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Zhang Zhong, a 32-year-old computer worker, said Chinese should stand up against Japan, remembering its brutal occupation of much of China before and during World War II. "We cannot lose the Diaoyu Islands," he said. "We cannot forget our national shame." In Shanghai, about 200 police officers cordoned off the street leading to the Japanese Consulate, allowing protesters in groups of 100 to approach the building. Demonstrators had to first register with police. The demonstrations came before the anniversary Tuesday of the 1931 Mukden Incident which often triggers anti-Japanese sentiment. The incident was used as a pretext by Japan to invade northern China, and activists have called for more demonstrations Tuesday. The swelling Chinese anger over the disputed islands comes even though the Japanese government had hoped its purchase would calm, rather than inflame the situation. The nationalistic governor of metropolitan Tokyo, Shintaro Ishihara, had proposed buying the islands in April and planned to develop them
-- something that Beijing would have seen as an attempt to solidify Japan's claim. By purchasing them instead, the central government promised to keep them undeveloped.
[Associated
Press;
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