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| Anti-Japan protests reignite across China on occupation anniversary |
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.jpg) BEIJING/TOKYO (Reuters) - Anti-Japan protests reignited across China on Tuesday, the emotional anniversary marking Tokyo's occupation of its giant neighbor, escalating a maritime dispute which has forced major Japanese brand name firms to suspend business there.
Relations between Asia's two biggest economies have faltered badly, with emotions running high on the streets and also out at sea where two Japanese activists landed on an island at the centre of the dispute.
China reacted swiftly to the news of the landing, which risked inflaming a crisis that already ranks as China's worst outbreak of anti-Japan sentiment in decades. Beijing described the landing as provocative, lodged a complaint with Tokyo and said it reserved the right to “take further action”.
“The unlawful landing of the Japanese right-wingers on the Chinese territory of the Diaoyu islands was a gravely provocative action violating Chinese territorial sovereignty,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said in a statement.
The dispute over the uninhabited group of islands in the East China Sea - known as the Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China - led to another day of protests that Japanese expatriates fear could peak later on Tuesday.
Japanese businesses shut hundreds of stores and plants across China and Japan's embassy in Beijing again came under siege by protesters hurling water bottles, waving Chinese flags, and chanting anti-Japan slogans evoking war-time enmity.
“Wipe out all Japanese dogs,” read one banner held aloft by one of thousands of protesters marching on the embassy, which was ringed by riot police standing six rows deep. Japan's foreign ministry said some embassy windows had been smashed.
“Today is our day of shame,” said another Beijing protester, Wei Libing, a waiter in his 40s. “Japan invaded China on this date.”
Tuesday marks Japan's 1931 occupation of parts of mainland China.
Rowdy protests sprang up in other major cities including Shanghai, raising the risk they could get out of hand and backfire on Beijing, which has given tacit approval to them through state media. One Hong Kong newspaper said some protesters in southern Shenzhen had been detained for calling for democracy and human rights.
U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, visiting China to promote stronger Sino-U.S. military ties, again called for calm and restraint. Washington has said it will not take sides, although it is a strong ally of Japan.
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