China’s anti-Japanese protests turn violent as islands dispute escalates, Reuters says

TOKYO (TR) – Chinese paramilitary police clashed with thousands of anti-Japanese protesters outside Japan’s embassy in Beijing Saturday amid the ongoing dispute between the two nations over the group of remote islands in the East China Sea claimed by both, Reuters reported.

The row over the uninhabited islets Japan calls the Senkaku Islands and China refers to as Diaoyu escalated last week after the Japanese government announced it was buying the islands it controls from a private citizen and China sent six surveillance ships to the area.

The police forcibly held back the protesters, many of who waved flags, chanted slogans and even threw rocks and bottles at the embassy, Reuters said. Some members of the angry mob may have attempted to gain entry to the compound, it reported.

One demonstrator held up a sign reading: “For the respect of the motherland, we must go to war with Japan,” according to the news agency. It said another protester called for sanctions against Japan, pointing out its dependency on the Chinese economy.

“I think the government is encouraging this,” Reuters cited one of the Chinese protesters as saying, as the ruling Communist Party rarely permits such demonstrations. Similar protests were reported elsewhere in the country, including an attack on a factory run by Panasonic in the eastern city of Qingdao.

Source: Reuters

Posted by Michael Blaskoski on September 16, 2012. Filed under National. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry