Protesters hold up their national flags at an anti-China rally, attended by about 30 demonstrators, in Tokyo, Tuesday. Anti-Japan protests reignited across China, forcing Japanese firms in the country to suspend operations. — Reuters BEIJING — Old wounds amplified outrage over a burning territorial dispute Tuesday as thousands of Chinese protested Tokyo's 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 week's 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. “We believe we need to declare war on them because the Japanese devils are too evil. Down with little Japan!” said Wang Guoming, a retired soldier and seller of construction materials who said he came to the embassy from Linfen in Shanxi province, 600 km away, to vent his frustration. In another part of the capital, US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta had a lengthy meeting with China's Defense Minister Gen. Liang Guanglie during a three-day trip that US officials have said Panetta will use to press China to seek ways to peacefully resolve its territorial disputes. Liang told Panetta that China was “resolutely opposed” to the islands' inclusion in the terms of a US-Japan mutual defense treaty, and hopes the US 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. Japan's Kyodo News agency reported protests in at least 100 cities, and said people threw bricks and rocks at the Japanese Consulate in Shenyang in China's northeast. However, Shenyang police said by telephone there was no unrest. China's 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 China's 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. Numerous Japanese factories, shops, restaurants and schools in China were closed after some were targeted by looting protesters over the weekend. The China Daily newspaper reported Mazda halted production at its Nanjing factory for four days, Canon closed three factories and gave 20,000 employees two days' paid vacation, and Fast Retailing shut 19 of its Uniqlo clothing store outlets in China. — AP
