adminDuring the biggest flare-up in protests over East China Sea islands claimed by China and Japan, police fired teargas and used water cannon yesterday to repel thousands of protesters occupying a street in the southern city of Shenzhen near Hong Kong.
The protests erupted in Beijing and other cities on Saturday, when demonstrators besieged the Japanese embassy, hurling rocks, eggs and bottles, and testing cordons of anti-riot police.
Thousands of people continued protesting in Beijing yesterday.
Al Jazeera’s Marga Ortigas, reporting from Hong Kong, said that Chinese protesters are attacking anything with links to Japan.
“Now it is spreading to more and more Chinese cities,” she said.
In at least four other Chinese cities, demonstrators looted shops and attacked Japanese cars. Protesters also broke into a dozen Japanese-run factories in the eastern city of Qingdao, according to the Japanese broadcaster NHK.
“Regrettably, this is a problem concerning the safety of Japanese nationals and Japan-affiliated companies,” Noda told a talk show on NHK.
“I would like to urge the Chinese government to protect their safety.”
In a further assertion of its sovereignty, China has been holding military drills near the disputed islands.
Chinese state television has showed footage of naval ships, submarines and aircraft conducting operations with live rounds on Saturday and yesterday.
Sino-Japanese ties have long been plagued by China’s bitter memories of Japan’s military aggression in the 1930s and 1940s and present rivalry over resources and regional clout.
Relations between the two countries, whose business and trade ties have blossomed in recent years, chilled in 2010 after Japan arrested a Chinese aCoast Guard vessel near the islands of Senkaku, called Diaoyu in China.
The territorial dispute escalated on Friday when China sent six surveillance ships to the uninhabited islands, after the Japanese government bought them from their private owners.
Though Japan has controlled the islands for decades, China saw the purchase as further proof of Japan’s refusal to negotiate.
China is under strong popular pressure to take a tough line with Japan.
It will also have to be cautious not to let the protests spin out of control.
The influential Chinese tabloid, the Global Times, published by the Communist Party mouthpiece People’s Daily, said backing off was not an option for China.
“China should be confident about strategically overwhelming Japan,” it wrote, saying the Chinese military should “increase their preparation and intensify their deterrence” against Japan.
“China will not shy away if Japan chooses to resort to its military.”
Earlier, Al Jazeera’s Ortigas said the protests may have been encouraged to distract the Chinese nationals from their domestic concerns.
“There have been accusations of corruption,” she said.
“There has also been widespread unrest socially in China from what we understand. At the same time there have been questions about the smoothness of the leadership transition, which is in the works for the end of this year.” — Al Jazeera.
Online Reporter