Violent anti-Japanese demonstration in Beijing, China

RockLee · 10 Apr 2005

Anti-Japanese protestaction in Beijing,China

中国・北京で大規模反日デモ中国側「遺憾の意を表明する」

中国・北京で９日に行われた反日デモの参加者は、１万人を超えた。日本大使館に石が投げられたほか、日本料理店が襲われたり大使の住む公邸が群集に取り囲まれるなど、一部が暴徒化する事態にまで発展した。

反日デモは、北京の北西にある中関村で、パソコン関連機器など日本製品を多数扱う大型店の前で始まった。日本製品の不買運動や、日本の国連安保理常任理事国入り反対の訴えなどが続く中、参加者は時間とともに増え続け、約２０キロ離れた北京中心部にある日本大使館を目指して行進が進むうち、１万人以上に膨れ上がった。

日本大使館前に到着すると、デモ隊の一部は持っていたペットボトルや石を大使館目がけて投げ始め、窓ガラス２０枚が割れる被害が出た。しかし、デモ隊の抗議先は日本大使館だけにとどまらず、大使公邸にも押し寄せ、警官隊ともみ合いになった。

さらに夜になって、日本製の車がひっくり返されて壊されたり、北京市内にある日本料理屋が相次いで襲撃を受けた。中国人が経営する日本料理店は営業中にデモ隊の襲撃を受け、窓ガラスが割られたり、厨房の中も破壊されて営業ができない状況に追い込まれた。

こうした事態を受けて、阿南大使は中国外務省に対して強く抗議したが、中国側は「政府として投石は容認できず、心からお見舞いと遺憾の意を表明する」と答えた。しかし、中国政府が投入した警備陣は、投石行為を見ていながら一切止めようとせず、黙認していた。

今回の破壊行動はデモ隊の一部が暴徒化した結果とはいえ、歴史問題や資源開発などをめぐってぎくしゃくした関係が続く日本と中国にとっては、さらなる関係悪化を招く要因となることは避けられない。

When I read this and saw the video, I got scared as hell for my Japanese friend who lives in Beijing now...This isn't really something I expected from the Chinese ☝ I hope this won't bring many consequences!! I'm afraid anything would happen to her...

url for watching online videoclip : Yahoo!ニュース

http://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/videonews/nnn/20050410/20050410-00000005-nnn-int.html

If time can talk... · 10 Apr 2005

I can't speak Japanese and can't understand the article clearly.But from the words which are same as Chinese,I think I get it.I suppose what it reported is true.I know such action is because of history as well as Japanese government's current diplomacy,and yeah,as well as Chinese newspapers and TV programmes.
As a Chinese,I love my country,and I love my people.I know what they were suffered by Japan in old times,I know even now some ( or most ) of them are still looked down upon by Japanese just because they are Chinese.
But I still don't like this kind of action.The fault belongs to the government,not the Japanese people.And can we say that China has no fault???I know it has,and you know too.Just because it's our motherland,so we somehow forget this point,and then misunderstanding between the 2 cocuntries deepened.
I feel sorry for Chinese people in this matter.

And I'm sorry for those Japanese.

ArmandV · 10 Apr 2005

I personally seriously doubt that these protests aren't sanctioned by the Chinese government.

But here's the Reuter's article on the protests:

https://web.archive.org/web/20050412011558/http://reuters.myway.com/article/20050409/2005-04-09T130019Z_01_PEK199815_RTRIDST_0_NEWS-CHINA-JAPAN-DC.html

Maciamo · 10 Apr 2005

Reuters said:
Anti-Japanese sentiment has been running high in China since Tuesday Japan when approved a textbook critics say whitewashes atrocities committed during World War II, and many Chinese feel the country has not owned up to its wartime aggression.

This is why I am writing articles to warn the Japanese people that their government is not doing a good job with both the diplomacy and education system. If they do not follow my advice, things like this are bound to intensify in the future - and not just in China.

