Burning the Japanese Flag

Chinese authorities mobilized more than 10,000 police officers to prevent anti-Japanese hostility from spilling over into violence at the finals of the Asian Cup, which Japan won 3-1. While Japanese fans were confined to a separate 5,000-seat area, Chinese fans discharged pent up anger in the form of jeering, throwing garbage, burning the Japanese flag, and smashing the window of a car transporting a Japanese diplomat:

Outside the stadium, Chinese fans burned the Japanese flag.When a car transporting a Japanese diplomat was leaving the venue, Chinese fans smashed one of its windows, prompting the Japanese Embassy in Beijing to lodge a protest.

This anger was mirrored in cyberspace, where Chinese hackers

launched organized cyber-attacks on dozens of official Web sites in Japan and Taiwan in response to a Japanese attack on a Chinese site last month, the Hong Kong edition of China's official newspaper reported Friday. The newspaper Wen Wei Po said groups organized 1,900 hackers to launch a massive attack on more than 200 official Web sites in Japan and Taiwan on Monday.

The attack was in retaliation for Japan-based attacks on the Website of the China Federation of Defending Diaoyu Islands, "in which a hacker wrote 'the Uotsuri Island belongs to Japan' on the site." Uotsuri is the largest of the Senkaku (Diaoyu) Islands, which are at the center of a dispute between Japan and China.