Because in the end its always all about the economy (not calling you such, I'm using the idiom here) stupid. Unless its a threat right on their doorstep, plebs rarely care about foreign policy while 90% of the time their wallets are on their mind. And if politicians can't deliver on that front, they lose their jobs no matter what kind of foreign policy boogeymen they drum up.
In which case China has not inflicted the kind of economic hurt that will make japs think twice. So far, only a seafood import ban and cutting tourists. All that bluster and tough talk from various ministries, embassies, strongly worded letters to the UN and ends up with this? China has the economic tools to hurt Japan, but it won’t because it’ll also affect China. So, a lack of determination.
You're not arguing in good faith here. Germany's car industry was brought to a standstill and they practically begged on their knees to the Netherlands to hand Nexperia back to China, which they did. China won that standoff. Or do you think the only acceptable retaliation would've been to send a PLA brigade to Donbass?
And what’s happening now? A return to the status quo. Is that winning a standoff? China gave them face and an off ramp, prioritizing economic stability. Neither netherlands as a whole nor any dutch companies suffered any economic reprisals. Nor the executives that engineered it. German car companies had a production slowdown…for a week. And this was a situation where the dutch played a universally criticized move and China was well within its rights to make them pay.
Marcos played chicken with the Chinese coast guard, but rather than being a hero he's now staring down a 33% approval rating and hundreds of thousands of protesters demanding his government's resignation over corruption.
That has nothing to do with the fishermen and more to do with his corruption. I would argue without his strongman image at China’s expense, he would’ve faced internal trouble even sooner.
China could be soft on all these countries for “economic stability”, but it absolutely cannot be soft on archenemy japan. Every country is watching this as well. If China doesn’t take decisive action this time, it’ll end up besieged on all sides on multiple issues over the coming years. A dragon, tangled up by a dozen snakes.