China Beat Archive

 

Authors

James Farrer

Date of this Version

2010

Document Type

Article

Citation

2010 in The China Beat http://www.thechinabeat.org/

Comments

Copyright 2010. Used by permission.

Abstract

It was a bitter pill for the Democratic Party of Japan, no matter how they swallowed it. By releasing a Chinese fishing boat captain detained by Japan without a trial, Prime Minster Kan Naoto was clearly bowing under Chinese pressure. The captain had been arrested by the Japanese coast guard for allegedly ramming his boat into Japanese coast guard vessels while in territorial waters claimed both by China and Japan. The Japanese government appeared to buckle and released the captain to China on Saturday. According to an unnamed official in the prime minister’s office quoted in the Asahi Shinbun on Sunday (9/26/2010), “The Chinese could have recalled their ambassador, or cut off diplomatic relations. There was no other possible landing point.”

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