CHINA: China refused to apologise to Japan's foreign minister yesterday for three successive weekends of violent anti-Japanese protests involving attacks on diplomatic missions and vandalism of Japanese property.
Japan's foreign minister Nobutaka Machimura came to Beijing to seek an apology for the protests, but his Chinese counterpart Li Zhaoxing said China had nothing to be sorry for.
"The Chinese people have never done anything that wronged the Japanese people," Mr Li told his Japanese counterpart. Mr Machimura said the Japanese people were deeply shocked by the protests.
The foreign ministry said Mr Machimura had requested a summit meeting between Japan's prime minister, Junichiro Koizumi, and China's president, Hu Jintao, but there had been no response from the Chinese side.
Relations between the two Asian powerhouses have always been tense, despite strong economic ties - the two countries have not met for top-level talks since 1999.
Tens of thousands of Chinese demonstrators, angry at what they see as Japan's failure to atone for wartime atrocities, took to the streets again at the weekend. In Shanghai police stood by as around 20,000 rioters smashed windows at the Japanese consulate, wrecked Japanese noodle restaurants and vandalised Nissan and Toyota cars.
The same thing happened in the capital Beijing last weekend, where windows were broken at the embassy.
"It's possible that Japan-China relations as a whole, including on the economic front, could decline to a serious state," said Mr Machimura before he left for the talks.
The riots have also raised questions about domestic security in Beijing, which will host the Olympic Games in 2008, and in China as a whole.
These protests are more remarkable because popular dissent is not tolerated in China. Any displays of public disobedience are swiftly dealt with, especially since the pro-democracy protests in the spring of 1989, which ended in a bloody crackdown in Tiananmen Square. Security was tight around the square this weekend.
There have been strong rumours that the protests have taken place with the tacit approval of the government. However, their scale seems to have taken it by surprise. Last week it called for calm, worried that the riots might encourage others to take to the streets to demonstrate against corruption or demand political reforms. A front-page editorial in the Communist Party newspaper People's Daily yesterday called for the people to "maintain social stability".
In the southern boomtowns of Shenzhen and Guangzhou, thousands of protesters called for a boycott of Japanese goods. There were also demonstrations in Hangzhou, Dongguan, Shenyang, Zhuhai and the Sichuanese city of Chengdu, and rallies in Hong Kong.
A key issue has been the publication of a new Japanese history textbook which Chinese and other Asian victims of the Japanese army during the second World War say plays down the atrocities committed by the Japanese.
Many Chinese believe Japan has never truly shown remorse for atrocities committed during its invasion and occupation of China from 1931 to 1945.
Anti-Japanese sentiment is widespread among people you talk to on the street, largely whipped up by coverage of the textbook's publication in the Chinese media.
There has also been outrage at Tokyo's plans to exploit gas resources in disputed seas and its campaign for a seat on the UN Security Council.