BEIJING: A second day of torrid protests against Japan began in Chinese cities on Sunday, with the government struggling to find a balance between venting public anger and containing violence that could backfire ahead of a delicate leadership succession.
The protests over islands claimed by both countries broke out in Beijing and other cities yesterday, when demonstrators besieged the Japanese embassy, hurling rocks, eggs and bottles, testing cordons of anti-riot police with shields and batons.
In other Chinese cities, demonstrators looted shops and attacked Japanese cars. Protesters also broke into a dozen Japanese-run factories in the eastern city of Qingdao, according to accounts on the Internet and in Japanese media.
The protests, the latest setback in long-troubled relations between Beijing and Tokyo, followed Japan’s decision on Tuesday to buy the disputed islands, which Tokyo calls the Senkaku and Beijing calls the Diaoyu, from a private Japanese owner.
China has called that decision a provocative violation of its sovereignty.
On Sunday morning, a crowd of about 100 protesters resumed marching past the front of the Japanese embassy in Beijing, now guarded by a six-deep cordon of anti-riot police. Some protesters threw water bottles at the building.
‘Japan, get the hell out of China!,’ some yelled in a now-familiar chant.
China’s ruling Communist Party is preoccupied with a leadership turnover, with President Hu Jintao due to step down as party leader at a congress that could open as soon as next month.
While the public indignation against Japan could help to foster unity ahead of the succession, it has also exposed widespread public impatience for a tougher line from Beijing.
Chinese state media responded to the protests by praising ‘rational’ expressions of anger, while also warning that violence could backfire against Beijing.
The territorial dispute escalated on Friday when China sent six surveillance ships to the group of uninhabited islets in the East China Sea. China’s state-run media have issued a torrent of condemnation against Tokyo. (Reuters)