MCLC: 9-18 anniversary fuels protest

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: kirk (denton.2 at osu.edu)
Subject: 9-18 anniversary fuels protest
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I've got an idea that will, of course, never be realized: make the
Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands an international bird sanctuary (they are a
breeding ground for the short-tailed albatross) and ban any exploitation
of their natural resources.

Kirk 

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Source: Washington Post (9/18/12):
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/china-marks-war-anniversar
y-with-more-anti-japan-protests-thousands-march-in-beijing/2012/09/17/d5f11
a06-012e-11e2-bbf0-e33b4ee2f0e8_story.html

Furious China protests mix old anger over Japanese occupation with modern
dispute over islands
By Associated Press

BEIJING ‹ Old wounds amplified outrage over a burning territorial dispute
Tuesday as thousands of Chinese protested Tokyo¹s purchase of islands
claimed by Beijing and marked the 81st anniversary of a Japanese invasion
that China has never forgotten.

China marks every Sept. 18 by blowing sirens to remember a 1931 incident
that Japan used as a pretext to invade Manchuria, setting off a brutal
occupation of China that ended only at the close of World War II.

Demonstrations are not routine, but this year, as Chinese fume over last
week¹s Japanese purchase of long-contested islands in the East China Sea,
they spread across the country.

Outside the Japanese Embassy in Beijing, thousands of protesters shouted
patriotic slogans and demanded boycotts of Japanese goods. Some burned
Japanese flags and threw apples, water bottles and eggs at the embassy,
which was heavily guarded by three layers of paramilitary police and metal
barricades.

³We believe we need to declare war on them because the Japanese devils are
too evil. Down with little Japan!² said Wang Guoming, a retired soldier
and seller of construction materials who said he came to the embassy from
Linfen in Shanxi province, 600 kilometers (400 miles) away, to vent his
frustration.

In another part of the capital, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta had a
lengthy meeting with China¹s national defense minister, Gen. Liang
Guanglie, during a three-day trip that U.S. officials have said Panetta
will use to press China to seek ways to peacefully resolve its territorial
disputes.

Liang told Panetta that China was ³resolutely opposed² to the islands¹
inclusion in the terms of a U.S.-Japan mutual defense treaty, and hopes
the U.S. will honor its commitment to maintain a neutral stance, the
official Xinhua News Agency reported.

Protests also took place in Guangzhou, Wenzhou, Shanghai and other Chinese
cities. Japan¹s Kyodo News agency reported protests in at least 100
cities, and said people threw bricks and rocks at the Japanese Consulate
in Shenyang in China¹s northeast. However, Shenyang police said by
telephone there was no unrest.

China¹s authoritarian government rarely allows protests, and the wave of
anti-Japanese demonstrations clearly received a degree of official
approval.

Many Japanese businesses across China shut their doors as a precaution
following recent protests that turned violent and saw the torching and
looting of Japanese-invested factories and shops.

The nationalist fervor spread to the Internet, where users of the popular
search engine Baidu saw a huge Chinese flag planted on a cartoon image of
the contested islands, which China calls the Diaoyus and Japan calls the
Senkakus. And all members of China¹s elite badminton team, who scored
multiple gold medals in the London Olympics, pulled out of a Japanese
tournament that began Tuesday.

The islands are tiny rock outcroppings that have been a sore point between
China and Japan for decades. Japan has claimed the islands since 1895. The
U.S. took jurisdiction after World War II and turned them over to Japan in
1972.