ArmandV · 10 Apr 2005

Maciamo said:
This is why I am writing articles to warn the Japanese people that their government is not doing a good job with both the diplomacy and education system. If they do not follow my advice, things like this are bound to intensify in the future - and not just in China.

I agree. They should bite the bullet and own up that their past history wasn't always pretty. They should also acknowledge that the past will never be repeated.

shiroma · 10 Apr 2005

Stones, Bottles Strewn in the Japan Embassy Compound in Beijing

Members of the press entered the compound after the Chinese government refused the Japanese Embassy's request to allow a larger group of reporters inside, citing security reasons.

Because freedom of the press does not exist there, look how People's Daily reports it:

People's Daily Online -- People stage anti-Japanese demonstration in Beijing

Complete with hate crime:

2 Japanese Students Beaten at Shanghai Restaurant

KYODO NEWS

They seem to be a little too ahead, street demo in Shanghai supposedly taken place on May 4th.

pipokun · 10 Apr 2005

Really hope that the innocent mobs would transform into the future democratic movements there.

Too optimistic?

alexriversan · 10 Apr 2005

i do not see WHO threw the stones at WHAT and WHY exactly.

just the trial to label people by nationality.

it would be helpful to write down WHO burns WHAT.

and i can remember the U.S.A. presidential election: american kids burned a picture of bush, after kerry lost the election. in this case, it was obvious, WHO burned WHAT and WHY.

it was on T.V. they were looking evil, very scary.

Wang · 10 Apr 2005

The anti-Japan protests in China are not only because of the history textbooks etcetera, but the Chinese Communist Party allows these anti-Japan protests as a methode for the population to let out their frustrations about the oppression, lack of human rights, corruption, injustice that is happening in China. It is also used to divert the attention of problems within China to other external issues.
That is why the Communist Party allows anti-Japan protests, but not anti-Communist Party protests.

Maciamo · 10 Apr 2005

Wang said:
The anti-Japan protests in China are not only because of the history textbooks etcetera, but the Chinese Communist Party allows these anti-Japan protests as a methode for the population to let out their frustrations about the oppression, lack of human rights, corruption, injustice that is happening in China. It is also used to divert the attention of problems within China to other external issues.
That is why the Communist Party allows anti-Japan protests, but not anti-Communist Party protests.

That is correct. And China has been allowing its citizens to chanel their frustrations about the country's government toward the outside for hundreds of years. It's the way they do things. That is why I am not very optimistic about China getting weapons from other, more technologically advanced countries. If China goes to war with any other country, many Chinese people will let out their accumulated frustration in this war, let the Nazi against the Jews and the Japanese against their neighbours in WWII. The difference being that China is more populous than all the rest of East Asia combined, or all the American continent. And the Chinese regime more repressive than the German or Japanese one in the 1930's.

Maciamo · 11 Apr 2005

Here is more news : BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | China's anti-Japan rallies spread

Anti-Japanese protests have erupted in China for the second day running, spreading from Beijing to the southern province of Guangdong.
...
At least 3,000 people demonstrated at the Japanese consulate in the southern city of Guangzhou on Sunday, shouting for a boycott of Japanese goods and burning Japanese flags.
...
The protests were sparked by new Japanese schoolbooks, which many Chinese say whitewashed Japan's occupation of much of China during the 1930s and early 1940s.

Critics are angered that one of the books refers to the killing of more than 250,000 civilians by Japanese troops in the Chinese city of Nanjing in 1937 as an "incident", rather than the "massacre" it is known as elsewhere.

They also say it glosses over the mass sex slavery of Asian women by Japanese troops.
Anti-Japanese sentiment has also been fuelled by Japan's campaign for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council.

Many Chinese feel Japan has not yet addressed its wartime history, and as such is not fit to take up such a position of responsibility, says the BBC's Rupert Wingfield-Hayes in Beijing.

Fair enough.

