Scores of protesters on Sunday afternoon participated in a march to the Japanese consulate to protest Tokyo’s assertion of control over the disputed Diaoyu Islands.
Organiser said 5,000 marched from Victoria Park in Causeway Bay to the consulate at Exchange Square in Central. Police put the figure at 850.
Marchers, which included locals and mainland and Macau visitors, demanded that the Japanese government stop its claim of sovereignty over the islands in the East China Sea, which China calls Diaoyu and Tokyo calls Senkaku. On Tuesday, Japan announced it would buy the island chain. Anti-Japan protests have broken out in cities across the mainland, including in Beijing, Shenzhen, Shanghai and Qingdao.
Protesters in Hong Kong also chanted slogans, saying the Mukden Incident, which Japan used as a pretext to invade China in 1931, should not be forgotten. The incident’s anniversary is on Tuesday.
They burned Japanese military flags and a letter to Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda outside the consulate.
Two Japanese flags with a cross on them were dragged on the ground in the protest. “Japanese flags are used to sweep the floor,” said Tsang Kin-shing, member of the Action Committee for Defending the Diaoyu Islands.