CHINA and Japan urged restraint yesterday as nationalist passions in both countries rose over the disputed ownership of a group of uninhabited islands in the East China Sea.
Chinese officials told anti Japanese activists to call off a campaign for military action and to cancel a protest planned for the Japanese embassy in Beijing next Wednesday. In Tokyo, the government urged China, Taiwan and Hong Kong to deal calmly with the territorial dispute over the islands, known to the Chinese - as Diaoyus and to the Japanese as the Senkaku islands.
Tension over the tiny outcrops of rock rose sharply after a Japanese right wing group rebuilt a makeshift lighthouse earlier this week. The aluminium structure, damaged in a typhoon last month, had originally been placed there by right wing Japanese protesters to underline Japanese claims. At stake is ownership of the rich marine life and strategic underseas energy resources in the area.
Tokyo's claim to the islands goes back to 1895 when Japan defeated China and seized Taiwan. China has claimed the islands for centuries. Since it broke away from Communist China in 1949, Taiwan has also claimed the islands, which lie west of the Japanese island of Okinawa and 150 kilometres north of Taiwan.
On Wednesday over 100 Chinese nationalists wrote to Chinese military leaders asking for warships to be sent to the islands to ensure the destruction of the lighthouse. However, despite strong anti Japanese rhetoric from Beijing, the Chinese authorities are trying to keep nationalist passions from boiling over against Japan, its partner in many major economic projects in China.
Daily protests in Hong Kong have also been staged to urge a tougher line from China. Students yesterday burned, a Japanese flag outside the Japanese consulate.
In Taipei, capital of Taiwan, right wing demonstrators burned the Japanese flag and a former convict, Tung Nien tai, threatened to lead an unofficial expedition to blow up the lighthouse.
Tokyo has expelled Taiwan fishing boats from waters near the islands and prevented journalists from going to the area.
China has lodged a strong protest with Japan but has so far resisted taking the matter further.