Posted on 09/15/2012 3:42:36 PM PDT by DeaconBenjamin
Thousands of Chinese besieged the Japanese embassy in Beijing on Saturday, hurling rocks, eggs and bottles as protests broke out in other major cities in China amid growing tension between Asia’s two biggest economies over a group of disputed islands.
Paramilitary police with shields and batons barricaded the embassy, holding back and occasionally fighting with slogan-chanting, flag-waving protesters who at times appeared to be trying to storm the building.
“Return our islands! Japanese devils get out!” some shouted. One of them held up a sign reading: “For the respect of the motherland, we must go to war with Japan.”
Protester Liu Gang, a migrant worker from the southern region of Guangxi, said: “We hate Japan. We’ve always hated Japan. Japan invaded China and killed a lot of Chinese. We will never forget.”
By early evening, police had succeeded in persuading some onlookers and would-be protesters to leave. Rings of anti-riot police stood guard in front of the embassy, apparently readying for a long night.
“I think it’s time for the Chinese government to get tougher. Look at what the ordinary people feel. The government should respond,” said one onlooker who came to protest and who gave his family name as Xue.
“I don’t mean war, but tougher action like sanctions. You can see how much Japan depends on our economy. Then don’t sell them any rare earths,” he said, referring to elements mined in China and key to advanced technologies for the defense, electronics and renewable-energy industries.
Japan said its foreign minister had cut short a visit to Australia and flown back to Tokyo.
The long-standing territorial dispute escalated dramatically on Friday when China sent six surveillance ships to a group of uninhabited islets in the East China Sea, raising tension between the two countries to its highest level since 2010.
China, which has similar disputes elsewhere with other neighbors, was responding to Japan’s decision on Tuesday to buy the islands, which Tokyo calls the Senkaku and Beijing calls the Diaoyu, from a private Japanese owner despite Chinese warnings against doing so.
Sino-Japanese ties have long been plagued by China’s bitter memories of Japan’s military aggression in the 1930s and 1940s and present rivalry over resources - the islands are believed to be surrounded by energy-rich waters - and regional clout.
Relations between the two countries, whose business and trade ties have blossomed in recent years, chilled in 2010, after Japan arrested a Chinese trawler captain whose boat collided with Japanese Coast Guard vessels near the islands.
In Shanghai, streets around the Japanese consulate, in the western part of town, were cordoned off. Hundreds of police let small groups of people in at a time to protest.
China’s official Xinhua news agency said big anti-Japan protests were also held in the Chinese cities of Xian, Changsha, Nanjing and Qingdao. Japanese media reported outbreaks of violence as people attacked Japanese restaurants and businesses.
“Armed police and police officers have been dispatched to protest sites to maintain order,” Xinhua said in an English-language report, the first mention of the unrest by mainstream Chinese media.
Japan’s Kyodo news agency said that the demonstrations were the biggest in China since the two countries normalised diplomatic relations in 1972.
Pictures on China’s popular Twitter-like Sina Weibo showed protests in other, smaller cities, and pictures of looting of shops and destruction of Japanese cars.
There have been sporadic protests around China throughout the week, although those in Beijing had been small and largely peaceful.
The latest dispute flared up last month after Japan detained a group of Chinese activists who had landed on the islands.
Diplomats say Tokyo and Beijing want to keep the row from escalating, but managing the situation can be difficult given that China is undergoing a leadership change, an election is looming in Japan and mutual mistrust runs deep.
China’s ruling Communist Party, which likes to project an image of stability, rarely permits protests to take place. While Beijing is under strong popular pressure to take a tough line with Japan, it will also be cautious not to let the protests spin out of control.
“I think the government is encouraging this,” said one protester, who gave his name as Uda Chen.
“They could have stopped all of us approaching when we were at the subway station. The government has taught us to be anti-Japanese at school, so if they want us to stop it would be like slapping their own mouths,” he added.
The influential Chinese tabloid, the Global Times, published by Communist Party mouthpiece the People’s Daily, said backing off was not an option for China.
“China should be confident about strategically overwhelming Japan,” it wrote, saying the Chinese military should “increase their preparation and intensify their deterrence” against Japan.
“China will not shy away if Japan chooses to resort to its military,” the widely read paper added.
Could there be a secret Sino-AQ alliance?
Lord, have mercy!
the whole world is falling apart under Obama leadership or lack of leadership.
Are they sure someone didn’t make a film mocking Chairman Mao?
Remind me again, why we have outsourced jobs to China?
Are we idiots?
Well, at least we aren’t getting All the rioting. If the CIA is smart they’ll make an anti-Mohammed film using Chinese actors, and send it to the ME with a phony trail leading back to the PRC.
Just damn.
I know there’s one idiot on this thread who thinks that protectionism is a sound economic policy.
At the risk of side-tracking this thread, I started as a balls to the walls free trader.
I have changed my mind.
Now we are simply de-industrializing America.
It does not matter where you start. It’s where you end up that matters.
Nice to see the Smoot/Hawley contingent chime in, tho. People need to be reminded just how silly and dangerous you really are.
There’s some song that says “but if you go carrying pictures of chairman mao you ain’t gonna make it with anyone anyhow.” They want to know who wrote it and they want an apology.
War and rumors of war...
Right back at you.
Smoot/Hawley was foolish when it was done, because back then American made everything.
Now the exact reverse is at play. America imports everything, and we now have a 16 billion trade deficit.
Not sustainable.
At all.
Dear reader’s comment on this new international situation:
< crickets >
There will be wars, and rumors of wars.
This is only the beginning.
Depends what you trade.
We don’t import “everything”. And there is no such thing as a trade deficit. We give them money. They give us stuff. The books balance at the end of the day.
Only childish and fools believe in trade deficits.
After a certain point, no it doesn’t depend on what you trade anymore.
We are past that point.
It is time to bring industrial production back. Back to America.
I see and hear the labor pains... I think there is a “baby” about to be born... I kid not! Prepare your hearts and minds people!
From Wikipedia, for what it’s worth:
“The United States occupied the islands from 1945 to 1972. Both the PRC and Japan indicated their sovereignty claims with respect to the islands to the United Nations Security Council at the time of the US transfer of its administrative powers to Japan. Sovereignty over the islands would give the owner exclusive oil, mineral and fishing rights in surrounding waters. Although the United States does not have an official position on the merits of the competing sovereignty claims, the islands are included within the U.S. Japan Security Treaty meaning that a defense of the islands by Japan may compel support from the United States military.” (reference citations present in the original Wikipedia article “Senkaku Islands Dispute”, but omitted here for clarity).
Note the last sentence in the quote above, and I think it’s pretty clear why the Red Chinese are pressing their claim now, given the dolt we have in the White House.
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