How a minor China-Japan fishing dispute blew into a diplomatic hurricane

[ErnstBlofeld]

Christian Science Monitor/Peter Ford:

What began as a routine fisheries dispute near a string of uninhabited rocky islets in the East China Sea has blown into a major diplomatic storm between Asia’s two economic powerhouses, both of them hung up on the sensitive issues of national sovereignty and international status.

.Neither the Chinese nor the Japanese governments appear ready to lose face in the standoff, nor to risk disappointing their easily angered publics. “In these circumstances,” says Takashi Inogushi, head of the University of Niigata in Japan, “it is very difficult for either side to do anything” to break the stalemate.

Beijing has been relentlessly raising the stakes in its bid to win the release of a Chinese trawler captain held by the Japanese authorities for the past two weeks. Prime Minister Wen Jiabao warned this week that “if Japan persists in its mistake, China will take further action and the Japanese side shall bear all the consequences.”

Tokyo, meanwhile, has insisted on its legal right to investigate allegations that the captain deliberately rammed two Japanese Coast Guard patrol boats, but is calling for negotiations.

“Making waves over an accidental incident runs counter to the national interest of both countries” the new Japanese Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara said this week.

China has turned down invitations to talk, saying that only the immediate release of the fishing captain can resolve the issue.