得陇望蜀: China's Fishing Fleet Take the Ell Where her Navy Cannot

得陇望蜀 (De Long Wang Shu): an archaic Chinese idiom referencing the campaigns of the Han Dynasty. The modern equivalent would be De Cun Jin Chi (得寸进尺): "Given an Inch, They'll Take a Foot."

From January to September, the Japan Coast Guard told Chinese fishing boats operating within Japanese waters around the Senkaku Islands to leave on 208 occasions, a 2.4-fold jump from last year and 26 times larger than the figure for 2011. 

So far, Chinese fishing boats have put up little resistance when warned by the coast guard to leave, but a Japanese security official says the situation could lead to a maritime collision like the one that occurred in autumn 2010, exacerbating bilateral tensions. 

Several theories about this surge in fishing activity are circulating within the Japanese government. 

One says it is simply a natural consequence of the expansion of China's fishing operations in general. But according to a Japanese fisheries industry source, the number of Chinese fishing boats operating in southern region of the East China Sea, where the Senkaku Islands are located, has held steady at around 1,000 in recent years. 

This indicates there is no natural reason for the surge in the number of Chinese ships operating around the islands and provides support to another theory: Chinese authorities are simply looking the other way.

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