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A
New Zealander travelling in China interviewed on Radio NZ said she
saw Japanese-made cars being overturned, their occupants being
dragged out – the police looked on, but did not intervene
Japan's
ambassador to China dies amid rising anti-Japanese protests
The
Japanese ambassador to China died in a Tokyo hospital after being
admitted three days earlier. His death coincides with an escalation
in anti-Japanese protests across China over a territorial dispute.
RT,
16
September, 2012
The
cause of ambassador Shinichi Nishimiya’s death is currently under
investigation, Japan's Ministry of Internal Affairs said. Three days
ago, Nishimiya was found unconscious near his Tokyo home after
leaving for work.
A
second day of demonstrations took place across China against Japan's
territorial claim to a group of disputed islands in the East China
Sea. China does not recognize Japan's claim to the isles, which are
known to the Japanese as 'Senkaku' and as 'Diaoyu' by the Chinese.
In
Shenzhen, a city near Hong Kong in southern China, police dispersed
thousands of activists with water cannons. And in the eastern city of
Qingdou, witnesses reported smoke and flames coming from a factory
owned by Japanese electronics manufacturer Panasonic. A Toyota
dealership was also damaged in Qingdou, a company spokesperson said.
In
response, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda called on the
Chinese government to “ensure
the security of Japanese citizens,” and
decried the recent surge of anti-Japanese demonstrations. “I
strongly object to the burning of Japanese flags and the
protests,” Noda
said on a Japanese talk show broadcast by NHK.
Tensions
between the two countries intensified on Friday when six Chinese
ships entered Japanese waters near the disputed islands and ignored
the Japanese Coast Guard's orders to leave. The move triggered angry
protests in hundreds of Chinese cities, some of which were reportedly
violent.
A Chinese protester hurls a water bottle during an anti-Japanese protest over the Diaoyu islands issue, known as the Senkaku islands in Japanese, outside the Japanese Embassy in Beijing.(AFP Photo / Goh Chai Hin)
Chinese para-military police (bottom) shelter behind a barrier as demonstrators continue to throw eggs, rocks and water bottles during an anti-Japanese protest outside the Japanese embassy in Beijing over the Diaoyu islands issue, known as the Senkaku islands in Japanese.(AFP Photo / Mark Ralston)
Chinese demonstrators carry national flags and portraits of Mao Zedong during a protest over the Diaoyu islands issue, known as the Senkaku islands in Japan, in Wuhan.(AFP Photo / China Out)
Chinese protesters hurl water bottles during an anti-Japanese protest over the Diaoyu islands issue, known as the Senkaku islands in Japanese, outside the Japanese Embassy in Beijing.(AFP Photo / Goh Chai Hin)
Chinese protesters hurl water bottles during an anti-Japanese protest over the Diaoyu islands issue, known as the Senkaku islands in Japanese, outside the Japanese Embassy in Beijing.(AFP Photo / Goh Chai Hin)
Chinese para-military police look at various items through lying on the ground during anti-Japanese protests outside the Japanese embassy in Beijing over the Diaoyu islands issue, known as the Senkaku islands in Japanese.(AFP Photo / Mark Ralston)
Chinese para-military police walk behind a barrier as demonstrators continue to throw eggs, rocks and water bottles during an anti-Japanese protest outside the Japanese embassy in Beijing over the Diaoyu islands issue, known as the Senkaku islands in Japanese.(AFP Photo / Mark Ralston)
Chinese demonstrators carry anti-Japan banners and march during a protest over the Diaoyu islands issue, known as the Senkaku islands in Japan, in Wuhan.(AFP Photo / China Out)
Growing
tension between China and Japan fuel concerns over potential war
China’s
incoming leader re-emerged this weekend after an unexplained two-week
absence, just in time to see the country he’s about to inherit
consumed with rabid anti-Japanese nationalism that his Communist
Party unleashed, and which the United States warned on Sunday could
lead to a regional war.
16
September, 2012
Beijing’s
rapidly deteriorating relationship with Tokyo will top the agenda as
Xi Jinping takes over as general secretary of the Communist Party
from President Hu Jintao, a promotion expected as early as next
month. While Mr. Xi will continue to share power with Mr. Hu for
months afterward, the stakes could scarcely be higher for his first
test.
Six
days of sanctioned anti-Japanese protests – which escalated Sunday
into a nationwide day of rage that saw Japanese businesses and
diplomatic missions attacked – have whipped up hatred and created a
situation that leaves the Chinese leadership little room to
compromise in a showdown over disputed islands in the East China Sea.
Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, who is on the verge of
calling an election that will see him challenged from the nationalist
right, similarly has little room to negotiate.
U.S.
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said he was worried the growing
tensions between China and Japan could result in a war that would
“have the potential of expanding.”
The
U.S. is bound by treaty to defend Japan in the event it is attacked.
China and Japan are the world’s second and third-largest economies.
“A
misjudgment on one side or the other could result in violence, and
could result in conflict,” Mr. Panetta said in Tokyo at the start
of a tour that will take him to Beijing this week for talks with
senior leaders.
