China scraps concerts with Japanese musicians as diplomatic tensions mount

(In paragraph 2, corrects Petersen-Clausen’s nationality to German not Norwegian)

By Laurie Chen and Eduardo Baptista

BEIJING (Reuters) -Japanese jazz musician Yoshio Suzuki and his band were in the midst of a sound check for some long-awaited performances in Beijing when the venue was visited by plain-clothes police on Thursday afternoon.

“After less than one minute, the venue owner came to me and said the police told him all concerts with Japanese people are cancelled – and there is no discussion,” said Christian Petersen-Clausen, a German concert promoter and documentary filmmaker who has lived in China for 13 years.

About a dozen concerts with Japanese musicians in major Chinese cities have been abruptly cancelled this week as diplomatic tensions between Beijing and Tokyo escalate.