Reuters
September 17, 2003

Million Chinese Sign Anti-Japan Online Petition

Wed September 17, 2003 06:43 AM ET
By Benjamin Kang Lim

BEIJING (Reuters) - More than one million Chinese have signed an online petition demanding that Japan compensate victims poisoned by recently unearthed World War II-era chemical weapons and apologize, organizers said on Wednesday.

The signature drive, launched by seven Chinese Web sites and signed by 1.12 million people within a month would likely fuel anti-Japanese sentiment and give Beijing more leverage when dealing with Tokyo.

Six activists planned to present the petition to the Japanese embassy in Beijing on Thursday, Zhou Wenbo, a spokesman for the group, said, adding that the signature response was unprecedented in China's online history.

The petition demanded that Japan apologize, compensate victims and dispose of chemical weapons left behind by the Japanese imperial army at the end of World War II.

"The Japanese government refuses to admit guilt," Zhou told Reuters. "It also has no intention of disposing of chemical weapons to prevent further casualties.

"Japan may be a responsible member of the international community, but it has been very irresponsible toward Chinese nationals," the 24-year-old software engineer said.

"We are very angry," Zhou added. He conceded that petition organizers did not have the manpower to check the identities of signatories, but added that thousands of duplicate names had been filtered out daily.

The Japanese Embassy in Beijing had no immediate comment.

Japan has been criticized and faces lawsuits over its abandonment of what it says is an estimated 700,000 chemical weapons in China. Chinese activists put the figure at two million.

Such weapons have killed and injured more than 2,000 Chinese since 1945, the China Daily said, quoting Cao Zhibo, former director of the Academy of Social Sciences in the northeastern city of Qiqihaer.

In the most recent case, a Chinese man died and more than 40 people, aged between eight and 53, were injured by five World War II-era metal barrels containing mustard gas which were unearthed at a construction site in Qiqihaer city on August 4.

Earlier this month, Japan's Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper reported that the government was considering offering compensation for the victims in Qiqihaer.

Japan has apologized for the incident, but refused calls for compensation on the grounds that the war compensation issue with China was settled when they established diplomatic ties in 1972.

The newspaper said that to sidestep the problem and avoid any payment being seen as compensation, the funds would come from a budget earmarked for the disposal of chemical weapons.

China and Japan held talks this month on the issue, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said. No agreement has been announced.

Chinese police have turned down an application by 50 anti-Japanese activists to stage a protest march in Beijing on Thursday to mark the 72nd anniversary of the start of the Japanese army's occupation of northeast China, known then as Manchuria, the nationalistic Patriotic Alliance said on its Web site, www.1931-9-18.org.

Many ordinary Chinese harbour deep resentment of Japan's wartime past and what they see as its failure to own up to atrocities it committed during its occupation of parts of China from 1931 to 1945.

But the two Asian giants have moved to strengthen ties in the face of the North Korean nuclear crisis. Trade is booming and China is eager to attract Japanese investment and tourists, while Japan has its eye on the vast mainland market.

Bilateral ties have shown signs of improvement with recent visits to China by Japanese cabinet members.

The petition was the second anti-Japanese signature campaign launched by Chinese Web sites. In August, 80,000 Chinese signed an online petition against China buying Japanese technology for a planned $20 billion train linking Shanghai and Beijing.