At 6 p.m. yesterday evening, Chinese Vice-President Mr Hu Jintao went on nation-wide television. As he spoke, chunks of concrete were thudding against the walls of the British and American embassies in Beijing for the second day in a row.
But Mr Hu was saying: "We will protect, in accordance with relevant international laws and norms of international relations as well as relevant laws of China, foreign diplomatic organs and personnel, foreign nationals in China and those who have come to China to engage in trade, economic, educational and cultural undertakings."
Meanwhile the American ambassador, Mr James Sasser, was starting his second evening as a prisoner in his embassy as thousands of students outside screamed "Kill Americans!"
The Irish Embassy was evacuated after one of the staff narrowly missed injury from a rock meant for the adjoining US mission.
Mr Sasser expressed "profound sorrow to the people of China" and offered deepest condolences to the families of the innocent victims. On American television last night, he described himself and his staff as hostages of the protesters.
In a phone call from the battered embassy he said "this demonstration is now exceeding government expectations and there's always the danger that it's going to go out of control". Shortly after Mr Hu finished speaking, three members of a BBC television crew were punched and stoned by a mob outside the British embassy and had to be rescued by police.
Mr Hu's words seemed to take effect some time later, however. In the early hours of this morning hundreds of helmeted riot police took up positions outside the paint-splattered US embassy in the first serious move to lift a two-day siege by students enraged by Friday night's NATO bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade.
The China Daily newspaper yesterday named three of the people killed in the bombing as journalists Mr Shao Yunhuan (48) and Mr Xu Xinghu (31), and Mr Xu's wife Ms Zhu Ying (28). It said an Airbus 340 was standing by to bring home the bodies.
Among the tens of thousands of shouting, chanting students who were shepherded past the British and US embassies yesterday, many weeping journalists carried pictures of Mr Shao, who worked for the Xinhua news agency. Other protesters held up black and white targets, and pictures of President Clinton as Hitler. After several incidents of crowds harassing westerners, especially journalists, the US State Department and the British Foreign Office warned their citizens to stay indoors.
The two embassies and the international schools will remain closed today. Earlier, students broke into the US embassy compound and tried to tear down the Stars and Stripes, while a day-long barrage of stones wrecked 10 embassy cars.
The British embassy was pelted non-stop with concrete, rubble and paint in the most violent anti-foreign protests since Red Guards burned down the British embassy during the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution. Students also vented their rage in demonstrations in Shanghai, Lanzhou, Guangzhou, Nanjing, Chengdu, Shenyang and Hong Kong. In the most serious incident, they set fire to the US consul's house in Chengdu. In Guangzhou, factory workers marched past the US consulate chanting "Stop American mad dogs from biting".
In his broadcast, Mr Hu said that the Chinese government "firmly supports and protects, in accordance with the law, all legal protest activities," which should be carried out "in good order and in accordance with law" but he also warned against anarchy.
"We must prevent overreaction and ensure social stability by guarding against some people making use of the opportunities to disrupt the normal public order," he said. A Chinese team led by a foreign ministry official left for Belgrade yesterday to investigate the strike against the embassy, but the official People's Daily said "NATO's chicanery that it did not intentionally target the Chinese embassy could not cover up the bloody facts."