China apologizes to Japan for car attack

China apologizes to Japan for car attack

Agence France Presse Beijing

Beijing police have apologized to Japan after a car carrying a Japanese embassy official was attacked by angry Chinese soccer fans, the embassy said on Monday.

The car carrying Chikahito Harada, a minister at the embassy, was hit by an unidentified object as it left the Workers' Stadium after the Asian Cup final on Saturday night, in which Japan beat arch rival China 3-1.

The car's back window was smashed when the object was thrown from the crowd, fuming over defeat to a country many still despise because of its war-time invasion of China.

"Somebody threw something at the car as it left the stadium. The back window was broken but fortunately no-one was hurt in the incident," an embassy official told AFP.

"The Beijing police called to apologise. This is a fact."

After the match pockets of Chinese fans burned Japanese flags in the street and others confronted armed riot police.

In post-match incidents rare in a city where authorities maintain strict control, fans threw bottles, shouted anti- Japanese obscenities and demanded a boycott of Japanese goods.

At least two foreign photographers covering the scenes were roughed up by police outside the stadium, with one needing stitches to a head wound.

In Tokyo, China's Ambassador to Japan Wu Dawei met with Japanese Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi and said Beijing had done all it could to prevent trouble.

"We did everything we could ... There was some disorder after the match as we could not maintain full control (of the Chinese fans) after the match," a Japanese government official quoted Wu as saying.

"Some supporters' behaviour was very unpleasant and they were doing things that even the Chinese government did not want to see," Wu added, while stopping short of making an explicit apology.

Kawaguchi recognised the Chinese government had "made its best efforts" to control rioting while noting it was "important to analyse and discuss the issue of feelings of both countries' peoples" on a long-term basis.

More than 15,000 police and soldiers were deployed throughout the capital to keep order, including a large contingent in and around the stadium, and Japanese fans were kept in the ground for several hours after the match until the crowds dispersed.

Throughout the tournament Japan's team was heckled and on one occasion their team bus was rushed by an angry mob. Tokyo issued a formal complaint over the actions.

Chinese animosity towards Japan has festered since its imperial armies invaded and began occupying China in September 1931.

It left when Tokyo surrendered to the Allied Forces at the end of World War II in August 1945 with Beijing claiming the lives of 35 million Chinese were lost.