China protests again target Japan
BEIJING, China (CNN) -- As Japan's ambassador called on the Chinese government to take stronger measures to protect Japanese citizens in China, thousands of Chinese citizens took to the streets in another protest to call for a boycott of Japanese products and to shout anti-Japanese slogans.
Sunday's protest by about 3,000 protesters who surrounded Japan's consulate in Guangzhou, capital of the southern Guangdong province, followed Saturday's angry demonstration at Japan's embassy in Beijing.
Video of Sunday's protest showed a mostly youthful crowd carrying anti-Japanese banners and Chinese flags while they sang, shouted and chanted. Several Japanese flags were burned.
Japanese press attache Ide Keiji told reporters Sunday that Japan's envoy Koreshige Anami met Chinese Deputy Foreign Minister and called Saturday's protest, in which rocks and bottles were thrown at the Japanese embassy, "gravely regrettable."
Ambassador Koreshige also asked the Chinese government to take all necessary measures to protect Japanese citizens in China, something he said has not been done, Ide said.
The Japanese spokesman said the Chinese Deputy Foreign Minister expressed regret on behalf of his government for the Saturday protest and said the Chinese government could not allow it to happen again.
The protests are targeted at Japan's bid to become a permanent U.N. Security Council member and have been made more emotional by Chinese objections to how Japanese school textbooks recount Japan's 20th century military campaigns.
The protesters in Beijing Saturday chanted anti-Japanese slogans, sang patriotic songs, waved Chinese flags and carried banners critical of Japan.
Some protesters threw rocks and plastic water bottles toward the embassy gate. The messages included a call for China to boycott Japanese products.
Hundreds of military police in riot gear lined up outside the embassy, while hundreds more police blocked nearby streets to keep the number of protesters down. Police moved in to end the protest after about an hour.
It was the biggest protest in the Chinese capital since 1999 when angry crowds demonstrated outside the U.S. Embassy after three Chinese were killed when the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade, in what was then the Yugoslav capital, was accidentally bombed.
That came during the NATO air war against the Serb-led forces in the Serbian province of Kosovo, where Serbs and ethnic Albanians had been fighting.
The protesters repeated their demands for a boycott of Japanese goods, to block Japan from obtaining a seat on the U.N. Security Council, and for Japan to change textbooks which they say whitewash Japan's war atrocities.
Chinese protests against the publication of a Japanese government textbook continued for a second day in China, (Sunday) as an estimated three thousand protesters marched on the Japanese consulate in Guangzhou. Thousands of protesters also marched in Shenzhen, throwing objects at Japanese businesses.

The protesters repeated their demands for a boycott of Japanese goods, to block Japan from obtaining a seat on the U.N. Security Council, and for Japan to change textbooks which they say whitewash Japan's war atrocities. Protesters burned Japanese flags while singing and shouting anti-Japanese slogans. They also carried anti-Japanese signs along with Chinese flags.
Chinese view the textbook as "whitewashing" the events and actions of Japan to cast them in a more positive light. 

The protests are against the , which is publishing a high-school textbook that refers to the Nanjing Massacre as an "incident" ( translation) and de-emphasizes the roles of comfort women as well as the contemporary issues surrounding Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visits to the Yasukuni shrine, in honor of Japanese soldiers. 

The Japanese government has claimed that the demonstrations have an "anti-Japanese sentiment," for which China should apologise.
In , Japan formally summoned Wang Yi, China's ambassador to Japan, concerning China's actions on Sunday.

"We formally demanded China’s apology and compensation," said Japanese Foreign Minister . He also said that Wang Yi replied "No" when asked for an apology.

While not issuing a formal apology through diplomatic channels, Wang claimed that China did not approve of the violent aspects of the protests.

"The (Chinese) government does not agree with extreme action," he said.

Back in , the ''People's Daily'' reported that Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang deflected blame away from China for the recent downturn in Sino-Japanese relations.

"Japan must adopt an earnest attitude and appropriate ways to deal with major principled issues concerning the feelings of the Chinese people," Qin said. "The Japanese have to do more things conducive to enhancing mutual trust and maintaining the relations between the two countries, rather than doing the reverse," he said.