Associated Press

Shanghai, April 16:

Firms cancel non-essential business trips to China.

Chanting “Japanese pigs get out!”, protesters threw stones and broke windows at Japan’s consulate and Japanese restaurants in Shanghai as tens of thousands of people defied government warnings and staged demonstrations today against Tokyo’s bid for a permanent UN Security Council seat. Protests were reported in two other cities. But Beijing remained calm as police stood guard on Tiananmen Square to block a planned demonstration in the heart of the capital, a day ahead of a visit by Japan’s foreign minister. Paramilitary police surrounded the Japanese Embassy, where protesters smashed windows last weekend. The third weekend of anti-Japanese protests erupted despite government demands for calm. Communist leaders apparently worry that the protests might do more damage to relations with Tokyo, which are at their lowest point in decades, or encourage others to take to the street to protest corruption or demand political reforms.

In Shanghai, as many as 20,000 protesters gathered around the Japanese Consulate. Police in riot helmets kept them away from the building but let protesters throw eggs and rocks. A group of young men broke the windows of a Nissan sedan and flipped it onto its roof. In a nearby street, protesters broke windows at about 10 Japanese-style noodle shops and bars, many of them Chinese-owned. Others broke the windows of a police car, chanting “Kill the Japanese!”, after a rumour spread that a man sitting inside was Japanese. The car drove away before the crowd could grab him. Tensions between Tokyo and Beijing have been fuelled by disagreement over the UN Security Council, gas resources in disputed seas and new Japanese textbooks that critics say minimise Japan’s wartime offenses. A protest march in Hangzhou, southwest of Shanghai, attracted 10,000 people who shouted “slogans condemning Japanese militarism,” the official Xinhua News Agency reported. In Tianjin, east of Beijing, about 2,000 protesters held a peaceful one-hour march.

In Beijing, about 400 police stood guard in Tiananmen Square, stopping passers-by apparently at random to question them. About 200 paramilitary police with riot shields guarded the Japanese Embassy. In Japan, police were investigating an envelope of white powder sent to the Chinese Embassy in Tokyo. Mazda, Suzuki and Toshiba cancelled nonessential business trips to China, while other companies told employees in the country to take safety precautions.

China’s government said it lodged a formal protest with Tokyo following the incident with the envelope. Japan’s foreign minister was preparing to fly to Beijing tomorrow for talks aimed at defusing the tensions. Japan warned its citizens in China about possible danger in advance of the protests. The United States issued a similar warning.