese capital were reported injured.
The protesters demanded a boycott of Japanese goods to oppose new textbooks that critics say gloss over Tokyo's wartime atrocities.
Some marched to the Japanese Embassy in the central part of the capital and threw rocks and bottles, breaking some of its windows.
Several thousand later went to the eastern part of the city and surrounded the official residence of Japanese Ambassador Koreshige Anami, where they threw stones at his windows and overturned a nearby car believed to be Japanese.
[...]
"It's true that Japanese investment helps China," Liu said. "But we don't like it when they change their history books. That's why we're here."
Others called for rejecting Tokyo's campaign for a permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council -- a privilege held only by China, the United States, Russia, Britain and France.
Referring to Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, some protesters chanted, "Koizumi is a dog! Dogs are no good!"
China's government hasn't said whether it will oppose giving a Security Council seat to 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 U.N. actions.
A group of Chinese nationalists claim to have gathered millions of signatures on an online petition calling for Tokyo to be denied a permanent Security Council seat.
[...]
Past demonstrations outside the Japanese embassy have typically been heavily policed, choreographed events involving about 50 people, with short speeches, some singing, and petitions or letters being presented to the mission.
In a rare move, the English-language service of China's official news agency, Xinhua, ran a story on the Saturday rally, noting that more than 1,000 people took part to protest "the tampering of history in Japan." China's state media seldom reports on protest rallies inside China.
Word of the protest Saturday spread in advance through e-mail and mobile phone messages sent by Chinese nationalist groups.
At the Japanese restaurant Gassan, protesters hurled rocks into the windows and insulted its workers. Hundreds watched as dozens of protesters smashed all of its windows and shouted "Japanese whores" at the workers inside.
Police were seen telling the rock throwers that the workers were probably Chinese.
After five minutes of rock and bottle throwing, a young Chinese man stood up and told the crowd to end the violence.
However, the crowd moved down the street not far from the restaurant and began pelting the Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi with stones on East Third Ring Road.
At one point, some of the demonstrators gathered near a local outlet of Japanese restaurant chain Yoshinoya and shouted, "Don't sell Japanese goods." The group dispersed when police officers steered them away from the outlet.
In the afternoon, about 1,000 protesters marched to the Japanese Embassy, which had been cordoned off with yellow tape, and attacked it with rocks and plastic bottles as dozens of police cars, vans and a busload of armed police stood by.
Protesters later pushed their way through a paramilitary police cordon to the gates of the Japanese ambassador's residence, throwing stones and water bottles and shouting "Japanese pig come out!"
Some 500 paramilitary police holding plastic shields raced into the compound and barricaded the gates.
"Chinese people shouldn't protect Japanese," the protesters shouted at the police as they threw stones and bricks at the residence.
By early evening, the protesters began returning home, and buses suddenly appeared to take student demonstrators back to their universities.
China braced for mass protests
US and Japan warn citizens to stay away from 'patriotic' rallies
Jonathan Watts in Shanghai
Saturday April 16, 2005
Guardian
The Chinese authorities are bracing themselves for further anti-Japanese protests which could become one of the biggest displays of people power there since the Tiananmen Square demonstrations in 1989.
Internet activists are calling for demonstrations in more than a dozen cities this weekend, prompting the US embassy to issue safety warnings to its citizens, and raising doubts whether the communist government is riding or being swamped by the rising wave of nationalism.
In the past few days thousands of army veterans have rallied in Beijing for higher pensions, protesters beat up Japanese students in Shanghai, and villagers with machetes repelled 1,000 riot police in a bloody battle in Zhejiang province.
But the main target of public anger is Japan. Last weekend more than 5,000 protesters marched against Tokyo's approval of a new history textbook which whitewashes the country's wartime atrocities.
Some smashed the windows of Japanese restaurants, ripped down the posters advertising Japanese goods and stoned the country's embassy.
The Japanese consulate general in Shanghai advised its citizens to "be careful in remarks and behaviour in case of contact with Chinese people", and "avoid making provocative acts such as acting loudly in groups".
The US embassy issued a warning to its citizens which said: "The demonstrations are purportedly against Japanese interests, but could involve foreigners in general."
Instead of calling for calm, the two governments have intensified their war of words.
Tokyo has demanded an apology and compensation and its economics minister called China "a scary country".
Beijing blames Japan for the deterioration in relations. The prime minister, Wen Jaibao, said on Wednesday that China would oppose Japan's attempt to become a permanent member of the UN security council.
