China Digital Times

China news tagged with: anti-Japan protests (24)

• Yasukuni issue poses headache for China, too - Naoko Aoki

  

  From The Japan Times:

  While Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi’s latest visit to Yasukuni Shrine throws up yet another obstacle on the road to better Sino-Japanese ties, Chinese leaders are troubled for another reason.

  The shrine visit could trigger large demonstrations similar to the anti-Japanese protests that broke out around China last year — protests that could easily turn against the government.

  “China has been trying to calm the public and avoid protests, or at least minimize” them after Koizumi’s latest visit to the shrine, said Joseph Cheng, a professor at City University of Hong Kong.

  “There is an understanding that protests against Japan could easily turn into protests against the government. Spontaneous activities are seen as dangerous,” Cheng said. [Full Text]

  » Read more
  • August 17, 2006 10:43 PM

• China ‘jails democracy activist’

  

  From BBC NEWS:

  A Chinese democracy activist has reportedly been jailed for 12 years for helping to organise anti-Japanese protests in China earlier this year.

  The wife of Xu Wanping said he had been found guilty of incitement to subvert state power at a closed hearing.

  Mr Xu, 44, was among a number of activists known to have been arrested as a result of the protests in April.

  Demonstrators opposed Japan’s approval of textbooks which they said glossed over wartime atrocities it committed

  » Read more
  • December 25, 2005 10:53 AM

• Anti-Japanese protests pose challenge for China

  

  From ISSN:

  It is not surprising that Chinese President Hu Jintao and his colleagues decided in mid-April to cool down anti-Japanese protests: a body blow has been dealt to China’s reputation as a responsible member of the global community. The fact that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) administration was close to losing control over xenophobic crowds has again alerted Beijing to the reality that nationalism is a double-edged sword. There are also signs that CCP factions not allied with Hu and his sidekick, Premier Wen Jiabao, have used the worsening crisis with Japan to fault the way that the Hu-Wen team has conducted its foreign policy.

  » Read more
  • April 30, 2005 7:01 AM

• Beijing police ban anti-Japan holiday protests

  

  From The Reuters:

  Beijing’s chief of police has warned residents against staging “illegal” anti-Japanese protests during the week-long Labour Day holiday that starts on May 1, domestic media reported on Saturday.

  Ma Zhenchuan, director of the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau, denied Internet rumours that police had approved at least one demonstration in China’s capital during the holiday, the Xinhua news agency said.

  “The police will resolutely punish lawbreakers who organise and instigate illegal demonstrations and those who attempt to take the chance to loot or rob,” Ma was quoted as saying.

  » Read more
  • April 30, 2005 6:55 AM

• Andrew Yeh: Jobs before protests for Chinese workers

  

  From the Financial Times:

  When the daily rhythm of factory work at Wuxi New District winds down, thousands of labourers file out of the rectangular buildings housing the production line of Sharp, the Japanese electronics group, to return to their living quarters…

  For these Chinese workers, the recent wave of anti-Japanese protests across the country and demonstrators’ call for a boycott of Japanese products has been all but irrelevant. They concentrate on keeping their jobs and earning a living.

  » Read more
  • April 28, 2005 8:15 PM

• Mark Magnier: Letting Passions Burn May Backfire on China

  

  From The LA Times: Some protests serve the government’s purposes, but they may be difficult to contain, analysts say.
  
  

  From his cramped studio apartment littered with dirty socks, old Pepsi bottles and instant noodles, Lu Yunfei has whipped up a wave of anti-Japan sentiment across China using little more than a laptop and a high-speed connection.

  Since February, the 30-year-old founder of the Patriots’ Alliance website and his colleagues have collected 3.5 million signatures for a petition to block Tokyo’s bid for a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council. They also object to Japan’s approval of a school textbook that critics say glosses over the nation’s wartime occupation of China and other countries in East Asia.

  » Read more
  • April 25, 2005 10:42 PM

• Li Zongxin: Extreme Behavior is Not Patriotism

  

  Shanghai party newspaper, Jiefang Daily published a letter from Li Zongxin (in Chinese here), translated by Joel Martinsen, via Press Interpreter:

  Jiefang Daily Editorial Office: I am a common citizen living on Loushanguan road, and a loyal reader of your newspaper. I am writing today because I wish to tell you editors a few heartfelt words.

  On April 16th, some people in Shanghai conducted a parade demonstration concerning Japan. The marchers passed by the entrance to our community. At first, we were curious about this parade. We felt that this was a protest against unfriendly attitudes and actions of Japanese rightists, and that it expressed a fervent patriotism. But later on what I saw with my own eyes distressed me somewhat. I saw Japanese restaurants smashed, with shattered glass covering the ground. I had not expected actions of this kind, and I was deeply upset.

  » Read more
  • April 24, 2005 10:35 AM

• Danwei: The Ministry of Public Security talks about anti-Japanese demonstrations

  

  From the Danwei Blog:

  Most leading headlines of today’s newspapers are about announcements from the Ministry of Public Security. The spokesman of the Ministry expressed deep understanding of students’ patriotic passion, but he also suggested the students should not join any demonstrations without official approval, nor send any messages to encourage demonstration by Internet or SMS. The spokesman also said that the students and people should trust that the Communist Party can handle Sino-Japan relations well, and that the students should rather transform their patriotic passion into real action of studying hard and contributing to the country.

