China warned the public against staging fresh protests when Japanese Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura visits this weekend in an attempt to head off a repeat of last week's violent anti-Japanese demonstrations.
Thousands took part in protests in at least four Chinese cities last Saturday and Sunday, and Internet chatrooms, e-mails and mobile phone messages have been urging people to join a new round of protests in cities across China this weekend.
Foreign missions, wary of possible violence after demonstrators threw rocks and eggs at Japanese diplomatic missions and attacked Japanese businesses last week cautioned their citizens about new protests.
PHOTO: AFP
The demonstrations, triggered by what many see as Japan's failure to own up to World War II atrocities, come at a time that Japan is seeking a permanent seat on the UN Security Council, a move that China firmly opposes.
While last weekend's protests appeared to have had tacit state approval, the government appealed to demonstrators to avoid "extreme activities" and yesterday Beijing police warned against "unapproved or harmful" activities.
"Any assemblies, protests and demonstrations should be approved by the public security organ," the China News Service quoted a Beijing police spokesman as saying.
Unapproved and harmful activities were "illegal" and would be punished, it said.
For its part, Japan pledged not to let a series of disputes with China hinder their broader relationship.
"We must deepen mutual understanding and trust through dialogue and not allow individual issues to become an obstacle to the development of the overall Japan-China relationship," the Japanese Foreign Ministry said in an annual diplomatic report.
Machimura flies to Beijing tomorrow to meet Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing (
Tokyo, through the Japanese chamber of commerce in China, warned Japanese firms to be on guard against possible protests. Japanese diplomatic missions in China have also cautioned Japanese in China about the protests, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda said.
"It seems the Chinese side is making various efforts. I would like to monitor the situation," Hosoda told reporters.
The Foreign Ministry in Tokyo, meanwhile, issued an annual report that accused China of threatening Japanese security in a series of incidents including illegal prospecting for oil in Japan's exclusive economic zone and an incursion into Japan's territorial waters.
The report cited China's undersea resource explorations in disputed waters in the East China Sea and an incursion by a Chinese nuclear submarine in those waters last year, calling them "serious problems that threatened Japan's national security, sovereignty and other rights."
However, despite such problems, it is important to build trust and understanding through dialogue, the report said.
"Stability in Japan-China relations is crucial for peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific region," the report said. "And we agreed on the need for dialogue despite difference in opinions in specific areas."
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
THUGGISH BEHAVIOR: Encouraging people to report independence supporters is another intimidation tactic that threatens cross-strait peace, the state department said China setting up an online system for reporting “Taiwanese independence” advocates is an “irresponsible and reprehensible” act, a US government spokesperson said on Friday. “China’s call for private individuals to report on alleged ‘persecution or suppression’ by supposed ‘Taiwan independence henchmen and accomplices’ is irresponsible and reprehensible,” an unnamed US Department of State spokesperson told the Central News Agency in an e-mail. The move is part of Beijing’s “intimidation campaign” against Taiwan and its supporters, and is “threatening free speech around the world, destabilizing the Indo-Pacific region, and deliberately eroding the cross-strait status quo,” the spokesperson said. The Chinese Communist Party’s “threats
RSS