Authorities are in dispute over a monument to victims of the 1937 Nanjing massacre, whose removal triggered a riot on Wednesday at a new hotel.
Hundreds of Nanjing residents attacked the Sheng Dao Grand Hotel on Wednesday - the 63rd anniversary of the massacre - when they found a monument dedicated to 17 Buddhist monks and three nuns of Zhengjue Temple killed by Japanese troops during the invasion had been removed.
The monument was apparently moved 50 metres to clear the entrance of the hotel. It was found broken into three big pieces on Wednesday near the city wall.
A spokesman for the provincial Government's Jiangsu Cultural Bureau was quoted by mainland newspapers as saying it was wrong to remove the monument. And an official from the Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall was quoted as saying the monument belonged to the memorial hall and its removal violated regulations to preserve cultural relics.
But an official of Nanjing Cultural Bureau disagreed. He said the monument was not a 'cultural relic' and it was legal to remove it without provincial government approval.