China shuts down anti-Japanese websites

BEIJING, Friday (AFP) - China has shut down several anti-Japanese websites to prevent people from organizing more protests through the Internet, in a further indication Friday the government fears demonstrations will get out of hand.

The websites had carried messages calling for large-scale demonstrations on May 1 and May 4 in Shanghai, Nanjing, Wenzhou and Chongqing cities.

May 1 is marked as Labor Day in China, while May 4 is the anniversary of the landmark 1919 May Fourth Movement - in which students and intellectuals protested against the country's weakness in standing up to foreign countries, especially Japan.

The protest announcements predated government warnings this week banning all demonstrations that were not approved by police and were organized through the Internet or mobile phones.

In the strongest expression of opposition to three weekends of anti-Japanese protests, China's Public Security Ministry Thursday warned that any unapproved demonstrations would be considered illegal and would be dealt with in accordance with the law.

Organization of the marches, some of the biggest in China in recent years, was largely done through Internet chatrooms and mobile short messaging, methods that the government appears to have difficulty in controlling. The websites shut down include www.gd918.org; www.cfdd.org.cn; www.gd918.org and www.china918.cn/forum.asp.

"This website's bbs (discussion forum) - Strong County Forum - is temporarily suspended. We are carrying out maintenance work on our database," one of the websites said.

Others did not offer an explanation.

Instant messaging Internet discussion forums remained open, but most participants appeared cautious about what they wrote.

Only one person mentioned protest plans - that of one in Beijing on May 4 - on anti-Japanese instant messaging forums.