New feuds and old hatreds between neighbours China and Japan were
stirred up yesterday, as tens of thousands of people in China marked the
anniversary of an event that symbolised Japanese aggression and Chinese
humiliation amid an escalating row over strategic turf.
Cities across China from
Guangzhou to Wenzhou and Shanghai saw a fresh wave of protests against Japan's
move to strengthen control by buying the Senkaku islands, even as some Japanese
hit back by landing on the islets or throwing smoke bombs at the Chinese
embassy in Fukuoka, Japan.
China also claims these East
China Sea isles, which it calls Diaoyu.
In Beijing, protests took place
in front of the Japanese embassy for the eighth day in a row since Japan signed
a deal to buy part of the island chain.
Demonstrators, mainly men who
looked to be in their 20s and 30s, pumped their fists, sang the Chinese
national anthem and held up banners with messages like "Little Japan, get
out of Diaoyu Islands!" and "Don't forget 918".
Sirens were sounded at 9:18am
yesterday from north-east Liaoning to south-west Yunnan, as a reminder of the
Manchurian, or Mukden, Incident.
On Sept18, 1931, Japan tried to
blow up a railroad near Mukden - now Shenyang in Liaoning - blaming it on the
Chinese, and used it as an excuse to invade Manchuria, north-east China.
In Beijing, groups walked up and
down Liangmaqiao Road in front of the embassy as police with loudhailers kept
order. "Lower the flag!" some shouted as plastic bottles were hurled
into the diplomatic compound.
Wang Huifang, 74, who had made
her way from adjacent Hebei province to join the protests in the Chinese
capital, said: "We should resolutely smash Japanese imperialism."
Many people in her village died
during the Japanese occupation, she told reporters. "We should bring Japan
to task for its wartime crimes."
In Taiwan, which also lays claim
to the isles and calls them Diaoyutai, activists burnt a Japanese flag outside
the legislature. Taiwanese artist Jay Chou was one of 260 artists, including singer
Faye Wong and actor Chow Yun-Fat, who signed a petition to support China over
the isles spat.
Activists from Taiwan and Hong
Kong are planning to sail to the disputed islands, joining the more than 1,000
fishing ships from provinces like coastal Zhejiang and Fujian that have set off
for the area, according to the Chinese media.
The row has even spilled onto the
badminton courts, with China withdrawing its shuttlers from this week's Japan
Open in Tokyo.
As Sino-Japan ties hit what some
analysts say is the lowest point since both countries normalised relations in
1972, visiting United States Defence Secretary Leon Panetta called for cool
heads.
It is not in any country's
interest to see the spat escalate into conflict and disrupt regional peace and
stability, Panetta said, on his first visit to Beijing as defence chief.
He called for more Sino-US
military exchanges, and said the US would invite China to send a ship to take
part in a major maritime exercise in 2014.
The Straits Times
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