Tokyo says private companies, not the government, were responsible for the texts, and that it is up to individual school districts to decide which books they use.

That is a blatant lie, as 1) the Ministry of Education approved the books, and 2) Japanese schools/teachers do not have much choice regarding the use of textbooks. They must be approved by the Ministry of Education, and as far as I know all history textbooks in Japan suffer from the same problem.

RockLee · 11 Apr 2005

Well, to admit your country has done horrible things is something the Japanese can't do that easily because of PRIDE maybe :? And I don't think the Chinese would be satisfied from one day on another even if the Japanese did appologize.

Lina Inverse · 11 Apr 2005

ArmandV said:
I personally seriously doubt that these protests aren't sanctioned by the Chinese government.

Yes, it's highly probable that this attack at the Japanese embassy was sanctioned by the government
Normally any sort of demonstrations in China are forcefully disbanded before the can reach even a tenth the size this one had, using whatever means neccessary and not hesitating one moment to even use lethal force (as with the Tian Men massacre).
However, not only a huge mob of over 10,000 could assemble, but also they could throw bricks, stones and whatnot at the Japanese embassy and Japanese restaurants without the police undertaking even the slightest try at disbanding the masses
Seems very much that the police was ordered to not disturb the demonstration too much and only prevent it from getting totally out of control.

Hiroshi66 · 11 Apr 2005

Yay... we're getting a good glimpse of pre-Japanese China in the late 1920s and early 1930s.. I can't believe the government is sanctioning such atrocities which if expanded and made more brutal could be considered genocide. You would never see anything like this in the ROC.. and yet the PRC calls themselves the "real" China.

RockLee · 11 Apr 2005

反日デモ地方にも上海では日本人学生が殴られ負傷
北京で9日、1万人が参加して行われた反日デモは、中国各地に飛び火し、日本人が殴られて負傷する事件まで起きています。

このうち、中国南部の深センでは中心部で、およそ1万人が反日デモに参加したほか、広州でも3000人がデモを行い、日系の飲食店などに被害が出ました。また、9日夜には上海市内の飲食店で、日本人留学生2人が日本人であることを理由にビールのジョッキや灰皿で殴られましたが、2人は軽傷だということです。日本の国連安保理常任理事国入り反対などを叫ぶ反日抗議デモは北京から地方へと拡大しています。

http://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/videonews/ann/20050410/20050410-00000021-ann-int.html

The whole thing what amazes me the most is that the police doesn't do anything!! They just let the people throw stones etc. when will this madness and strife between Japan and China end ?

alexriversan · 11 Apr 2005

why goto the thirties (without talking about the twenties btw.)?
since vietnam it is known that war is not desireable.

would it be difficult for japanese book-company to admit japan has commited undesireable action?

shiroma · 11 Apr 2005

Lina Inverse said:
ArmandV said:

I personally seriously doubt that these protests aren't sanctioned by the Chinese government.

Click to expand...

Yes, it's highly probable that this attack at the Japanese embassy was sanctioned by the government

RockLee said:
The whole thing what amazes me the most is that the police doesn't do anything!!

NHK News says

China's Foreign Ministry Emphasizes Government Not Involved in Demonstrations

A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman says some people frustrated with Japan's attitude toward history conducted the anti-Japan demonstrations in Beijing on Saturday on their own initiative.

The state-run Xinhua news agency quoted on Sunday remarks spokesman Qin Gang made to reporters that emphasized no involvement of the Chinese government in the demonstrations.

Mr Qin said the some people in Beijing organized the demonstrations themselves against the recent attitude and conduct of Japan as regards the issue of its history of aggression.

The spokesman added that the Chinese government demanded that the demonstrators keep calm and act rationally and show lawful and orderly attitudes in expressing their stance and not to engage in excessive action.

Mr Qin explained that the Chinese authorities mobilized many police officers to ensure security at the Japanese Embassy and safety of Japanese nationals in China.