  » Read more
  • April 23, 2005 2:07 PM

• Keiko YoshiokaÔºöChinese urged to tread carefully

  

  From asahi.com:

  Opinion leaders and other influential Chinese are starting to caution their countrymen to think twice about ratcheting up anti-Japanese demonstrations by boycotting Japanese products.

  They say the strategy could backfire.

  After all, it is Chinese workers who are earning a living by making products for Japanese firms in China.

  » Read more
  • April 22, 2005 7:24 PM

• Jim Yardley: China to Curb Anti-Japan Protests

  

  From The New York Times:

  China made clear today it would not tolerate more anti-Japanese protests and also urged its citizens not to boycott Japanese products, orchestrating an effort to clamp down on rising nationalist anger.

  In response to three successive weekends of raucous anti-Japanese street demonstrations, the Ministry of Public Security announced that “unauthorized marches” are illegal and warned that the police “would mete out tough blows” to marchers caught vandalizing property.

  Meanwhile, the commerce minister, Bo Xilai, warned that a campaign to boycott Japanese products would hurt both Japan and China and urged citizens not to jeopardize the country’s economic development.

  “We don’t expect the economic and trade relations between the two countries to be infringed upon,” said Mr. Bo, according to the official New China News Agency.

  » Read more
  • April 22, 2005 2:17 PM

• Joseph Kahn: China Is Pushing and Scripting Anti-Japanese Protests

  

  From The New York Times:

  Enraged about Japan’s tendentious textbooks and territorial disputes in the East China Sea, Sun Wei, a college junior, joined thousands of Chinese in a rare legal protest march on the streets of Beijing last weekend.

  Yet the police herded protesters into tight groups, let them take turns throwing rocks, then told them they had “vented their anger” long enough and bused them back to campus.

  “It was partly a real protest and partly a political show,” Mr. Sun said in an interview this week. “I felt a little like a puppet.”

  » Read more
  • April 16, 2005 8:53 AM

• Dan Washburn: Tens of thousands take to the streets of Shanghai

  

  Photos, video clips and more from blogger Dan Washburn’s Shanghai Diaries:

  So, I ended up going to Shanghai’s anti-Japan march this morning anyway. Going against the advice of a Chinese friend who told me the protest would be “very dangerous.” Going against the advice of the American government which warned U.S. citizens that China’s blanket hatred of all things Japanese could mutate into acts of violence toward all things foreign. I picked up the protest near People’s Square at around 9:30 a.m. expecting to see lines of Shanghai police, worrying slightly that my camera could get confiscated, not necessarily because it is a Japanese-made Canon ” although that thought did cross my mind ” but because I figured Shanghai authorities, desperately worried about the image of China’s most international city, would be doing everything in their power to limit the event’s exposure to the outside world.

  » Read more
  • April 16, 2005 8:45 AM

• AP: Japan demands apology from China

  

  From AP, via CNN.com:

  The Japanese government strongly protested on Saturday a new wave of anti-Japan demonstrations in China, saying Beijing should have prevented the violence.

  “Even though information was available beforehand to infer that there would be a demonstration, nothing was done to prevent it … and we strongly protest to the Chinese government,” Japan’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

  It denounced the “destructive and violent actions” of the protesters and called anew for the Chinese government to prevent a recurrence.

  » Read more
  • April 16, 2005 8:15 AM

• Anti-Japan protests flare up in China

  

  From Reuters, via ABC News:

  Shouting “Japanese invaders must die”, thousands protested against Japan’s wartime past in eastern China today, hurling rocks and bottles and burning Japanese flags at Tokyo’s consulate in Shanghai.

  But with thousands of paramilitary police on the streets of Beijing and students warned against protests, authorities headed off a repeat of last weekend’s violent demonstrations in the capital, which hosts Japan’s Foreign Minister on Sunday.

  Police also barred incidents in southern Guangzhou and south-western Chongqing, where thousands marched last weekend.

  Danwei blog has report on the Shanghai event here.

  » Read more
  • April 16, 2005 8:11 AM

• John Ruwitch and Masayuki KitanoÔºöNo Illegal Protests, China Tells Citizens

  

  From Reuters, via Boston.com:

  China warned its people on Friday against staging fresh protests when Japan’s foreign minister visits at the weekend, seeking to head off a repeat of last week’s violent anti-Japanese demonstrations.
  
  Thousands took part in protests in at least four Chinese cities on Saturday and Sunday, and Internet chatrooms, emails and mobile phone messages have been urging people to join a new round of protests in cities across China this weekend.

  Foreign missions, wary of possible violence after demonstrators threw rocks and eggs at Japanese diplomatic missions and attacked some Japanese businesses last week, cautioned their citizens about possible new protests.

  » Read more
  • April 15, 2005 7:10 AM

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