Foreign Correspondence

[Amaunet]

China Protesters Attack Japanese Targets

By Emma Graham-Harrison

April 9, 2005 3:21 PM

BEIJING (Reuters) - Thousands of Chinese smashed windowsand threw rocks at the Japanese embassy and ambassador'sresidence in Beijing on Saturday in a protest against Japan'swartime past and its bid for a U.N. Security Council seat.

Protesters pushed their way through a paramilitary policecordon to the gates of the Japanese ambassador's residence,throwing stones and water bottles and shouting "Japanese pigcome out."

Some 500 paramilitary police holding plastic shields racedinto the compound and barricaded the gates. Protesters threwstones and bricks at the residence, and shouted at police,"Chinese people shouldn't protect Japanese."

Anti-Japanese sentiment has been running high in Chinasince Tuesday Japan when approved a textbook critics saywhitewashes atrocities committed during World War II, and manyChinese feel the country has not owned up to its wartimeaggression.

Demonstrators, who said they had been organized mostlythrough e-mail and instant messaging, had been marchingpeacefully under heavy police guard.

One group began throwing bottles and stones when theypassed a Japanese restaurant, smashing windows with tiles theyhad ripped from its roof before police stopped them.

A second Japanese restaurant was targeted later in theevening, with bricks thrown through the window, terrifyingkimono-clad waitresses.

"We are all Chinese in here and were just minding our ownbusiness," one told Reuters minutes after the attack. "This isterrifying."

She said some of the protesters had helped them clean upand advised them not to wear such sensitive uniforms.

Protesters also attacked a Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi branchand smashed windows before police moved in.

Another group outside the embassy in southeast Beijingthrew stones and plastic water bottles smashing windows in thecompound, a Reuters photographer said. Some demonstratorsscuffled with police.

The violence prompted an official protest in Tokyo byJapanese Vice Foreign Minister Shotaro Yachi who asked ChineseMinister to Japan Cheng Yonghua to strengthen security, Kyodonews agency said.

By 7.30 p.m. (7:30 a.m. EDT), the main crowd just outsidethe gates to the Japanese ambassador's residence had dispersed,but hundreds of others, many of them marchers who arrived late,remained at the corner of the compound.

Police used loudspeakers to try to persuade the students togo back to their universities.

LARGE PROTESTS RARE

The demonstration started in the Beijing neighborhood ofZhongguancun, known for its electronics shops and home to alarge student population, and comes less than a week afteranti-Japanese protests in other Chinese cities turned violent.

"Japan doesn't face up to its history," said Cheng Lei, a27-year-old information technology professional. "We want toexpress our feelings so the Japanese government knows what wethink."

Police declined to say how many protesters were on thestreets, but the official Xinhua news agency put the number atmore than 10,000. Onlookers thronged the streets, cheering onthe demonstration and snapping photos as scores of policelooked on.

Large-scale protests are rare in China, where the Communistleadership is concerned about maintaining stability at a timeof wrenching social change and a widening gap between rich andpoor.

Past demonstrations outside the Japanese embassy havetypically been heavily policed, choreographed events involvingabout 50 people, with short speeches, some singing andpetitions or letters being presented to the mission.

Last week, protesters smashed windows at a Japanesesupermarket in the southwestern city of Chengdu after ademonstration there against Japan's bid for a permanentSecurity Council seat turned violent.

Demonstrators also took to the streets in Guangzhou,Chongqing and the southern city of Shenzhen, where two Japanesedepartment stores were vandalized.

Domestic media said 20 million Chinese had signed an onlinepetition opposing the U.N. seat bid.

KICKING A TOYOTA

Many Chinese harbor deep resentment of Japan's wartimeaggression and what they see as its failure to own up toatrocities.

Some protesters wore red signs pasted to their chestsbearing a traditional Chinese dragon and reading "RejectJapanese goods." Others began kicking a Toyota car caught inthe middle of the crowd before it managed to drive away.

"Across the country, the mood to refuse Japanese goods ishigh, but nothing has been done about this. Therefore,patriotic students have organized themselves," said a noticecirculated by e-mail on Friday urging people to protest.

On Saturday, the mostly student protesters carriedsignboards with lists of Japanese brand names crossed out andchanted slogans outside an electronics plaza urging theboycott.

Police guarded the entrance to the electronics plaza tostop demonstrators from pushing inside, and at least 20 policevans stood by to prevent the protest from escalating as thegroup chanted "Rise up, rise up, rise up." (Additionalreporting by Brian Rhoads, Benjamin Kang Lim, Lucy Hornsby, andReuters Television)


Reuters



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