Chinese activists plan Beijing protest against visit of Shinzo Abe for Apec summit

Activists from the mainland, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau are considering staging a joint protest ahead of the visit of Japanese leader Shinzo Abe to Beijing for a key summit next week.

Zhang Likun, a member of the China Federation for Defending the Diaoyu Islands, said they planned to stage a protest outside the Japanese embassy in Beijing later this week ahead of Abe’s arrival for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit, which begins in the capital on Saturday.

“We are going to protest against three things,” Zhang told the South China Morning Post. “First is the Japanese attitude towards the war history. The second is Japanese denial of its wartime history, as well as Abe’s visit to the Yasukuni Shrine.”

Zhang said the protesters may hold up banners outside the embassy, and he denied having come under any pressure from the government.

“It’s an activity from civic groups, which is not in conflict with the government,” Zhang said.

In Hong Kong, activist Tsang Kin-shing, a core member of the Action Committee for Defending the Diaoyu Islands, yesterday confirmed they could join the planned protest.