Japan to release Zhan Qixiong

Japan is to release Zhan Qixiong, a Chinese fishing boat captain from Shandong Province who had been under arrest for two weeks, accused of deliberately ramming two Japanese patrol vessels near the Senkaku Islands, reports the BBC.

Roland Buerk, the BBC´s correspondent in Tokyo, writes that

Japan’s government is looking in to reports that China stopped shipments to Japan of rare earths – elements in which it has a near monopoly vital for the manufacture of hi-tech goods like electric cars.

Meantime, four Japanese men are reportedly being held in China, on suspicion of illegally filming in a military area.

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