Sunday marks the one-year anniversary of the start of anti-Japanese protests that flared in many parts of China over the ownership of the Senkaku Islands, amid lingering Chinese frustration among the socially vulnerable over widening gaps between the rich and poor.

On Aug. 18, 2012, hundreds of people gathered in the central city of Xian and other places to protest Japan's arrest of Chinese activists who landed on one of the uninhabited Japan-held islets in the East China Sea. China also claims the chain, which it calls Diaoyu.

The day saw the beginning of a series of such protests, which grew even more violent after the Japanese government purchased a significant part of the Senkakus from a private Saitama owner on Sept. 11, effectively nationalizing the entire chain.