Relations between the world's No. 2 and No. 3 economies remain in tatters even after Japan released the captain of a Chinese fishing boat. Commentators expressed alarm over how a minor dispute had escalated into a major showdown, and surprise at the unusually shrill rhetoric and harsh, unilateral sanctions from China's side. China has "overplayed its hand," said Jeff Kingston, director of Asian studies at Temple University, Japan Campus. "It's a revealing moment, and the rest of Asia is looking on and saying 'uh-oh,'" Kingston said.