The difference is race. It is better, as in less humiliating, if it is Asians-on-Asians.
It is sad that so many Asians, in and out of this forum, felled for the sweet pillow talk from the Chinese and the JPNese about this.
Otto von Bismarck on Poland's sovereignty...
"Restoring the Kingdom of Poland in any shape or form is tantamount to creating an ally for any enemy that chooses to attack us, smash those Poles till, losing all hope, they lie down and die; I have every sympathy for their situation, but if we wish to survive we have no choice but to wipe them out."
People and the media punditry have been taking turns misleading each other when they said that China is emulating the US regarding China's rise. Not true. China is following JPN's footsteps. Practically like that of walking in someone else's tracks in the snow.
China could not suppress anyone's sovereignty, but China could put such an economical stranglehold on Asia via control of the South China Seas, that all the major east Asian countries, including JPN, might as well bow their heads to Beijing. The goal of any major power in any political system is to be a hegemon, of which I explained back in post 77 why the US never was one, not even in the Western Hemisphere, IF it is a necessity and there is a possibility. The US could not be a true hegemon because the US is not a dictatorship. That is not to say that a functional democracy have any less care than a dictatorship about security. In terms of paranoia, all countries, large and small, have the same level of concern about their security. It is only the means that differs among them.
Unlike the US who have no unfriendly countries at our borders, China shares her borders with 14 countries and many of them are unfriendly, if not outright hostile. Off her coast, there are SKR and JPN. In reality, the US is less of a factor of security and paranoia than both SKR and JPN combined simply because American presence is not persistent. If the Filipinos can eject the US out of their country simply by legal fiat, so can the SKReans and the JPNese, but no one can eject the SKReans or the JPNese out of their own home soil. Not unless he want a bloody war on his hands. Currently, there are competing major powers in the East Asia region, but no great power. Not yet. Inside a political system, a great power can still be hurt, either by a single major power or an alliance of major powers. Unlike the US in our political system in the Western Hemisphere where we are secured against even an alliance of major powers, China is extremely vulnerable to threats from even a single regional major power.
China have the economic means to radically alter the military balance in the East Asia region and given the gross dissimilarities between the US and China in geopolitical terms, China have no choice but to follow what Imperial JPN did when JPN felt her security was at stake. Chinese and Imperial JPNese views of other Asian powers, large and small, is the same as that of Bismarck for Poland. China's immediate threat is not US, as the Chinese members here consistently misled the forum, but SKR and JPN. Unlike Canada and Mexico who really have no choice but to rely on US for their security, SKR and JPN can be assertive and make increasing independent decisions of the same issues, so Chinese protests about US military assistance to SKR -- this discussion -- is far less about US 'hegemony' than it is about SKRean assertiveness of their own security and paranoia.
The first victim of China's rise from being a competing major power to a great power will be Viet Nam and it is sad that some Viets on this forum were seduced by the same sweet pillow talk about Western imperialism and American 'hegemony'. Either SKR and JPN is too powerful even without US assistance. The first victim of Imperial JPN's ambition was Korea, first as protectorate then later complete annexation. Instead of 'smash those Poles', it was 'smash those Koreans'. With China as a great power, it will be 'smash those Viets'. Then SKR and JPN will meekly fall in line.
All the Chinese and Koreans today who despise and hate Japan more than any other country are simply brainwashed by western propaganda.
