No matter what the people of Jinjiang, Fujian province, think, local trawler captain Zhan Qixiong should be no hero. We in East Asia are living in tense times and the last thing we need is some idiot deliberately ramming his boat into the coast-guard vessels of a rival nation. Perhaps it was an accident, in which case Zhan is a bad sailor. Either way - stupid or inept - his behaviour should be far from the thinking man's idea of heroic.

There is, of course, a lot of bad blood between China and Japan but Beijing is not the underdog here. The mainland is emerging as Japan is ageing and all it needs to achieve regional dominance is patience, not war, which would be disastrous for everybody.

Zhan (right) will 'definitely set sail again in the near future', says his wife. For the sake of everyone who calls this region home, let's hope he stays close to the Fujian coast.