We start with Sherman in a Chinese restaurant, who gets a fortune that he's about to get caught by a trawler, which he does.

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.

Japan, facing mounting pressure from China, unconditionally released a Chinese trawler captain whose ship had rammed a Japanese naval patrol boat. And US President Barack Obama did nothing when Israel refused to extend its freeze on new building construction in the West Bank, causing Israeli West Bank settlers to rejoice.

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. Tension between Japan and China which claims the islands immediately soared.

Iran concedes that factors unrelated to Iraq's invasion and occupation of Kuwait, such as pressure on stocks due to an increase in shrimp trawler activity and illegal shrimp catching, could have contributed to the reduction in shrimp catches, but it asserts that only 25 per cent of the reduction is attributable to these other factors.

China appears to have seen the standoff over the Senkaku Islands as a test of wills a test Kan s government failed abysmally. 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.

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. The result, as one Japanese analyst put it, was that China scored an own goal, immediately reversing what had been a favorable trend in bilateral relations under the ruling Democratic Party of Japan.

But a key factor is that, until recently, China s leaders have abided by the wise counsel of Deng Xiaoping taoguang yanghui (conceal our capabilities and avoid the limelight), and shanyu shouzhuo (be good at keeping a low profile). 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.