Sounds like one of typical CCP comments.

Elizabeth · 11 Apr 2005

would it be difficult for japanese book-company to admit japan has commited undesireable action?

Since those books tend not to be as popular with the local education boards that select them for each district. The nationalistic content is down in some areas and up in others...but most if not all of these texts have been around since 1997 or 2001....I really can't think of it as the driving force behind this latest unrest.

Hiroshi66 · 11 Apr 2005

Why go in the 30's? I haven't seen anti Japanese violence in China of this calibre since the 1930's. There are hardly any Japanese in Vietnam.

bossel · 11 Apr 2005

Hiroshi66 said:
Yay... we're getting a good glimpse of pre-Japanese China in the late 1920s and early 1930s..

Nope. The central government of that time was largely dependent on the warlords in different parts of the country, unlike today. The CCP still has almost complete control.

I can't believe the government is sanctioning such atrocities which if expanded and made more brutal could be considered genocide.

That's a bit over the top, just like Maciamo saying that China now is "more repressive than the German or Japanese one in the 1930's". That's simply not true. Germany in the 30s was much worse.

TuskCracker · 11 Apr 2005

Comment; Anti-Japanese Protests Continue in China

.
What does the younger generation in Japan think of all this (born after, say 1970) ?

Is it just this recent "Japanese junior high school textbooks", or is their more at play here ?

This seems odd, for me, for someone living on Eastern United States !

From the New-York-Times this sunday

Anti-Japanese Protests Continue in China
By NORIMITSU ONISHI
Published: April 10, 2005
TOKYO, April 10 - Japan lodged a formal protest against China today following violent, anti-Japanese demonstrations in Beijing, even as marches that focused on Japanese government offices and businesses widened to southern China.

,,, on and on,,,,

Hiroshi66 · 11 Apr 2005

Bossel ~ After 1926, Chiang Kai Shek and the KMT re-unified all of China excluding Manchuria. Though revolts occured - Chiang was in absolute power in the 1930s after the Northern Expedition - even though there were only a few cities which were successful. As for the repression of Germany and Japan - Japan was a state ruled by the military and thus was to be authoritarian. Nonetheless - Japan was not brutalized by repression. Nazi Germany was. The PRC was. Democratic Kampuchea was. I think its useless to try to weigh repressive countries against each other because each repressive government has its own atrocities. The Germans had their concentration camps and expansion - the Khmer Rouge of Kampuchea have their evacuation efforts, etc. Which one is more brutal? For Germans - they would think the Nazi period was. For Cambodians - they would think the KR period was.

Elizabeth · 11 Apr 2005

That's a bit over the top, just like Maciamo saying that China now is "more repressive than the German or Japanese one in the 1930's". That's simply not true. Germany in the 30s was much worse.

Atrocities meaning Japanese restaurants in China having their front glass shattered or the embassy getting a brick through its window ? :?

shiroma · 11 Apr 2005

Hiroshi66 said:
Yay... we're getting a good glimpse of pre-Japanese China in the late 1920s and early 1930s..

Yes very good point, history is repeating itself.

For instance, some similarities in motives could be found when studying about the Boxer Rebellion.

The ongoing boycott of Japanese products (info here) has happened before, nine times namely in 1908, 1909, 1915, 1919, 1923, 1925, 1927, 1928 and 1931.

And what is likely to follow, murder of Japanese residents by Chinese, has happened too. It was on Jul. 29 1937 in Tōngzhōu, only a couple of hundreds Japanese were killed, so it is more appropreate to call it "incident" rather than massacre. Still a good idea not to "whitewash the history."

Hiroshi66 · 11 Apr 2005

Yeah - and let's hope that a world war does not follow. Elizabeth, if you read my post correctly, you would see that I said if things become more brutal and illustrated, there could occur atrocities which could be considered a massacre of Japanese or, if really brutal, a genocide.

Violent anti-Japanese demonstration in Beijing, China

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