Beijing’s Japanese Heed Threats to Kill 2 a Month

Beijing’s big and normally boisterous Japanese community has almost faded from sight as the deadline nears for an anti-Japanese death threat.

Japanese businessmen in China’s capital have been advised to send their families home and take precautions after the threat to kill two Japanese a month beginning Aug. 15 unless they stop their “economic invasion of China.”

A group calling itself the “Glory Through Dare-to-Die Command” sent letters in July to the Japan Air Lines office in Beijing, two Japanese consulates and at least two companies in Shanghai.

The letters accused Japan of colluding with China’s communist rulers and were widely believed to be an attempt to inflict economic damage on China in retaliation for the bloody military crackdown June 4.