For millennia, China and Japan have been locked in a relationship even more mutually dependent, competitive and influential than the much more recent one between Washington and Beijing. Each has sought to dominate, or at least be the most influential in, Asia, and the relations of each with their neighbours has at various points been directly shaped by their rivalry.
Read Here – The National Interest
Pundits have been saying last rites for the dollar’s global dominance since the 1960s – that is, for more than half a century now. But the pundits may finally be right, because the greenback’s dominance has been sustained by geopolitical alliances that are now fraying badly.
The story of Asia today remains very much one driven by its largest nations and economies. An increasingly assertive China, a slow-growing Japan, a rising India and a still emerging Indonesia dominate the headlines, along with mounting tensions from the Korean peninsula. Yet, all of “Asia rising” can take a lesson from some of the region’s smallest countries.
While North Korea’s repeated ballistic missile tests may appear to be brazen provocations from an unstable and irascible leader, nothing could be further from the truth. Kim Jong-un’s actions, while provocative, are both rational and win him and his scientists important technical insights and improve the credibility of North Korea’s strategic deterrent.
North Korea looks pretty scary at the moment, firing off missile after missile, threatening to target Guam, and, on Sept. 3, testing what the regime claims was its first hydrogen bomb. And the country’s dictator, Kim Jong Un—so ruthless he may have had members of his own family murdered—might be just crazy enough to push the button to initiate a catastrophic war. Or maybe not.
Sanctions on North Korea have been tried, and failed. Serious negotiations seem like a pipedream. And any military strike would almost surely bring mass devastation and horrific civilian casualties. The Trump administration’s options are going from bad to worse as Kim Jong-un’s military marches ever closer to being able to strike the US mainland with nuclear weapons.
Also Read: North Korea’s Nuke Test Reveals Terrifying Capabilities
Through its first six months, the Trump administration has concentrated on two issues in its relationship with China: North Korea and trade. While it has secured Chinese buy-in for a new diplomatic framework for dialogue, the administration does not appear to have settled on an overarching China strategy. So far, there have been no major speeches or articles by senior foreign affairs officials on China or Asia, with the partial exception of an address by Defense Secretary Mattis in Singapore on regional military issues.
Words especially matter between societies that poorly understand each other’s motivations and intentions, as do North Korea and the U.S… So whether or not President Trump intended an ultimatum with his statement on Tuesday that North Korea “best not make any more threats to the United States” lest it face “fire and fury like the world has never seen,” it may have serious consequences. North Korea afterward threatened to fire missiles toward Guam. The next move falls to the U.S.
Donald Trump once famously owned New York’s Plaza Hotel. Perhaps it’s no coincidence, then, that his economic worldview, and policies toward China, are stuck in a time when that pop-culture landmark found itself at the very centre of global markets.
Chinese strongman Xi Jinping has a terrible weakness – and his name is Kim Jong Un. This is supposed to be the Chinese President’s big moment. Not since Deng Xiaoping’s day has a mainland leader controlled, well, everything – foreign affairs, the economy, the military, censorship policy, you name it. United States President Donald Trump’s erratic White House and his scrapping of trade and climate-change deals, meanwhile, makes Mr Xi’s team look like the adults in the room. Except for that Kim fellow, whose antics in Pyongyang have strongman Xi looking befuddled and downright cowed.
