When the world gets closer.

We help you see farther.

Sign up to our expressly international daily newsletter.

Geopolitics

Violent Beijing Protests Target Japanese Embassy As Island Showdown Escalates

LIBERTY TIMES, UNITED DAILY NEWS (Taiwan), BBC

Worldcrunch

BEIJING- Some 20,000 irate Chinese protesters besieged the Japanese embassy in Beijing on Saturday, venting their anger over the Diaoyu Islands dispute that has created the most combustible conflict between the two Asian powers in memory.

The demonstrators climbed trees, burned the Japanese flag, shouted that the Diaoyu Islands belong to China and threw stones into the embassy compound, reports the Liberty Times daily of Taiwan.

At least a dozen different Chinese cities have witnessed attacks on Japanese citizens and property, reports the BBC. The two countries are in a hardening standoff over who has rights to the group of islands in the East China Sea, known in Japan as the Senkaku Islands.

The demonstrations have been building for five days after Japan announced plans to purchase the islands, in an attempt to effectively nationalize them. Saturday, however, the protests spread around the country, and swelled in the capital, forcing large numbers of Chinese riot police in Beijing to try to push the crowd back from Tokyo's embassy only to be insulted “Are you a Japanese or a Chinese?”, according to the United Daily News of Taiwan. (See video below)

Among other reports of violence was a Japanese car belonging to the police in Shenzhen turned over by protestors; a Japanese-owned supermarket in Qingdao, Shandong Province, looted by a crowd of 3000 people.

Despite the escalating violence -- Beijing hadn't seen such large riots since 1999 when U.S. military planes bombed the Chinese Embassy in Serbia -- no serious injuries were reported.

Beyond the street violence, Saturday morning also saw the websites of the Japanese Supreme Court and the Japanese economic newspaper, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun, hacked into. The newspaper site had “Don’t invade Chinese territory” plastered in Chinese across the main page, according to the NHK television news relayed by Liberty Times. “This is the biggest Sino-Japanese diplomatic crisis since 1972” the Japanese media declared.

So far, the Chinese media are playing down this news and there is no specific mention of the attack on the embassy. All reports have come from Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singaporean news sources.

You've reached your limit of free articles.

To read the full story, start your free trial today.

Get unlimited access. Cancel anytime.

Exclusive coverage from the world's top sources, in English for the first time.

Insights from the widest range of perspectives, languages and countries.

LGBTQ Plus

Why Is Homophobia In Africa So Widespread?

Uganda's new law that calls for life imprisonment for gay sex is part of a wider crackdown against LGBTQ+ rights that is particularly harsh on the African continent.

Photo of LGBTQ Ugandan group

LGBTQ group in Uganda

Pierre Haski

-Analysis-

Uganda has just passed a law that allows for life imprisonment for same-sex sexual relations, punishing even the "promotion" of homosexuality. Under the authoritarian regime of Yoweri Museveni for the past 37 years, Uganda has certainly gone above and beyond existing anti-gay legislation inherited from British colonization.

But the country of 46 million is not alone, as a wider crackdown against LGBTQ+ rights continues to spread as part of a wider homophobic climate across Africa.

There is exactly one country on the continent, South Africa, legalized same-sex marriage in 2006, and another southern African state, Botswana, lifted the ban on homosexuality in 2019. But in total, more than half of the 54 African states have more or less repressive laws providing for prison sentences.

Keep reading...Show less

You've reached your limit of free articles.

To read the full story, start your free trial today.

Get unlimited access. Cancel anytime.

Exclusive coverage from the world's top sources, in English for the first time.

Insights from the widest range of perspectives, languages and countries.

The latest