Karate Chop Japan
The first Karate Kid movie involved Japanese actors and took place in Japan. Karate Kid II took place in China with Chinese actors and Jackie Chan. Isn’t it time Washington dumped a politically broken and economically broke Japan as its major ally in Asia and replaced it with a prosperous China like Hollywood did? I am at a loss as to why America is still allied with Japan, the country that attacked and brutalized Americans during World War II, and continues to do so with its economic policies today, while it shuns China, America’s World War II ally that fought side-by-side America to defeat Japan, that wants to partner with America.
Japan’s continuing economic and geopolitical decline over the last three decades ─ at the expense of China’s ascent ─ was highlighted when China surpassed Japan in the summer of 2010 to become the world’s second-largest economy after the U.S. Some economists predict that China will overtake the U.S. by 2030. China’s growth rate for 2009 was more than 11 percent compared to America’s anemic 2.4 percent.
To make matters worse, China’s expanding economic shadow is buying up small and mid-size Japanese companies and real estate, taking advantage of depressed asset prices ─ the same it is doing in the U.S. China is also now Japan’s biggest trading partner and a bulk purchaser of Japanese government bonds. The bond purchases are helping drive up the value of the yen making Japan’s exports less competitive with China’s.
China’s dominant shadow over Japan was further highlighted in September 2010, after a Chinese fishing trawler collided with a Japanese coast guard vessel off the islands known as Diaoyu to the Chinese and Senkaku to the Japanese. The uninhabited islands northeast of Taiwan are claimed by both countries and are administered by Japan.
Japan arrested the captain of the fishing trawler for illegal fishing but released him after anti-Japanese protestors rallied outside the Japanese Embassy in Beijing and across China and Hong Kong. China also cancelled high level political and cultural exchanges, instructed travel agencies to cancel tours to Japan and withheld the shipment of rare earths used in electronics that posed a significant threat to the Japanese economy. China controls more than 90 percent of the world’s rare earth minerals.
The fact that the captains arrest coincided with the September 18 anniversary of an incident that led to Japan setting up a puppet government in Manchuria in the early 1930s, a date that stirs bitter memories in China of the brutal Japanese occupation of China, stirred China’s nationalistic outburst and effective economic reaction to the arrest.
Japan blinked and China smiled. Japan lost face while China gained big face. Which face makes more sense for America to have in its 21st-century geopolitical picture?
Japan’s continuing economic and geopolitical decline over the last three decades ─ at the expense of China’s ascent ─ was highlighted when China surpassed Japan in the summer of 2010 to become the world’s second-largest economy after the U.S. Some economists predict that China will overtake the U.S. by 2030. China’s growth rate for 2009 was more than 11 percent compared to America’s anemic 2.4 percent.
To make matters worse, China’s expanding economic shadow is buying up small and mid-size Japanese companies and real estate, taking advantage of depressed asset prices ─ the same it is doing in the U.S. China is also now Japan’s biggest trading partner and a bulk purchaser of Japanese government bonds. The bond purchases are helping drive up the value of the yen making Japan’s exports less competitive with China’s.
China’s dominant shadow over Japan was further highlighted in September 2010, after a Chinese fishing trawler collided with a Japanese coast guard vessel off the islands known as Diaoyu to the Chinese and Senkaku to the Japanese. The uninhabited islands northeast of Taiwan are claimed by both countries and are administered by Japan.
Japan arrested the captain of the fishing trawler for illegal fishing but released him after anti-Japanese protestors rallied outside the Japanese Embassy in Beijing and across China and Hong Kong. China also cancelled high level political and cultural exchanges, instructed travel agencies to cancel tours to Japan and withheld the shipment of rare earths used in electronics that posed a significant threat to the Japanese economy. China controls more than 90 percent of the world’s rare earth minerals.
The fact that the captains arrest coincided with the September 18 anniversary of an incident that led to Japan setting up a puppet government in Manchuria in the early 1930s, a date that stirs bitter memories in China of the brutal Japanese occupation of China, stirred China’s nationalistic outburst and effective economic reaction to the arrest.
Japan blinked and China smiled. Japan lost face while China gained big face. Which face makes more sense for America to have in its 21st-century geopolitical picture?
posted by Peter de Krassel's Custom Maid Politics at 1:24 AM
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