SHANGHAI/BEIJING, April 16: Shouting “Japanese invaders must die”, thousands protested in eastern China against Japan’s wartime past on Saturday, hurling rocks and bottles at Tokyo’s consulate in Shanghai and burning Japanese flags.
But with thousands of paramilitary police on the streets of Beijing and students warned against protests, authorities headed off a repeat of last weekend’s violent demonstrations in the capital, which Japan’s foreign minister is to visit on Sunday.
There was also calm in the southern city of Guangzhou and Chongqing in the southwest, where thousands marched last weekend.
China has been accused of tacitly encouraging the unrest, which started in Guangdong and Sichuan provinces early this month, spread to Beijing last week and, now, to Tianjin, Shanghai and Hangzhou on the east coast.
Chinese are protesting against school textbooks they say whitewash Japan’s wartime atrocities in China, against Tokyo’s bid for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council, and on other disputes.
In the third weekend of violent protests against Japan, thousands marched on the Japanese consulate in Shanghai, smashing its windows with rocks, pelting it with paint bombs and attacking Japanese restaurants along the way.
One banner read “Face Up to History”. Another warned: “The anti-Japan war is not over yet”.
Protesters overturned a Japanese car and scrawled the slogan “Boycott Japan” on its side.
Hundreds of paramilitary police in full riot gear stood by and appealed for order on loud hailers. Isolated scuffles broke out and about a dozen protesters were dragged away.
But there were moments of relative calm during which protesters and police alike bought lattes at a nearby coffee shop. The demonstration broke up in the early evening.
JAPAN LODGES PROTEST: Japan’s foreign ministry lodged a protest, saying the Chinese government had failed to protect Japan’s diplomatic and commercial facilities from damage by protesters and urging Beijing to take serious steps to prevent a recurrence.
Japan’s Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi appealed for calm.
“Most of the people of Japan, China, and South Korea ought to feel strongly that it is good to look toward the future and have friendly ties, and we must hope for the development of relations from now on,” Kyodo quoted Mr Koizumi as saying.
In the eastern city of Hangzhou, 10,000 protesters chanted anti-Japanese slogans and handed out fliers calling for a boycott of Japanese goods, witnesses said. Another 2,000 people marched in Tianjin city, near the capital.
In Beijing, hundreds of police in riot gear guarded the ambassador’s home in the northeast diplomatic district and the embassy in the southeast. Both were pelted with rocks and bottles last weekend but spared this time around.
China appeared to be clamping down harder to keep the capital peaceful before Japanese Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura’s visit.
University students were warned by email not to protest. Top anti-Japanese activists in Beijing were rounded up to prevent protests, Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post reported.
Mr Machimura, due to meet his counterpart Li Zhaoxing on Sunday, aims to ensure disputes — on everything from gas exploration in disputed waters to Japan’s history — do not hurt 178 billion dollars in annual trade between the economic powers.
But Mr Machimura noted security in Shanghai was in-
adequate and said he would share his views with Mr Li.
