China’s shift away from muscle-flexing and a confluence of interests with a US-led order offer hope it will not continue to engender large-scale regional instability next year, says Yoon Young-kwan

A Chinese plane has been spotted above small islands controlled by Tokyo but claimed by Beijing, officials in Japan said.

Protests against Japan for its control of disputed islands spread across more than a dozen cities in China and turned violent at times today, with protesters hurling rocks at the Japanese Embassy and clashing with Chinese paramilitary police before order was restored.

China said it would lodge a complaint with Japan after it detained Chinese activists who landed on a disputed island and raised a flag yesterday, as tension between Japan and its neighbours escalated on the anniversary of the end of World War Two.