ratchet down
香港活動家の尖閣諸島（魚釣島）上陸に関しては、みんな書くだろうと思って控えていましたが、まったくないのでひとつだけ。
ratchetはメカに強い人ならおなじみの「歯止め（つめ車）のつめ」のついた工具です。言葉での説明は難しいので写真のパワーを借ります。
記事ではその動詞がdownをともなったPVとして用いられて、「一段階、歯止めを降ろす」、つまり、「緊張状態を（一段階）緩和する」という意味合いでここでは用いられています（cf. ratchet up）。柔軟に対処することがままならない日中関係を踏まえた動詞選択です。（UG）
Japan mulls deporting activists on Senkakus in few days
TOKYO, Aug. 16, Kyodo
Japan is making arrangements to deport 14 people including several activists from Hong Kong within a couple of days after seven of them landed on one of the Japan-controlled Senkaku Islands the previous day, government sources said Thursday, in a bid to ratchet down tensions between Tokyo and Beijing.
Of the 14, five were arrested by the Okinawa prefectural police for landing on Uotsuri Island and nine others including two who returned to a vessel after landing were arrested by the Japan Coast Guard. The vessel was sent by a Hong-Kong based group seeking to assert China's claim to the Senkakus in the East China Sea.
Japan has lodged a protest with China over the landing, while China demanded that Japan free the activists and others for what it sees as illegal detention.
