ANTI-JAPANESE PROTESTS ERUPT AGAIN IN SEVERAL CHINESE CITIES
ROC Central News Agency
2005-04-17 19:16:03
Beijing/Hong Kong, April 17 (CNA) Anti-Japanese protests erupted again Sunday as Japan's foreign minister arrived in Beijing, with protesters in many Chinese cities clashing with police.
Witnesses said over 1,000 protesters marched toward Japan's consulate general in Shenyang, northeast China Sunday morning, with some 60 of them breaking through a police cordon and throwing rocks and bricks, and shouting "Go back to Japan!"
The attackers clashed with police, but tensions were reduced as some people yelled "Chinese don't beat Chinese." No arrests were reported, except for several Hong Kong and Japanese media workers who were taken away for questioning and then later released.
Japanese officials based in Beijing said some cars parked inside the Shenyang consular were damaged by the attackers.
Earlier reports said thousands of people, mostly college and university students, were dispersed as they gathered at a shopping mall in Shenyang. Those who were not daunted then marched to Japan's consulate general, where they put up anti-Japanese banners and called on the public to boycott Japanese products.
In southern China, thousands of protesters shouted "Boycott Japanese products" slogans in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province as anti-Japanese protests took place there for the third Sunday in a row.
Holding banners condemning Japan's glossing over of its wartime atrocities in newly published history textbooks, the protesters waved Chinese flags and sang their national anthem as they marched toward Shennan Road, where Japanese-invested department stores were targeted.
Police were seen making way for the protesters while also containing them to "designated areas" for the march. At one point, marchers threw objects at Japanese stores, destroying Japanese signs and trying to demolish advertisements for Japanese products, narrowly escaping clashes with the police.
Anti-riot police with shields and batons were guarding two big Japanese department stores, each two or three meters away from the other to stop protesters from swarming into the stores, whose names were covered for fear of inciting Chinese anger.
Still, the heavy police force failed to prevent windows at a Japanese noodle house from being smashed, witnesses said.
In Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong Province, more than a dozen protesters were chased away by police when they were trying to set up anti-Japanese placards. Police also put up barricades around the city gymnasium and checked people's identity documents to discourage them from gathering.
The police actions apparently did not stop some 10,000 people from marching in the streets shouting anti-Japanese slogans.
In Zhuhai and Dongguan, two other Guangdong cities, protesters, totalling about 1,500 in each city, were seen shouting slogans such as "Boycott Japanese products."
In Dongguan, a Japanese-invested factory was surrounded by over 1,000 protesters, who damaged the factory's doors and windows.
Similar anti-Japanese protests were also reported Sunday in Nanning, Guangxi Province, Chengdu, Sichuan Province, and Shanghai.
In Hong Kong, Japan's Consul General Takanori Kitamura said he is not worried about local protesters as he believes Hong Kong is a multi-cultural society where reason prevails.
Kitamura said he believes the Hong Kong protest will take place peacefully and incidents of attacking Japanese consular offices will not happen in Hong Kong, as they had in China.
Organizers said between 5,000 and 8,000 people will march in Hong Kong streets in protest against Japan later Sunday.
(By Chen-yi Liao, Mandy Wong/S.C. Chang)
ENDITEM/Li
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