Examining the Senkaku Collision Footage
NTV’s “Zoom In” morning show examines the footage of the Senkaku Island boat collision footage:
A Tokai University professor who is knowledgeable about maritime issues watches the video and describes how it shows the Chinese trawler captain intentionally rammed a Japanese coast guard ship. According to international rules, ships that are in risk of collision should turn to the right. In the video, the Chinese ship is very clearly veering to the left: straight into the Japanese ship. Throughout the incident, the Chinese crew appear suspiciously calm. The professor suggests that they might not be normal fishermen.
They take a video screen to the streets of Beijing and show the collision footage to random Chinese people. A few of them think that the video shows the Chinese trawler ramming the Japanese ship, but many others watch the video and conclude the Japanese ship is responsible. Even those that see the Chinese ramming for what it is are skeptical about the existence of other footage that the Japanese are not releasing. Surely, those sneaky Japanese must be hiding the truth…
In other news, approval ratings for the Kan Cabinet have plunged to a new low. The Kan administration’s poor handling of the Senkaku collision crisis is mentioned as a major cause of public disapproval.
Edit: Here is what William O’Neil had to say about the video.
The order of the day in the Chinese media seems to be, “MAKE SMOKE!” They would have us believe that the JCG cutters were really the aggressors. I suppose that someone unused to the sea might read this into the clip I mentioned, but to this seaman’s eye is it clear that the Chinese fisherman (which appears to be a trawler with gear over the stern) is turning into the cutters very deliberately. In any event, in another clip (out of many) we can watch from the deck of one cutter as the fisherman deliberately rams the other.
None of this proves that it was all a Chinese government plot in the first place. For instance, the Chinese fisherman’s master might have been in his cups, and simply reacted belligerently. But at very least the Chinese have deliberately made a cause célèbre of the business.
I will observe that the cutter COs did not play it the way I would have thought most prudent. These cutters are fast, powerful small warships that did not come off as well as they should have in such an encounter. I was taught that with two intercepting ships you should bracket the target, and never allow him to put you forward of his beam while closing the range. They were trying to hail the fisherman and tell him to stop, and I suppose they assumed reasonable behavior. They needed more of the policeman’s mentality — never take it for granted that the other guy does not mean you harm.
I don’t see in the videos what they did to corral him following the collisions. The JCG can be plenty tough, but it seems clear that they were under orders not to use force. I suppose that they caught him between two or more of their rigid-hulled inflatable boats (RHIBs) filled with armed men who swarmed over the rail and overpowered the crew if they could not just overawe them. It would be interesting to know.
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