Anti-Japan protests erupt in China over disputed islands From Steven Jiang, CNN September 15, 2012 -- Updated 0725 GMT (1525 HKT) A protester (top) attempts to climb over a security barrier during an anti-Japanese protest outside the Japanese embassy in Beijing on September 15, 2012. Chinese ships briefly enter waters around the group of islands Tensions between Japan and China are high over the disputed islands Beijing (CNN) -- Chinese protesters hurled bottles and eggs outside the Japanese embassy in Beijing on Saturday amid growing tensions between the two nations over disputed islands. The protesters chanted "down with Japanese imperialism" and called for war as they made their way down the streets. Demonstrators, who included children, carried miniature Chinese flags. Beijing police at the scene held back the crowds. Tensions escalated Friday when Chinese maritime surveillance ships ignored warnings from Japan and briefly entered waters around the group of islands at the center of the heated territorial dispute. The ships arrived near the uninhabited islands -- which Japan calls Senkaku and China calls Diaoyu -- and began patrols and "law enforcement," China's state-run news agency Xinhua reported. The islands, situated in the East China Sea between Okinawa and Taiwan, are under Japanese control, but China claims they have been a part of its territory for ages. The long-running argument over who has sovereignty has triggered protests in both nations. The United States,a key ally of Japan, has repeatedly urged Tokyo and Beijing to resolve the dispute through dialogue. U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta will meet with his counterparts in Japan and China this weekend, the Department of Defense said Thursday. Chinese vessels had all left the waters by Friday afternoon and headed north, the Japanese Coast Guard said. Japan said it will intensify patrols of the area. The controversial Chinese move to begin patrols around the islands follows Japan's purchase of several of the islands from a private owner this week. China described the deal as "illegal and invalid." Read about China's warning of economic fallout They have come to represent what many Chinese see as unfinished business: redressing the impact of the Japanese occupation of large swathes of eastern China during the 1930s and 1940s. Asia's disputed islands Although claims of occupation and administration stretch back centuries, all of the disputes exist, to some extent, as legacies of imperial Japan's expansion through East Asia. September 14, 2012 -- Updated 0700 GMT (1500 HKT) Six Chinese maritime surveillance ships enter waters around islands at the center of a territorial dispute between Tokyo and Beijing. September 3, 2012 -- Updated 0107 GMT (0907 HKT) Tokyo inflames tension with China by sending a team to a set of islands in the East China Sea to which both Japan and China lay claim. August 28, 2012 -- Updated 0550 GMT (1350 HKT) Japan describes as "very regrettable" an attack on a car carrying the country's ambassador Uichiro Niwa in Beijing. August 20, 2012 -- Updated 0626 GMT (1426 HKT) Furious anti-Japan protests erupt in Chinese cities after a Japanese group landed on an island that both countries say is theirs. August 18, 2012 -- Updated 1338 GMT (2138 HKT) Beijing urges Japan not to "undermine China's territorial sovereignty," ahead of a planned trip by Japanese lawmakers to a disputed island chain in the East China Sea. August 17, 2012 -- Updated 1322 GMT (2122 HKT) Japan is deporting 14 Chinese nationals arrested after five protesters landed on disputed islands carrying the flags of China and Taiwan. August 16, 2012 -- Updated 0247 GMT (1047 HKT) A famous South Korean rock singer swims into the diplomatic row over a small group of rocky islets in the East Sea, or the Sea of Japan. August 13, 2012 -- Updated 0822 GMT (1622 HKT) South Korea's football body defends a soccer player who was barred from receiving his Olympic medal after he displayed a politically-charged banner.