Such comments have emboldened the young organisers of recent anti-Japanese rallies. Nationalist websites and bulletin boards are calling for further protests to greet the Japanese foreign minister, Nobutaka Machimura, who flies in this weekend on a hastily arranged fence-mending mission.
According to one site, rallies are being planned on Saturday in Tiananmen Square and in the central districts of Shanghai, Tianjin and Hanzhou. There are calls for demonstrations in Hong Kong, Nanjing, Shenyang, Guangzhou, Jinan, Chengdu, Baoding, Changsha, Shijiazhuang, Nanchang, Haikou and Nanning on Sunday. Whether they will be allowed to proceed is uncertain.
The ambivalence of the authorities was apparent in an unusual text message recently sent out in the name of the Shanghai public security office by China Mobile.
"Demonstrations need prior permission. Public displays of patriotism must be orderly, reasonable, and legal. Express your patriotic feelings in a right manner," it said.
The Beijing police have issued a blunter statement on websites warning people that they will be punished if they join unauthorised marches.
The organisers of previous anti-Japanese protests told the Guardian that they have had more freedom to operate and more publicity since the current leadership team of President Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao took power in 2003.
Many analysts believe the communist authorities have stoked up or at least condoned the demonstrations to channel social discontent away from themselves and towards Japan.
"There is an uneasy collusion between the government and the protesters," said Linda Jakobson, senior researcher at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs.
"The authorities may be worried that the protests could spill into something else, but if they wanted to stop the protests they could have done."
Asia's two most powerful states are intense rivals for regional influence, energy resources and territory, exem plified by Japan's announcement this week that it will prospect for gas in waters near East China Sea islands calmed by both countries.
But it appears to be the Chinese people rather than their government pushing the pace of the row.
"Compared to previous anti-Japanese protests, this is a very widely supported movement," said Wenran Jiang, an associate professor of Political Science at the University of Alberta.
"We must consider that as many as 30 million people signed a petition to deny Japan's UNSC bid."
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005
Anti-Japan Protests Turn Violent in China
By Luis Ramirez
Beijing
16 April 2005
Young protester argues with Chinese military police officers during anti-Japanese protest in Shanghai, Saturday
Anti-Japanese protests in China turned violent Saturday in Shanghai, where angry demonstrators pelted the Japanese consulate with rocks, bottles and eggs, and there are reports of more protests in at least two other cities.
At least 5,000 people took to the streets of Shanghai, China's largest city and its commercial center, as part of a new wave of anti-Japanese protests. The demonstrators denounced Japan's bid for a permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council and condemned what they say are Tokyo's attempts to rewrite history by minimizing Japan's wartime atrocities.
The demonstrators also damaged several Japanese-style restaurants in Shanghai, but police appeared to be able to control the crowds.
Reports from Hangzhou, about 200 kilometers southwest from Shanghai, say a large anti-Japan protest took place in the scenic eastern city. In the north, the official Xinhua news agency said there was a similar demonstration in Tianjin, the seaport near Beijing.
Authorities are taking a harder line against demonstrations today in the capital, and a large police force is deployed around the Japanese Embassy. Japan's Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura arrives in Beijing Sunday for talks with his Chinese counterpart, Li Zhaoxing.
Protest Against Japan, Shanghai, 16 April 2005
Posted by Ian on April 16th, 2005 Posted in Shanghai Stories, Life in China
(This is part one. Part two will follow.)
I woke up a little late, and was a touch late getting to the subway, because I believed that there would be no protest today, due to the media announcements.
So when I emerged from the subway station onto the north side of Peoples Square at 9:06 a.m., I was surprised to see a crowd walking west on Nanjing Road, holding up banners, and the police were keeping traffic from trying to force its way into the crowd. Perhaps the oddest thing about this all was that the marchers stayed in their own lane opposing traffic had little trouble driving past. I followed the crowd, being careful to stay separate, across the street from them, in case there was some kind of a crackdown.
At the northwest corner of Peoples Square, the corner of Nanjing Road and Xinchang Road, the marchers turned south on Xinchang. Their path kept them across the street from the Square, and I soon discovered why. The road that cuts through Peoples Square (Fuzhou Road, if it has the same name the rest of the stretch does), on the corner of which is the Shanghai Grand Theatre, was blocked by a wall of police officers. They were not in riot gear or carrying weapons, and people did not bother them or question their position.
I tried to speak with one of the officers. Asking if anyone spoke English, one of them said Please, sir, to find another path, meaning I could not pass their line either. I asked if I could ask him a question or two, and he said no, so I thanked him and kept following the crowd.
