Chinese protest against Japan in 2 inland cities+

BAOJI/LANZHOU, China, Oct. 24 Kyodo -
Hundreds of Chinese staged anti-Japan protests Sunday in Baoji, Shaanxi
Province, and Lanzhou, Gansu Province, following a protest in Deyang, Sichuan
Province, the previous day.
In a new development, protesters in Baoji carried green banners reading, ''We
oppose corruption in the bureaucracy'' and ''Curb high housing prices,''
underscoring the Chinese people's frustration over widening income gaps and
government corruption.
There was no report of injury or involvement of Japanese nationals in the
demonstrations, according to the Japanese Embassy in Beijing.
Chinese authorities have tightened security in other cities such as Nanjing in
Jiangsu Province and Changsha in Hunan Province where organizers called via the
Internet for anti-Japan rallies Sunday. But no protests were confirmed in any
of these cities as of Sunday evening.
Protesters marched in Baoji, about 150 kilometers west of the provincial
capital Xian, chanting slogans such as ''Boycott Japanese products'' and ''Beat
'small Japan','' using a derogatory term for the country.
Earlier Sunday, several hundred Chinese held a separate demonstration in
Lanzhou, shouting slogans such as ''Boycott Japanese products'' and ''Return
the Diaoyu Islands.''
China calls the Japan-administered Senkaku Islands the Diaoyu.
On Saturday in Deyang, about 100 demonstrators proclaimed China's sovereignty
over the Senkakus in the East China Sea.
The Deyang protest, which drew a crowd of about 1,000 people including
onlookers, was the first since Oct. 18 when protesters gathered in Wuhan in
Hubei Province.
The Japanese Embassy in Beijing has been cautioning Japanese residents in
China, saying anti-Japan movements could happen anywhere in the country.
Despite a series of anti-Japan actions in China, the two governments are
arranging a meeting between Prime Minister Naoto Kan and Premier Wen Jiabao on
the sidelines of regional summits later this month in Vietnam to try to mend
ties soured by an incident in September near the Senkaku Islands.
On Saturday, China called for joint efforts to repair ties. ''We expect Japan
to work with us in joint efforts to maintain and advance strategic relations of
mutual benefits,'' Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu said.
The Senkaku Islands are a group of uninhabited islets in the East China Sea.
They are part of the city of Ishigaki in Japan's Okinawa Prefecture.
Beijing claims the islands have been Chinese territory since ancient times.
==Kyodo
2010-10-24 21:33:40