Security and rain dampen Chinese protests against Japan

BEIJING/SHANGHAI (Reuters) - About a hundred Chinese protesters on Saturday demanded Japan free a Chinese boat captain, but tight security and rain deterred a bigger show of anger over an issue that has ratcheted up territorial tensions between the Asian powers.

Under a steady downpour, the protesters, mostly in their 20s gathered infront of the Japanese embassy in Beijing and held placards and yelled slogans denouncing the detention of the captain, seized by the Japanese coast guard after their boats collided in the disputed East China Sea over a week ago.

They were surrounded by hundreds of police and security forces, who took placards away from some people hoping to protest and pushed along the demonstrators as the crowd swelled.

"Return our boat captain, release him now," a group of protesters yelled. "Down with Japanese imperialism," they shouted. "Americans get out of Asia."

The captain's detention has become an emotive focus for long-running disputes between Beijing and Tokyo about territorial rights in the seas, especially around a group of uninhabited islets, called the Diaoyu islands in China and the Senkakus in Japan.

But China's ruling Communist Party is wary of any unrest and appears to have no appetite for a repeat of 2005, when sometimes violent protests against Japan broke out in several cities.

"The boat captain is a hostage, and we came to tell Japan to hand him back and get out of the Diaoyu Islands," said Hu Xu, one of the protesters, using China's name for the disputed islands near where the Chinese boat was seized.

Saturday marked the 79th anniversary of the "Mukden incident," a watershed event in Japan's occupation of northeast China. The memories of Tokyo's brutal occupation of China, which lasted throughout World War Two, continue to stoke Chinese public ire about Japan.

A small protest was also staged in Shanghai, the commercial hub of east China, where torrid protests broke out in 2005.

Four men taped an 8 metre (26 ft) banner to lamp posts outside the Japanese consulate, which was cordoned off by police and paramilitary police.

The slogan on the banner read "The Diaoyu islands are China's! It was illegal to detain the boat! Return the captain!"

One protester, Li Chunguang, who said he came from the northeast of China, was wearing a t-shirt with Mao Zedong on it. Another was wrapped in the Chinese national flag.

In Beijing, lines of People's Armed Police and plain clothes officers moved in to bolster security around the Japanese embassy.

Clusters of people behind the police cordons occasionally yelled slogans and held up signs denouncing Japan. Some sang the Chinese national anthem.

On Friday, China said it had the right to do what it wants in gas fields in the East China Sea, adding another layer of friction between the two big Asian powers. Japan has warned it would take "appropriate steps" if there is proof that Beijing has begun drilling.

(Editing by Miral Fahmy)

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