BEIJING, Sept 18 (AFP) - Waving banners and chanting anti-Japanese slogans, protesters staged rallies in China today to voice anger over the arrest of a Chinese trawler captain which has sparked a major diplomatic row.
“Down with little Japan”, “free our captain” and “remember September 18”, demonstrators shouted in Beijing as sirens rang out to commemorate today’s highly sensitive anniversary of Japan's invasion of Manchuria in 1931.
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| Anti-Japanese protesters shout slogans in Beijing yesterday. AFP |
Beijing is furious about the seizure of a Chinese fishing boat near a disputed island chain in the East China Sea and the subsquent arrest of the captain. Tokyo says he intentionally rammed two Japanese coastguard vessels during a high-seas chase on September 7.
The incident has sparked the worst tensions between the Asian neighbours in years, with Beijing summoning Tokyo's ambassador five times in a week and scrapping scheduled talks over joint energy exploration in the East China Sea. The uninhabited islands -- called Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China, and also claimed by Taiwan -- lie in an area with rich fishing grounds that is also believed to contain oil and gas deposits. |
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