State-Run Chinese Paper Lashes Anti-Japan Protests as 'Evil Plot'

By JOSEPH KAHN (for the New York Times)

BEIJING, April 26 - A top Chinese state-run newspaper said in a staff editorial this week that the wave of popular protests against Japan were part of an "evil plot" with "ulterior motives," suggesting that at least some elements of the Chinese leadership now wish to portray the demonstrations as a conspiracy to undermine the Communist Party.

The editorial, published in The Liberation Daily of Shanghai on Monday, used the most strident language to date in an escalating campaign against the anti-Japan protests, which officials had previously done relatively little to stop - and some say had even encouraged - for three weeks to mid-April.

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