Disputed islands, protests in China
Demonstrations in a hundred cities

BEIJING – Anti-Japanese protests in China have been recorded so far in at least 100 cities, according to Kyodo agency’s developed estimates.

Today marks the 81st anniversary of the “Mukden incident”, which on 18 September 1931 offered imperialist and militarist Japan the pretext for invading Manchuria, which coincides with the hard-won dispute between Tokyo and Beijing on the Senkaku / Diaoyu islands , controlled (and nationalized last week) from Japan and claimed by China and Taiwan
Hundreds of Japanese businesses and restaurants have suspended their activities as a precaution.

In Beijing this morning more than a thousand people approached the Japanese embassy, ​​protected by policemen in riot gear and two-meter-high metal barriers.

Meanwhile, two Japanese have landed this morning on one of the Senkaku islands, in the midst of tensions with China, which are claiming them. The Japanese government spokesman announced today. “Two Japanese have landed on the island of Uotsurijima around 9.30 am” Local time, explained Osamu Fujimira to the press. “The coast guard said they have already left the island,” he added.

Called Senkaku from Japan and Diaoyu from China, these islands of the East China Sea, controlled by Japan, are the cause of the tensions between Tokyo and Beijing, which have been reacquired in recent days.

China, for its part, reserves the right to take “additional measures” in its confrontation with Japan, to which the nationalization of the archipelago is challenged. Chinese Defense Minister Liang Guanglie said today. China is closely following the situation and “we reserve the right to take additional measures,” he said, speaking at a joint press conference with his American counterpart Leon Panetta.

And Toyota, Honda and Nissan, the three major Japanese automobile manufacturers, have stopped (some partially) the production of the plants in China due to the escalation of tension between the two countries. A spokesman for Toyota, AFP reports, said that “worker safety is the number one priority”.

Toyota has three factories in China that employ approximately 26,000 people and produce 800,000 vehicles a year. Nissan has decided to stop the activity in Guangzhou (Guangdong province) and Zhengzhou (henan province) while the plant in Xiangyang (Hubei province) remains active. Honda announced that it has stopped operations in its five plants in China today and tomorrow. Even Panasonic and Canon yesterday announced the shutdown of their plants “for security reasons”.

(September 18, 2012)