Inexperienced and diplomatically inept, Kan s administration buckled, releasing the trawler captain early.

More recklessly, after securing the release of the trawler, China demanded an apology from Japan.

Even before the trawler incident, China was trying to regulate rare earths, defining them as a strategic resource.

Japan, facing mounting pressure from China, unconditionally released a Chinese trawler captain whose ship had rammed a Japanese naval patrol boat.

The Lancashire nobby was used down the north west coast of England as a shrimp trawler from 1840 until World War II.

China s decision to browbeat the Japanese into submission over the fishing trawler, suggests that China may be throwing Deng s geopolitical caution out the window.

Consider the Senkaku incident in 2010, when, after Japan arrested the crew of a Chinese trawler that had rammed a Japanese coast guard vessel, China escalated its economic reprisals.

Trawler designs adapted as the way they were powered changed from sail to coal fired steam by World War I, and then to diesel and turbines by the end of World War II.

In retaliation for Japan s refusal to release the trawler captain, China hinted that it might recall its ambassador from Tokyo, suspended bilateral ministerial level exchanges, and canceled a tour to Japan for about 10,000 Chinese.

But China has begun to make serious mistakes. After Japan acceded to Chinese pressure and released a captured Chinese trawler in September 2010, China went overboard and demanded an apology from Japan, rattling the Japanese establishment.

But China has begun to make serious mistakes. After Japan acceded to Chinese pressure and released a captured Chinese trawler in September 2010, China went overboard and demanded an apology from Japan, rattling the Japanese establishment.

I also, with the story, wanted to show readers how fish are caught, some of the methods that are used to catch fish, like a bottom trawler, which is one of the most common methods in the world.

The issue of relations with China crystallized in September, when the Japanese Coast Guard arrested the captain of a Chinese trawler after his ship hit two Japanese patrol boats near the Senkaku Islands, which are part of Japan and within its territorial waters.