From The Financial Times:

China’s internet-led campaign against Japan gaining a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council has begun to target the Beijing government itself because of anger over its failure to oppose openly Tokyo’s bid.

Chinese websites have by their own count collected 22m signatures against Japan’s UN ambitions in a campaign that has so far been sanctioned by a government sensitive to any form of political protest outside of its control.

The campaign spread from the screen to the streets yesterday, with a 10,000-strong crowd reportedly massing outside a Japanese-owned department store in Chengdu, a main city in western China.