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Raucous protests against Japan broke out in several Chinese cities, including Shenyang, in the northeast, and the thriving economic zone of Shenzhen in the south, though there seemed less damage to property than during a spree of vandalism in Shanghai on Saturday.

China's foreign minister, Li Zhaoxing, was host to his Japanese counterpart, Nobutaka Machimura, here on a one-day visit. But he firmly rejected Japanese calls for China to apologize and pay compensation for damage to diplomatic and commercial property during three weekends of anti-Japan protests.

"The Chinese government has never done anything for which it has to apologize to the Japanese people," Mr. Li said. "The problem now is that the Japanese government has done a series of things that have hurt the feelings of the Chinese people on the Taiwan issue, some international issues and especially the treatment of history."

Mr. Machimura called the protests "deeply deplorable." He said Japan was calling on "the Chinese government to act sincerely and promptly within international rules" to ensure the safety of its nationals in China.

Japan's Foreign Ministry press spokesman, Hatsuhisa Takashima, said in Beijing that it was "basically not believable" that the Chinese police could not do more to prevent protesters from assaulting Japan's diplomatic compounds.

Relations between China and Japan have hit the lowest point in decades as the two feud over access to oil and gas reserves in the East China Sea, Japan's steps to strengthen its strategic alliance with the United States, and newly revised history textbooks that China says gloss over atrocities Japan committed when it occupied China during World War II.

China's leaders ignited a frenzy of anti-Japanese activism by permitting an online petition drive, a nationwide boycott movement, and then street demonstrations.

Beijing has used the expressions of outrage as a platform for a more confrontational approach to Japan. Prime Minister Wen Jiabao said last week that China would block a Japanese bid to join the United Nations Security Council unless its neighbor apologized more sincerely and atoned for World War II-era abuses.

Some analysts say the move amounts to a diplomatic power play, with Beijing leveraging its growing economic might and unsettled emotions from the war era to assert itself as Asia's leading political power.

But at least in the short term, the streak of violence against Japanese interests has paralyzed diplomacy. Japanese officials warn that the unrest has forced Japanese tourists and businessmen to cancel visits to China and say that broader damage to economic relations, which had been thriving, could not be ruled out.

"It is possible that Japan-China relations as a whole, including on the economic front, could decline to a serious state," Mr. Machimura said as he left Tokyo for Beijing on Sunday.

At his meeting with Mr. Li, he proposed that a joint commission review the war history, which Japanese officials said Mr. Li promised to consider. But there appeared to be no breakthroughs.

Chinese and Japanese leaders have not made reciprocal state visits since 1999, a fact that some experts say has seriously hindered communication. Japanese officials said that Hu Jintao, China's top leader, and Japan's prime minister, Junichiro Koizumi, might meet on the sidelines of an international conference in Indonesia this week.

The anti-Japan protests have now continued longer than any major public demonstrations in China since the democracy uprising of 1989, which led to a bloody crackdown. The authorities have deployed thousands of police officers and paramilitary troops in Beijing and other cities, but they have not intervened to prevent protests from becoming violent.

On Saturday, the authorities in Shanghai, China's wealthiest city, allowed as many as 20,000 people to march through main arteries, tear up Japanese restaurants, smash Japanese cars and pelt the Japanese Consulate with rocks and bottles.

Smaller gatherings continued Sunday in Nanning, capital of Guangxi Province, as well as Shenyang and Shenzhen, and the police handled them in a similar fashion.

It is unclear how long authorities will allow protests to continue. A huge show of force around Beijing on Sunday - dozens of army transport vehicles and police buses surrounded Tiananmen Square and the main embassy district - prevented large-scale demonstrations in the capital during Mr. Machimura's visit, suggesting they might be starting to tighten the reins.