General Tso's chickens coming home to roost

Despite previous complaints from Japan, China continues to encourage anti-Japanese protests throughout the country. The Associated Press reports:

About 20,000 anti-Japanese protesters — some shouting “kill the Japanese” — rampaged through Shanghai on Saturday, stoning Japan’s consulate and smashing cars and shops in protest over Tokyo’s bid for a permanent U.N. Security Council seat and perceived whitewashing of wartime atrocities.

Thousands of police watched the rioting but did little to restrain the crowd, and Japan filed an official protest, complaining that Chinese authorities failed to stop anti-Japanese violence for a third weekend in a row.

But China's strategy of throwing tantrums to get what it wants may be backfiring. The International Herald Tribune reports that the EU has started dragging its feet on lifting its embargo on selling arms to China:

Cristina Gallach, spokeswoman for Javier Solana, the EU's chief diplomat, said: "The timeline that we had in mind has bumped into several difficulties. The most important is the anti-secession law, and also relations between China and Japan." She referred to a new Chinese anti-secession law aimed at Taiwan and to rising tensions between China and Japan.

Of course, the EU is also concerned about American opposition to lifting the embargo. But China's recent behavior has not done it any favors.

FOLLOW-UP:
Ian Hamet has posted a remarkable Chinese email message, with English translation, used to organize the Shanghai protest marches. He has other posts on the situation here and here.