Anti-Japanese protests in Beijing

Protesters return to Japanese embassy in Beijing

Thousands of protesters gathered outside Japan's embassy in Beijing on Sunday, a day after demonstrators tried to storm the building amid a growing territorial row over islands in the East China Sea

 

ABC ,

16 September, 2012

The crowd threw beer bottles and golf balls, shouted anti-Japanese slogans, waved Chinese flags and sang the national anthem.

But large numbers of police escorted the demonstrators as they marched back and forth past the building, and more officers lined the road, which was blocked to traffic.

Volunteers wearing red armbands handed out food and water to the demonstrators and a medical team stood by.

Beijing was infuriated last week when Japan announced that it had bought the disputed islands, which it administers and calls Senkaku, but which China claims and calls Diaoyu, and protests took place around the country on Sunday.

Tens of thousands of people had demonstrated in at least a dozen cities across China on Saturday, with attacks on Japanese-built cars and Japanese restaurants and businesses.

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda on Sunday called on China to ensure the safety of Japanese people and businesses.

"This situation is a great disappointment and so we are protesting" to China, he told Fuji Television.

"We want (China) to oversee the situation so that at least Japanese citizens and businesses in China will not be in danger."

The relationship between China and Japan, the world's second and third largest economies, is often strained by their historical rivalry even though they have significant business links.

Six Chinese ships sailed into waters around the disputed archipelago on Friday, with Beijing saying they were there for "law enforcement", prompting Tokyo to summon the Chinese ambassador to protest what it called a territorial incursion.

Pictures posted on Sina Weibo, China's version of Twitter, showed marches on Sunday in half a dozen cities around the country including Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Hangzhou.

In Shanghai, where there were major protests on Saturday, more than a thousand demonstrators gathered outside the Japanese consulate Sunday, one group chanting "Down with little Japan" while waving flags and banners.

Police in the commercial hub blocked off roads using shipping containers and plastic barriers, but guided marchers through police lines to protest in front of the building.

A dozen demonstrators got into minor scuffles with police, but a Japanese diplomat who spoke on condition of anonymity said there had been no reports of violence and no objects thrown at the consulate.

The protests did not feature on regular news bulletins on the state-run China Central Television on Saturday though they appeared on the front page of the English-language China Daily on Sunday.

Some state media urged protesters to refrain from violence. "Smoking city blocks, overturned cars, faces contorted with anger - these are not the images of a civilised society," the Beijing Youth Daily wrote on Sunday.

It urged those wrecking Japanese products to "stay cool-headed and self-controlled" and "distinguish between breaking the law and showing patriotism".