Anti-Japan sentiment grows in China over islands dispute

The private sector in China is blasting Japan’s nationalization of the disputed Senkaku Islands, which are called Diaoyu in China.

According to China’s official Xinhua News Agency and the state-run CCTV on Wednesday, the Nanjing Military Region, which covers the East China Sea where the islands are located, conducted fighter jet maneuvering drills day and night Tuesday with Sukhoi Su-27s and other cutting-edge fighter jets waging dogfights with imaginary enemy aircraft.

Wenhui Bao, a pro-Beijing newspaper in Hong Kong, said three other military regions have also conducted drills recently.

Xinhua said Chinese tours of Japan over the eight-day National Day holidays are being canceled en masse, with many blaming the Chinese government for pressuring tourist agencies to do so. Japan’s tourism industry had put high expectations on a business boom over the holidays.

China is also canceling high-level exchanges. The deputy governor of Shandong Province nixed a planned visit to Japan’s Yamaguchi Prefecture Tuesday. The Communist Party of China also postponed its invitation of Japanese government officials.

Chinese nationals living overseas are planning to hold anti-Japan protests. Wu Hui-chiu, chairman of the U.S. Council for the Promotion of China’s Peaceful Reunification, said Chinese organizations in New York and other parts of the U.S. will hold rallies from Sept. 15 through Sept. 18 and send letters of protest to the Japanese Embassy in Washington.

Amid the spread of anti-Japanese sentiment in China, rumors are circulating among the Chinese that the two countries had a naval skirmish. Xinhua denied such rumors as false, but Chinese Internet users are spreading speculation that the Chinese navy prohibited its troops from going on leave.

In a news conference Wednesday, Japanese Foreign Minister Koichiro Gemba made it clear that Japan would not reconsider its purchase of the Senkaku Islands, rejecting China’s demand for the withdrawal of the islands` nationalization plan.

Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara said the Japanese capital will spend 15 billion yen (192.5 million U.S. dollars) raised through public donations to strengthen Japan’s effective control over the islands under the next administration.

China is also taking advantage of the territorial dispute with Japan to approach Taiwan. Renmin Ribao (People`s Daily) , the daily of the Communist Party of China, said Fan Liqing, spokeswoman of the Taiwan Affairs Office of China`s State Council, stressed collaboration with Taiwan over the Senkaku Islands. “Brothers quarrelling at home join forces against attacks from outside,” she was quoted as saying.

Lin Tsung-hsien, commissioner of Taiwan’s Yilan County whose administrative area includes Senkaku, urged Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou to go to the islands to declare Taiwan’s sovereignty.

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