The
confrontation over the uninhabited islets, known as Senkaku in Japan
and Diaoyu in China, escalated from obscure to alarming last week
after Tokyo moved to purchase them from the Japanese family that
privately owned them for the past four decades. Beijing responded by
unilaterally declaring new sea borders around the islands and then
dispatching patrol boats to the area on Friday. Japanese boats were
also sent to the area, leading to a nine-hour pursuit before the
Chinese ships finally left the disputed waters.
That
showdown at sea was followed by a weekend of dangerous street theatre
around China. Tens of thousands took part in marches in dozens of
cities Saturday and Sunday that were officially condoned and
disturbingly xenophobic. “Declare war on Japan!” thousands
shouted as they marched past the Japanese Embassy in Beijing. Some
waved portraits of Mao Zedong, and pelted the embassy gate with eggs
and bottles as rows of military police looked on.
Japanese
restaurants a few blocks away were forced to close, draping their
exteriors in red Chinese flags so as to leave no question as to where
their loyalties lay. An adjacent Chinese restaurant on the same
street drew crowds by putting up signs declaring “pet dogs welcome,
but not Japanese dogs.”
“We
insist that the government take some hard actions” to seize the
disputed islands, said Lu Zhentao, the restaurant’s manager. “The
Japanese attitude is that they will not bow their heads to us.”
In
the southern city of Guangzhou, a crowd smashed the windows of a
building housing the Japanese consulate. In the neighbouring city of
Shenzhen, police used tear gas, water cannons and pepper spray to
disperse an estimated crowd of 10,000 that attacked a Japanese
department store. In all, demonstrations were reported in 85 Chinese
cities.
Anger
is expected to rise ahead of Tuesday’s anniversary of the Mukden
Incident of 1931, a staged attack on a Japanese railway line that was
used as pretext for the Imperial Army’s invasion of Manchuria, and
later the rest of China, at the outset of the Second World War.
Considered a day of national humiliation in China, the anniversary is
marked by protests even when ties between Beijing and Tokyo are
businesslike.
“Regrettably,
[there] is a problem concerning the safety of Japanese nationals and
Japan-affiliated companies,” Mr. Noda said in televised remarks
Sunday. “I would like to urge the Chinese government to protect
their safety.”
However,
Mr. Noda gave no indication he was considering Chinese demands that
Japan abandon its purchase of the disputed islands. Tokyo does not
recognize any dispute over the ownership of the islands, which have
been in Japanese hands since 1895, except for a 26-year American
occupation following the Second World War.
China’s
own claim is based on the fact the islands appeared on Chinese maps
for centuries before the Japanese annexed them.
Beijing
is also unlikely to back down ahead of its own sensitive transition
of power, which is expected to begin in late October and which
requires the support of the hawkish leadership of the People’s
Liberation Army. Seven of the nine current members of the
all-powerful Standing Committee of the Politburo are due to retire at
an upcoming Communist Party meeting, making way for a new generation
of leaders headed by Mr. Xi, the current vice-president.
Mr.
Xi returned to the public eye on Saturday – the Xinhua news agency
published five photographs of him touring the China Agricultural
University on Saturday – after an unexplained 13-day absence,
putting to rest rumours that he was deathly ill or had been targeted
in an assassination attempt.
He
looked hale during his visit to the university, but did not address
the showdown with Japan in brief remarks reported by Xinhua.
Many
protesters outside the Japanese Embassy in Beijing spoke of
boycotting Japanese products until Tokyo withdrew its purchase of the
disputed islets.
“If
Chinese people boycott Japanese products, I don’t believe the
Japanese could be so aggressive,” said 36-year-old Zhang Binglan,
an insurance saleswoman who said Sunday’s protest was the first
time in her life she had ever joined a political demonstration.
The
Communist Party initially encouraged the protests with inflammatory
media coverage of the islands dispute and laissez-faire policing that
cleared a route for the demonstrators and allowed them to bring in
boxes of eggs and other projectiles. But, as passions rose, police
began trying to calm the crowd, using loudspeakers to urge the
demonstrators to respect the law.
“I
agree with their patriotism, but I disagree with their way of
expressing it,” Zhang Liguo, a 17-year-old performing arts student,
said of the attacks on Japanese interests. He wore a handmade sign
reading: “Drive away the disrespectful Japanese!”
Some
saw the protests as a convenient distraction for the Communist Party.
Even
before Mr. Xi’s disappearing act, the party was dealing with the
fallout of the scandalous Bo Xilai affair, which saw the one-time
rising political star purged amid allegations he had helped cover up
the murder of a British businessman by his wife Gu Kailai.
The
treason trial of Wang Lijun, Mr. Bo’s former police chief in the
southeastern city of Chongqing – who instigated his downfall by
trying to seek refuge in a U.S. consulate – begins Tuesday, the
same day the anti-Japanese demonstrations are expected to crest.
“It’s
all staged. Only the Japanese could help us to have such a
demonstration,” dissident artist Ai Weiwei told The Globe and Mail
while wandering past Sunday’s protest in Beijing. “We haven’t
had such street protests for decades. The Japanese are helping us get
back our rights.”
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