The Collapse of the East Asian Order

[soryang]

The Collapse of the East Asian Order
With Japan and South Korea in the middle of a feud, East Asia is on the verge of a serious unraveling.

By John Feffer, September 20, 2019. Foreign Policy in Focus

...The waning of U.S. influence in the region coincides with a powerful resurgence in nationalism. The most obvious example is Japan, where what had once been extremist views on Japan’s wartime conduct are now, thanks to Shinzo Abe, in the very mainstream. China, too, has become a much more explicitly nationalist country under Xi Jinping. South Korean nationalism has largely been subsumed under the project of reunification. A case in point is Moon Jae-in’s assertion last month that a united North and South Korean economy could leapfrog over Japan in “one burst.”

Donald Trump’s “America first” policies are perhaps the most explicitly nationalistic of them all. There wasn’t much any president could do to prevent the loss of U.S. power in the Pacific. But Trump’s approach has kindled nationalism and accelerated the arms race in the region...

Part of John Feffer's thoughtful observations published in the Hankyoreh and reprinted in FPIF.

https://fpif.org/the-collapse-of-the-east-asian-order/

[abqtommy]

1. It's just history repeating itself for the slow learners.