Posted on 07/25/2023 3:59:02 AM PDT by FarCenter
TOKYO -- Recent Japanese foreign policy has focused excessively on the U.S. and overstated the threat of China, a group of experts on international relations said Tuesday, calling for Tokyo to craft a more realistic approach.
Instead of uncritically following Washington, Japan should form a regionwide coalition of so-called middle powers to help mitigate the competition between the U.S. and China through constructive diplomacy, thus reducing the danger of war between great powers in the region, the group argues in a new report.
If not, the current paradigm could leave the region entangled and divided in the future, resulting in "a tragedy for Asia, especially Japan," one expert warned.
The group, led by Keio University Professor Emeritus Yoshihide Soeya and Mike Mochizuki of the Elliott School of International Affairs in George Washington University, spoke at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan to mark the release of the report, entitled, "Asia's Future at a Crossroads: A Japanese Strategy for Peace and Sustainable Prosperity."
The report's 15 policy recommendations are heavy on engagement with Beijing, including encouraging China to participate in a debt-restructuring mechanism for Sri Lanka and simultaneously accepting China and Taiwan into the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP). They also cover Japan stating clearly that it does not support Taiwanese independence and Tokyo acknowledging the existence of an issue between Japan and China regarding the Senkaku Islands, which Beijing claims and calls Diaoyu.
The policy vision differs from the current Japanese government's strategy based on defending the rules-based international order and opposing any unilateral attempts to change the status quo by force or coercion.
The administration of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is wary of China establishing a new world order that is more accommodative of the Chinese Communist Party. Kishida's government is concerned that countries in the region could gradually fall into that orbit.
Chinese President Xi Jinping told Russian President Vladimir Putin in March, "Right now there are changes -- the likes of which we haven't seen for 100 years -- and we are the ones driving these changes together."
But Soeya said a China-led international system is an unrealistic scenario.
"I don't think there is a new order being created by the Chinese leadership. I can't think of any particular country who would be happy about a China-centered regional or global order," said Soeya, who retired from Keio in 2020 after a 32-year tenure. Even if it seems that the countries of the Global South are critical of the U.S.-led order, it does not mean that the prospect of a Chinese system appeals to them, he added.
The behaviors and communications from the Chinese officials is that there is already existing the unstoppable momentum toward world domination.
It’s all a kabuki act of propaganda to try to establish the bandwagon effect, which would generate the momentum. The curtain has been pulled back exposing the wizard in the Wizard of Oz movie. Fake, fake, fake.
“can’t think of any particular country who would be happy about a China-centered regional or global order,”
The elephant in the room is that nobody wants a US-centered order anymore.
“The elephant in the room is that nobody wants a US-centered order anymore.”
The American hegemon since 1945 has been objectively good for the entire world. It enabled globalization, which is essentially as if every country, no matter how small, won WWII. The world prefers a distant, disinterested American hegemon over a local and very in-your-face Mafia style Chinese hegemon. Everyone likes to dump on America, but who do they call when there’s a disaster or threat? Reminds me of a commentator asking someone why he dumped on Christians and never said a word about Muslims. He said, “Because Chistian’s won’t kill for insulting them. Muslims will.” Same with dumping on America vs. China.
The experts fail to mention the prospects of a new multipolar world order.
I remember when Madeline Albright was giddy at the prospect.
Lets see which side the Japanese choose when we lose a war with China over Taiwan,
A lot of idealism in this comment. It was barely true earlier and absolutely not true over the last three decades.
Nobody?
Why don’t you just move to China?
Bump
The talk is not about Americans. It is about international affairs.
IMHO, the Japanese are head and shoulders above the Chinese in the intelligence department.
It’s a shame that they got mad at us in the 40s and went crazy.
I thought we Americans were absorbing Japan’s debt?
I recall reading somewhere in the past year about the hundreds of billions of debt relief America supplies to that country so it doesn’t default.
Anyone? Buehler?
Excellent post, FRiend.
Excellent post.
China is in serious turmoil. China can’t dominate the world while it is literally falling into serious disarray
I would agree that American hegemony was good in the Cold War era, when the Soviets were trying to impose Communist regimes from Angola to Cuba. However, America and its Western allies are now promoting the green agenda on Third World countries that need to industrialize and sexual perversion on the culturally conservative nations of Africa. We have become an unreliable ally, as we saw in Afghanistan, where we abandoned our local supporters as well as billions of dollars of military equipment.
“The world prefers a distant, disinterested American hegemon over a local and very in-your-face Mafia style Chinese hegemon.”
Perhaps... African nations and strongman governments woo Chinese partnerships as a positive and with it the access to Chinese universities by their up and coming generations. There is a cost of having that. It remains to be seen how that will play out. Chinese will against African corruption. Might it be that spoonful of disgusting medicine they both need?
Regarding the American hegemony, IMO Japan would be under Chinese control by now if Americans hadn't cooked their lunch for them in 1945.
Bump this. America, with whatever warts, brings stability. Last I checked, China is not doing so well financially. And if those idiots start a war, they will reap the whirlwind of instability.
It seems the opposite to me. Japan was well on the way to rendering China a colony of Japan by 1940. It was WWII where China was saved from Japan by the United States.
Economic power is the ultimate modern power. China has it and is gaining more every day. At its current run rate, it will be the dominate global power soon. It already is the dominate Asian power.
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