Anti-Japan protests break out in China

PROTESTERS in several cities across China marked a politically sensitive anniversary yesterday with anti-Japan chants and banners as authorities tried to stop anger over a diplomatic spat getting out of control.

As some chanted "Wipe out the Japanese devils!" and stamped on Japanese flags, China's foreign ministry called for calm.

Ever-present anti-Japanese sentiment in China has been inflamed in recent weeks by Japan's arrest of a Chinese captain after his fishing boat collided with two Japanese coastguard vessels in waters near an island group claimed by both Tokyo and Beijing.

Japan has returned the boat and its crew but holds the captain while China has demanded his release.

China's ruling Communist Party partly encourages anti-Japanese sentiment to boost its nationalist credentials, but it remains obsessed with social stability and had worked in recent days to keep people from demonstrating yesterday, the anniversary of the brutal Japanese invasion of 1931.

Protests in at least five cities drew crowds of several hundred, but officials' efforts largely succeeded.

Dozens of demonstrators gathered outside the Japanese Embassy in Beijing shouting "Down with Japan" and held signs saying "Get out of the Diaoyu Islands" but were moved away by police within an hour.

They were allowed to pass by in small groups later, while the rest marched outside a police cordon. The disputed islands are known as Diaoyu or Diaoyutai in Chinese and as Senkaku in Japan.

In Shanghai, two men hung a banner outside the Japanese consulate saying "The Diaoyu islands belong to China... return our captain." Police warned them to be careful and eventually ushered people away after a crowd of about 50 gathered.

"We came here to appeal for fairness and for the right to ask for our captain back. We regret the government's weakness in diplomacy," said one of the men, Li Chunguang. He wore a T-shirt showing revolutionary leader Mao Tse Tung.

In the southern city of Shenzhen, several hundred people gathered at a public square to call for a boycott of Japanese goods and sing the Chinese national anthem.

Hong Kong's cable TV showed a police officer trying to grab a Chinese flag displayed by protesters. Several hundred people protested without interference outside the Japanese consulate and a Japanese department store in Hong Kong, which enjoys Western-style civil liberties as a semi-autonomous territory.

Opposition legislator Albert Ho criticised the mainland Chinese government for trying to curb demonstrations.

"We are sad to see many of our compatriots in mainland China are being silenced," he said.

Saturday marked the anniversary of the 1931 Mukden Incident that led to the Japanese occupation of China's north-east and eventually the invasion and conquest of Manchuria in which China suffered 35 million casualties.

The date has been marked by official commemorations and scattered protests.