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| 11 April 2005 | Monday | 01 Rabi-ul-Awwal 1426 |
Chinese hold massive anti-Japan rallies: History textbook row
Burning Japanese flags and waving banners demanding Japan face up to its wartime past, around 10,000 people marched on the Japanese consulate in Guangzhou in Guangdong province, said Japanese embassy spokesman Keiji Ide.
He said another 10,000 people gathered outside a Japanese supermarket named Jusco in the nearby city of Shenzhen, just north of Hong Kong.
An eyewitness in Guangzhou said many protesters were wearing T-shirts with “Don’t buy Japanese products” on the front. They carried banners saying “Terminate Sino-Japanese relations” and “Don’t alter history”.
Demonstrators were seen kicking a Mitsubishi car and eggs, bottles and tomatoes were thrown at a Japanese restaurant. As they marched, the protesters sang the national anthem and wartime resistance songs.
Outside the consulate protesters shouted “Come out Japanese dog”, saying they wanted to hand over a letter of protest to diplomats, said the eyewitness, asking to remain anonymous.
Several thousands police ringed the office block housing the consulate and a police van with a loudspeaker later urged protesters to go home.
“We fully understand your patriotism, but please keep social stability. You must immediately leave,” the police said.
Around 100 hardcore protesters tried to break through fences and there were minor scuffles before the four-hour protest ended around 1:00 pm.
The demonstrations came one day after more than 10,000 protestors on Saturday marched through Beijing, hurling rocks, bottles and eggs and shouting abuse at the Japanese embassy and the residence of the Japanese ambassador.
There were sporadic clashes with police during the protest, which was triggered by Tokyo’s decision to approve a new school textbook which both China and South Korea say glosses over Japanese wartime atrocities.
The demonstrators, most of whom were university students, were also protesting against Tokyo’s bid for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council.
One man who participated in the march to the Guangzhou consulate said he was furious with Japan.
“I hate Japan. I want to beat them (Japanese people) as soon as I see them,” said the man, who identified himself as Xiao Dao and spoke to AFP by phone.
In a sign that China does not want the protests to get out of hand, the state-controlled media blacked out coverage of them.
There were no reports on television, newspapers or news websites despite Saturday’s demonstration being the largest in the capital since about 10,000 members of the banned spiritual group Falungong encircled the Communist Party’s leadership compound in July 1999.
Beijing police on Sunday prevented the Japanese embassy from taking a group of foreign journalists inside to see the damage, citing “security reasons”.
The Japanese embassy told AFP 20 embassy windows were broken and five windows were smashed at the ambassador’s residence.—AFP
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