Thousands join anti-Japan protest
BBC News World Edition | April 16, 2005
Thousands of people have taken to the streets of the Chinese city of Shanghai in the latest in a series of anti-Japanese demonstrations. Protesters - shouting anti-Japanese slogans and carrying Chinese flags - surrounded the Japanese consulate throwing stones and other missiles.
Demonstrators also stoned nearby Japanese restaurants.
They are angry at Japan's approval of school textbooks which they say play down Japanese wartime atrocities.
The protests come despite police warnings against holding rallies.
Police in riot helmets kept the crowd from entering the consulate, and have appealed for calm using loud-hailers.
The protesters damaged about 10 restaurants and bars that serve Japanese customers on Huaihai Road, a major shopping street in the Chinese business capital, the Associated Press news agency reported.
The crowd targeted businesses with Japanese signs, even though many are Chinese-owned.
In the eastern city of Hangzhou, about 10,000 people are reported to have taken to the streets.
Increased tensions
On Friday, the authorities in Beijing issued a statement calling on residents not to participate in any unapproved marches, or to do anything to influence social stability.
Chinese officials are wary of a repeat of last weekend's violent protests in Beijing, which angered Tokyo and led to escalating bilateral tensions.
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Japan's decision to approve eight new school textbooks - which critics say gloss over the country's actions before and during World War II - triggered the current protests.
Among the issues causing outrage is the description of the Japanese army's massacre in Nanjing, referred to in the study books as "an incident".
Some 50,000 to 300,000 Chinese people were killed between December 1937 and March 1938 in one of the worst massacres in modern times.
Correspondents said the scale of last week's Beijing disturbances was unusual for China, and indicated tacit official support for the protesters.
In Beijing, a massive security operation is under way to prevent a protest from taking place in Tiananmen Square.
War of words
Hundreds of uniformed police have been seen checking the identities of people trying to get onto the square.
Outside the Japanese embassy too, a massive police presence is in place.
Riot police with helmets and shields line the street, while busloads more are parked in side streets.
In an attempt to defuse the situation, Japan's foreign minister is due in the Chinese capital for talks on Sunday.
"I want the Chinese people to recognise and understand Japan-China relations are being negatively impacted," Nobutaka Machimura told reporters on Friday.
Japan has urged its nationals in China to keep a low profile.
"Please be fully careful to secure your own safety," the consulate-general of Japan in Shanghai said in a statement.
The rallies triggered a war of words between China and Japan, with Tokyo demanding an apology and compensation for the protests, while China told Japan to "face up to history" and admit the suffering caused by its forces before and during World War II.
The protests were also directed at Tokyo's bid for a permanent UN Security Council seat.
On Wednesday, Japan further angered China by issuing drilling rights for oil and gas in a disputed area of the East China Sea.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang called the decision a "serious provocation to the rights of China and the norm of international relations".