[A. Pole]

replace China (large land mass, large population, militaristic, authoritarian, expansionist and poor) with Japan (small island nation, small population, pacifistic, democratic and rich)

I would make a correction:

replace China (large land mass, large population, militaristic, authoritarian,
pacifistic and poor) with Japan (small island nation, small population,
expansionist , democratic and rich)

Japan is not expansionist now because she was forced by the USA to stop. Ask Koreans who are neighbors both to China and Japan.

[TexasKamaAina]

replace China (large land mass, large population, militaristic, authoritarian, expansionist and poor) with Japan (small island nation, small population, pacifistic, democratic and rich)

I would make a correction: replace China (large land mass, large population, militaristic, authoritarian, pacifistic and poor) with Japan (small island nation, small population, expansionist , democratic and rich) Japan is not expansionist now because she was forced by the USA to stop. Ask Koreans who are neighbors both to China and Japan.

Yes - till the end of WWII Japan was expansionist. But I've never considered it such since then and the economic reference was to their activities in the 1980's.