Beijing should provide peaceful, solid grounds to support its claim to the Senkaku Islands instead of taking a provocative tack, according to Masaharu Isshiki, the former coast guardsman who leaked classified footage of the Sept. 7 collisions between a Chinese trawler and coast guard cutters near the disputed islets.
Isshiki, who was discharged as a Japan Coast Guard Officer 3rd-Grade, uploaded the footage online in November depicting the trawler ramming the JCG cutters as they tried to evict it from the Japan-controlled Senkakus.
The trawler skipper's subsequent arrest triggered diplomatic friction between Tokyo and Beijing, with China claiming he was illegally detained.