Things seem to be getting very ugly, all at the same time.
Thousands
protest at Japanese embassy in Beijing
Angry
demonstrators threw stones and plastic water bottles at the Japanese
embassy in Beijing on Saturday amid rising tensions between the two
powers over disputed islands in the East China Sea.
15
September, 2012
The
army was drafted in to help contain the protest, which threatened to
spill over into violence at midday, an AFP photographer said, as
police armed with shields and batons struggled to contain the angry
demonstration.
There
was no official estimate of the number of demonstrators, but AFP
correspondents at the scene estimated the crowd size at more than
2,000 people.
Roads
were cordoned off and a helicopter hovered overhead, monitoring the
protest.
The
protest, along with a series of other demonstrations across China,
came after Japan this week announced it had bought the islands, which
it administers and calls Senkaku, but which China claims and calls
Diaoyu.
Six
Chinese ships sailed into waters around the archipelago Friday, with
Beijing saying they were there for "law enforcement",
leading Tokyo to summon the Chinese ambassador to protest what it
insisted was a territorial incursion.
Japanese
restaurants in the area around the Japanese embassy, which were all
closed, appeared to have not been targeted by the angry crowds, but
some protesters had draped Chinese flags over them.
Demonstrators
have staged protests in front of the embassy for most of the week. On
Thursday, hundreds sang the Chinese national anthem and waved flags
to condemn Tokyo's purchase of the disputed island chain.
Meanwhile,
other demonstrations were being staged across China on Saturday with
reports of Japanese-built cars and Japanese restaurants being
attacked by angry crowds.
In
China's commercial hub of Shanghai, police threw a security ring
around the Japanese consulate but allowed groups of protestors to
approach the compound for short periods.
Scores
of protestors waved Chinese flags, chanted slogans like "Little
Japanese" and held up signs insisting the islands were Chinese.
On
China's Sina Weibo, a microblog similar to Twitter, images were
posted of protests in the southwestern cities of Chongqing and
Kunming.
Protests
were reported in several other places including the eastern city of
Nanjing and Xian and Taiyuan in the north.
China
and Japan are Asia's two biggest economies with close trade and
business ties. The political relationship, however, is often tense
due to the territorial dispute and Chinese resentment over historical
issues.
A
Japanese diplomat told AFP on Friday that Tokyo had issued a safety
warning to its citizens in China after six "serious" cases
of assault and harassment.
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