The protest continued south until it reached Yanan Elevated Road, where it turned west.
Yanan, both the elevated part and the surface street underneath, is a major thoroughfare, and I had no way to keep following along and remain obviously separate from the protest, so I stationed myself there on the corner, Huangpi Road South and Yanan, in the shade of the elevated freeway, and watched the crowds march past. This was around 9:19 a.m.
For the first few minutes, all the marchers were in one group, coming south along Huangpi/Xinchang, then turning west on Yanan. At 9:24 a.m., a second stream came along, marching from the east along Yanan, and the two streams merged at that corner.
This second stream included many signs and banners with English on them. Some examples:
Truth China Boycott Japan
Japan Government Apologizes Toward Chinese People
No Japan
Most of the marchers appeared to be young, in their early twenties, though there were also middle-aged marchers, some of whom had their kids along. I saw a handful of 10-12 year old children with one or both parents, and just a few toddler-sized kids riding shoulders. (Most of these covered their ears with their hands, because the chanting was so loud.)
Around this time, a banner came from the north and drew the heartiest cheer of the morning. It was very large, and professionally made, in color. The English read Dogs Always Eat Shit and had a drawing of a steaming pile. Next to that was a cartoon dog, with Japanese prime minister Koizumis face photoshopped onto it, saying Taste Good!
At 9:30 a.m., the stream of marchers from the east stopped for a time, and some traffic was able to pass along Yanan, but only for two minutes, when more people came marching along. This group included a sign that read In 1937 & now, a reference to the Japanese invasion of China, and especially to the Rape of Nanjing (Nanking).
At this point, there were so many people clogging the intersection that all traffic was at a standstill for nearly thirty minutes.
More signs that passed in this time:
Anti Japan
No Militarism [image of a swastika]
Return Our Lost Territories
Resist Japan Goods
Beautify Cruel Evil War
Deny Massacre
Japan will Suffer the World Again Definitely
At 9:45 a.m. I saw three white men in the march, walking together and with other Chinese friends. All the rest of the laowai I saw seemed to be there with their girlfriends, but these three were in a knot of men, so they dont even have that excuse. At this time I was also handed a leaflet urging a boycott of Japanese companies and companies that do business with Japan. I will post a scan of it when I can (probably not today), but the company names include Fuji, Konica, Sony, Panasonic, Toshiba, Olympus, Canon, Ricoh, Nikon, Minota (sic, probably Minolta), Sharp, Sanyo, JVC, Casio, Kenwoo, Aiwa, Pioneer, Yaesu Alpine, NEC, Zebra KDDI, Mitsubishi, Brother, and Epson.
At 9:48 a few banners include the Japanese flag, with the red sun dripping blood.
More signs at 9:49:
Boycott Japanese Is Castrate Japanese
Fuck Japig [with a cartoon of a slant-eyed pig]
Little Japan Never Ever Against BIG China
Tampering With Truth Is Blaspheming History
At 9:51, just when I thought I had seen a lot of people marching, the density of the crowd seemed to double. In the next minute or two, someone started a chant taken up by much of the crowd, which seemed to be a Maoist revolutionary chant (my impression only, I had no one to ask at this time).
At 9:57 a third stream of marchers appeared, coming from the south on Huangpi Road. They merged with everyone else, and headed west.
At this time, two people joined the group I was in who spoke English, so I got a little more information.
A lady who is an English teacher (I purposely did not ask for names or contact info) told me that most of the marchers were university students, and that the size of the march was due to there being so many universities in Shanghai. She said that they would be marching all the way to the Japanese embassy (or, since this is not the capital, it might be a consulate), which is located on the far west of Shanghai, near Hongqiao Airport. I remarked that that was quite a distance from the center of Shanghai, and she said yes, the march might last until 6 p.m.
At 10:03 there were still marchers, but the crowd had thinned considerably, and busses and cars which had been trapped finally started getting through, albeit slowly.
At 10:08 there is another surge of marchers, though not so many as 20 minutes ago. At this time, the other English-speaker near me started chatting with me. Again, no name or contact info, but he seemed to be a business man, in his 30s. He said that there might be violence at the Embassy, but thought that since the police had such advance warning, they should be able to prevent things from getting ugly.
He also said that this must have been organized and approved of, but didnt elaborate. Just before I left, around 10:20, he told me Japanese goods have nothing to do with it, which, given all the signs calling for boycott, struck me as the minority opinion.
