The Hindu : International : Chinese protesters attack Japanese embassy

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Sunday, Apr 10, 2005

International

International

Chinese protesters attack Japanese embassy

A Chinese protester throws a rock at the Japanese embassy in Beijing on Saturday. — AP

BEIJING, APRIL 9. About 1,000 protesters threw rocks and broke windows at the Japanese embassy on Saturday after a noisy march demanding a boycott of Japanese goods to oppose new textbooks that critics say gloss over Tokyo's wartime atrocities.

Protesters shouted ``Boycott Japan!'' as hundreds of police, some with riot helmets and shields, formed a human wall to keep the crowd away from the embassy. Protesters smashed the windows of a guardhouse outside the fenced compound.

The protesters marched to the embassy after a rally by more than 6,000 people in the Chinese capital's northwest university district, where some burned a Japanese flag.

Waving Chinese flags and singing the national anthem, marchers carried signs saying ``Protest new Japanese textbooks,'' a reference to schoolbooks that critics say whitewash wartime aggression against China. Spectators clapped and cheered as the marchers passed.

Call for boycott

The protest was the biggest in the tightly controlled Chinese capital since 1999, when the U.S. embassy was besieged after NATO warplanes bombed Beijing's embassy in Belgrade during the war over Kosovo. ``Boycott Japanese goods!'' the protesters chanted. ``Long live China!''

``I think China should be more firm,'' said protester James Liu (25), an engineer who works for a French company. ``This is a good way to pass our voice to the Government and to the Japanese people.''

Others called for the rejection of Tokyo's campaign for a permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council — a status held now by only China, the United States, Russia, Britain and France. Referring to the Japanese Prime Minister, Junichiro Koizumi, some protesters chanted, ``Koizumi is a dog! Dogs are no good!''

After the rally, some protesters spent hours marching across the Chinese capital to the diplomatic neighbourhood on its east side.

Some tore down a half-dozen advertisements for Japanese-made Canon cameras along the road as they passed.

Police maintained order among the marchers and kept passers by from joining in but didn't try to stop the protesters.

The Government's Xinhua News Agency took the rare step of reporting on the protest. It put the number of demonstrators at more than 10,000.

— AP

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