Chinese attack Japanese targets in Beijing

Thousands of Chinese smashed windows and threw rocks at the Japanese embassy and ambassador's residence in Beijing yesterday in a protest against Japan's wartime past and its bid for a UN Security Council seat.

Protesters pushed their way through a paramilitary police cordon to the gates of the ambassador's residence, throwing stones and water bottles and shouting "Japanese pig come out".

Some 500 paramilitary police holding plastic shields raced into the compound and barricaded the gates. "Chinese people shouldn't protect Japanese," the protesters shouted.

Many Chinese harbour deep resentment of Japan's wartime aggression.

Demonstrators, who said they had been organised mostly through e-mail and instant messaging, had been marching peacefully under heavy police guard.

One group began throwing bottles and stones when they passed a Japanese restaurant, smashing windows with tiles they had ripped from its roof before police stopped them. A second restaurant was targeted later in the evening, with rocks thrown through the window, terrifying kimono-clad waitresses.

"We are all Chinese in here and were just minding our own business," one told Reuters after the attack. "This is terrifying."

Protesters also attacked a Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi branch and smashed windows before police moved in.

Another group outside the embassy in southeast Beijing threw stones and plastic water bottles smashing windows in the compound. Some demonstrators scuffled with police.

The violence prompted an official protest in Tokyo by Japanese Vice Foreign Minister Shotaro Yachi who asked Chinese Minister to Japan Cheng Yonghua to strengthen security.

At 9.30 p.m. (1330 GMT), the main remaining crowd of about 1,000 protesters was turned away from marching towards the political heart of Beijing, Tiananmen Square, where a pro-democracy student protest was crushed with massive loss of life on June 4, 1989.

The crowd, singing and chanting, was turned instead back towards the Japanese embassy which was guarded by a line of city police and behind them five lines of riot police with shields.

The demonstration started in the Beijing neighbourhood of Zhongguancun, known for its electronics shops and home to a large student population, and comes less than a week after anti-Japanese protests in other Chinese cities turned violent.

"Japan doesn't face up to its history," said Cheng Lei, a 27-year-old information technology professional. "We want to express our feelings so the Japanese government knows what we think."

The official Xinhua news agency put the number of protesters early in the day at more than 10,000.

Some protesters wore red signs pasted to their chests bearing a traditional Chinese dragon and reading "Reject Japanese goods". Others began kicking a Toyota car caught in the middle of the crowd before it managed to drive away.

China has overtaken the United States to become Japan's biggest trading partner, with about $178 billion in trade in 2004.