When I left my post at around 10:20, traffic was almost back to normal, stopped only by a group of marchers passing through every few minutes. Another group was coming along Yanan road as I walked back to the subway.
I debated going west in the subway, at least part of the way to the embassy, but decided against it. I dont want to be anywhere near a mob scene, especially since I rather stick out in a crowd here, and I believe I saw enough for the day. So I came home to Pudong, on the east side of Shanghai, and wrote this post.
(Ill post my thoughts and impressions later today.)
NATO AIR said:One commentator remarked that it may become China's worst nightmare if one of those protesters shows up on the news and in the papers bloody, holding an anti-Japanese sign, after having been beaten up by a Chinese police officer.
I love how incompetent dictatorships are
They started a fire they can't readily put out, and now they have no idea what the hell to do about it.
Kathianne said:Not to mention if the protestors figure out their enemy may not be Japan. :shocked:
can't wait for that to happen
Kathianne said:They will, eventually. Right now it seems these were government organized, I'm waiting for the dissidents to take over.
NATO AIR said:If they cannot bring these protests to heel, what are the chances these protests and the legitimate ones in the smaller cities and rural areas that others (and you) have posted about end up linking up?
Kathianne said:It seems they are currently linked up by the government, who may be realizing they have a problem. Linkages can always be taken over by another. These are not located in one giant park/plaza...
NATO AIR said:That is true, one hell of a big country there.
Gonna be interesting for sure. There are a good number of legitimate things to protest about along with/other than Japan.
Chinese Protest: 'Japanese Pigs Get Out'
34 minutes ago World - AP Asia
By CHRISTOPHER BODEEN, Associated Press Writer
SHANGHAI, China - Chanting "Japanese pigs get out," protesters here threw stones and broke windows at Japan's consulate and Japanese restaurants 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. 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 do more damage to 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 of 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 written in English that said "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."
The Japanese government strongly protested the demonstrations, saying Beijing should have prevented the violence.
"Even though information was available beforehand to infer that there would be a demonstration, nothing was done to prevent it ... and we strongly protest to the Chinese government," Japan's Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
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.
About 2,000 people marched through Hangzhou, southwest of Shanghai, shouting slogans condemning Japanese militarism, the official Xinhua News Agency reported. In Tianjin, east of Beijing, about 2,000 protesters held a peaceful one-hour march.
In Beijing, about 400 police stood guard in Tiananmen Square. 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.
In Japan, police were investigating an envelope of white powder sent to the Chinese Embassy in Tokyo. Mazda, Suzuki and Toshiba cancelled nonessential business trips to China, while other companies told employees in the country to take safety precautions.
China's government said it lodged a formal protest with Tokyo following the incident with the envelope. (Protest for what???)
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...
..."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."
Japan Urged to Reflect on WWII Aggression
2 minutes ago World - AP Asia
By AUDRA ANG, Associated Press Writer
JAKARTA, Indonesia - Chinese President Hu Jintao urged Japan on Saturday to reflect on its World War II aggression and back up its recent apologies with action, pressing Beijing's relentless campaign for redress from Tokyo for its handling of wartime atrocities.
Hu's comments came in a rare public statement after meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Junchiro Koizumi on the sidelines of the Asian-African summit in Jakarta in a bid to ease the worst dispute in decades between the two Asian powers.
Koizumi downplayed the tensions following the meeting, calling for China not to be affected by "temporary confrontations and differences of opinion."
It was the first top-level discussion since huge anti-Japanese protests erupted earlier this month in major Chinese cities over Tokyo's approval of school textbooks that China claims play down such wartime atrocities as mass sex slavery and germ warfare.
"The strong reaction of the Chinese people and the concerns of people from other Asian countries are something that the Japanese side should seriously reflect on," Hu said after meeting privately with Koizumi for 55 minutes.
"At the moment Sino-Japanese relations face a difficult situation. Such a difficult situation is not one we want to see."
If the row cannot be resolved, "it would be detrimental to China and Japan and would affect stability and development in Asia," he warned.
Koizumi agreed that the issue could affect regional ties but struck a more conciliatory note. The two powers are linked by billions of dollars in trade and investment.
"Japan and China have never needed each other as much as they do today," Koizumi said. "We want to promote this relation ... instead of agitating hostile feelings."
The Chinese president said relations between the two nations could improve if Tokyo refused to support any moves toward independence by Taiwan. Taiwan and China split amid civil war in 1949, but Beijing still claims the island as its territory...
[...]
