No demonstrations against Japan were seen in Chinese cities Friday after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe made his visit to war-linked Yasukini Shrine the previous day, but the newspapers were nearly unanimous in criticizing him for blatantly challenging the postwar international order.
A larger-than-usual police presence was seen around the Japanese Embassy in Beijing. Journalists were asked to stay away from the area but there were no mass protests on the same scale as those over a year ago when thousands of Chinese staged an angry demonstration over a still-festering territorial row.
Still, Chinese newspapers gave a great deal of space to Abe's visit to the Shinto shrine in Tokyo, describing it as proof that he is glorifying Japan's aggression during the war and disrespecting other countries' feelings.