Japan does what even the US fears to do, take on China

Beijing: Chinese authorities sought on Friday to forestall anti-Japanese protests ahead of a sensitive political anniversary, blocking the websites of Chinese nationalist groups and erasing discussion of organizing demonstrations from the Internet.

In this Sept. 7, 2010 file photo released by Japan Coast Guard, a Japan Coast Guard boat, foreground, goes by a Chinese fishing boat which Japan Coast Guard officers are on board for inspection after it collided with two Japanese patrol vessels near a chain of disputed islands known as Senkaku in the East China Sea. China increased pressure on Tokyo on Sunday by warning it to make a "wise" resolution and immediately release the Chinese fishermen and their boat detained after it collided with two Japanese patrol vessels near disputed islands east of Taiwan.

Ever-present anti-Japanese sentiment in China has been inflamed in recent weeks by Japan's arrest of a Chinese fishing boat captain after his boat collided with two Japanese fishing vessels in waters near an island group north of Taiwan that is claimed by both Tokyo and Beijing. China has demanded the release of the captain. The Chinese boat was also seized.
On Friday, the website of the China Federation for Defending Diaoyutai was offline, and messages about organizing protests over the incident were scrubbed from Internet bulletin boards. Diaoyutai is the Chinese name for the disputed islands, referred to by Japan as Senkaku.

In this photo released by Japan Coast Guard, a Chinese fishing boat is inspected by Japan Coast Guard officials after it collided with two Japanese patrol vessels near a chain of disputed islands known as Senkaku in Japanese and Diaoyu in Chinese in the East China Sea.

Federation organizer Li Nan said he did not know who was responsible for the website's takedown, although Chinese authorities tightly monitor the Internet and regularly censor content deemed subversive. "There are rumours that our federation is organizing a protest. Actually we are not. And we issued a statement denying it," Li said.
Before being taken offline, the federation's website had posted a statement condemning Japanese media reports of alleged protests planned for Saturday -- an apparent attempt to distance itself from any actions frowned on by the government in Beijing.

In this photo released by China's Xinhua News Agency, a detained Chinese fishing trawler is flanked by two Japanese Coast Guard vessels during an investigation by Japanese authorities near Ishigaki Island in Okinawa Prefecture of Japan. China's top foreign policy official increased pressure on Japan on Sunday by summoning its ambassador to again demand the immediate release of the Chinese fishermen and their boat detained near disputed islands.

Saturday marks the anniversary of the 1931 "Mukden Incident" that led to the Japanese occupation of China's northeast and eventually the brutal invasion and conquest of much of the country. The date has in the past been marked by official commemorations and scattered anti-Japanese protests in China, especially at times when nationalist sentiments are running high.
While China's ruling Communist Party partly encourages anti-Japanese sentiment to burnish its nationalist credentials, it remains obsessed with social stability and suspicious of any independent movement that could spin out of control and challenge its authority. Permission to hold protests is rarely given, and when it is, the demonstrations are always small in scale and carefully stage managed.

Despite the censorship, messages urging people to gather at central Shanghai's People's Square on Saturday morning popped up occasionally on city message boards, though they were quickly deleted. Shanghai police said they had not received any protest applications.
One man, who earlier posted his phone number to the China Federation's website, said he planned to lead a group of seven or eight protesters to the Japanese consulate in Shanghai. The man, who would give only his surname, Shen, declined to say whether officials had warned him against protesting, but said he knew of some activists who had been contacted by authorities. He refused to give other details.

In this file photo, Zhan Qixiong, centre, the 41-year-old Chinese captain of a Chinese fishing boat, is led by Japan Coast Guard personnel to disembark from a coast guard boat at a port on Ishigaki island, south-western Japan. Japan freed 14 crew members of a Chinese ship on Sept. 13, nearly a week after their vessel collided with two Japanese patrol boats near disputed southern islets, but kept the captain in custody in a case that has angered China.

Some complained about the apparent clampdown on protests. "What's wrong with the anti-Japanese emotion? It's also an expression of people's will. When popular support is desired, they praise public sentiment, but when the people go against Japan, they say its too radical and want to impose control," said one posting on the Phoenix Satellite television website, signed "Xingyang."
Meanwhile, in Chinese-administered Hong Kong, which operates under its own legal system, 10 people marched from a nearby post office to the downtown building housing the Japanese consulate demanding the release of the ship's captain.

In this photo released by Japan's 11th Regional Coast Guard Headquarters, a Taiwanese fishing boat sails near Senkaku Islands. The disputed islands are controlled by Japan, but are also claimed by Taiwan and China.

The protesters chanted "Down with Japanese militarism" and "Japan Get out of Diaoyutai!" They left peacefully after delivering a list of their demands to a representative from the consulate. Beijing has stated that the arrest of the fishing captain could damage its relations with Japan and has summoned Japan's ambassador to China, Uichiro Niwa, five times.

In this photo released by Japan's 11th Regional Coast Guard Headquarters, a Taiwanese fishing boat, bottom, is followed by Japanese patrol boats as it sails near Senkaku Islands.

Japanese official Katsuya Okada said on Friday that China had shipped equipment to an offshore platform in a disputed gas field in the East China Sea, Japan's Kyodo News Agency reported. So far, neither China nor Japan has begun extracting gas from the field in keeping with a 2-year-old agreement.
Images - AP