Anti-Japan protests erupt in China
UPDATED: Sep 15, 2012 07:25 GMT
Chinese protesters hurled bottles and eggs outside
the Japanese embassy in Beijing on Saturday amid
growing tensions between the two nations over
disputed islands.
The protesters chanted "down with Japanese
imperialism" and called for war as they made their
way down the streets.
Demonstrators, who included children, carried
miniature Chinese flags. Beijing police at the scene
held back the crowds.
Tensions escalated Friday when Chinese maritime
surveillance ships ignored warnings from Japan and
briefly entered waters around the group of islands at
the center of the heated territorial dispute.
The ships arrived near the uninhabited islands --
which Japan calls Senkaku and China calls Diaoyu --
and began patrols and "law enforcement," China's
state-run news agency Xinhua reported.
The islands, situated in the East China Sea between
Okinawa and Taiwan, are under Japanese control, but
China claims they have been a part of its territory for
ages.
The long-running argument over who has sovereignty
has triggered protests in both nations.
The United States,a key ally of Japan, has repeatedly
urged Tokyo and Beijing to resolve the dispute
through dialogue. U.S. Defense Secretary Leon
Panetta will meet with his counterparts in Japan and
China this weekend, the Department of Defense said
Thursday.
Chinese vessels had all left the waters by Friday
afternoon and headed north, the Japanese Coast
Guard said.
Japan said it will intensify patrols of the area.
See a map of Asia's disputed islands
The controversial Chinese move to begin patrols
around the islands follows Japan's purchase of
several of the islands from a private owner this
week. China described the deal as "illegal and
invalid."
Read about China's warning of economic fallout
Animosity between the two countries over the
islands runs deep.
They have come to represent what many Chinese
see as unfinished business: redressing the impact of
the Japanese occupation of large swathes of eastern
China during the 1930s and 1940s.
China says its claim goes back hundreds of years.
Japan says it saw no trace of Chinese control of the
islands in an 1885 survey, so formally recognized
them as Japanese sovereign territory in 1895.
Japan then sold the islands in 1932 to descendants of
the original settlers. The Japanese surrender at the
end of World War II in 1945 only served to cloud the
issue further.
The islands were administered by the U.S. occupation
force after the war. But in 1972, Washington returned
them to Japan as part of its withdrawal from
Okinawa.:::
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