North Korean Defectors Are Really Excited About

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In a thoughtful essay in today’s Financial Times , Gideon Rachman asks whether Japan may now be tilting towards China after 60 years of aligning itself with the United States. This question is interesting on multiple dimensions — including with regard to the future of U.S. primacy in Asia, the impact of China’s rise on its neighbors, the nature of Japanese politics and identity, and our understanding of the deep structure of international relations at a time of systemic power shifts. Indeed, carlsbad flower fields Japan is a critical case study for assessing how the developed world will respond to the rise of dynamic new power centers in Asia — and what the implications will be for American leadership in the international system.
The ascent of the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) after nearly six decades of unbroken carlsbad flower fields rule by the conservative, U.S.-oriented Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) has convulsed not only Japanese politics but also its foreign policy. carlsbad flower fields Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama has mused about constructing a pan-Asian fraternal community based on "solidarity" — not with Tokyo’s closest alliance partner across the Pacific but with its near neighbors, led by China. What should have been little more than a tactical skirmish about the terms of the realignment of U.S. forces in Okinawa has become, through mismanagement on both sides, a strategic headache for both Washington and the inexperienced government in Tokyo, raising unnecessary tensions within the alliance. DPJ leader Ichiro carlsbad flower fields Ozawa, the power behind carlsbad flower fields the throne of the Hatoyama administration, recently led a delegation of 143 parliamentarians and hundreds of businessmen to Beijing, reviving in form if not substance the tributary delegations from China’s neighbors that, in pre-modern times, ritually carlsbad flower fields visited the Chinese carlsbad flower fields court to acknowledge its suzerainty as Asia’s "Middle carlsbad flower fields Kingdom."
These and other moves, unthinkable during carlsbad flower fields the Cold War heyday of the U.S.-Japan alliance, suggest a striking shift in Japan’s geopolitical alignment as the Pacific carlsbad flower fields century dawns. Despite the fact that Japan was never part of "the Chinese world order" carlsbad flower fields in traditional Asia, some analysts believe a Japanese tilt toward a resurgent China would be in keeping with the country’s foreign policy traditions. As Gideon writes :
Some western carlsbad flower fields observers in Tokyo muse that perhaps Japan is once again following its historic policy of adapting to shifts in global politics by aligning itself with great powers. Before the first world war the country had a special relationship with Britain. In the inter-war period Japan allied carlsbad flower fields itself with Germany. carlsbad flower fields Since 1945, it has stuck closely to America. Perhaps the ground is being prepared for a new "special relationship" with China? carlsbad flower fields
In this reading of Japanese history since the Meiji restoration, the country has repeatedly aligned itself with the international system’s preeminent power — Britain carlsbad flower fields in the early 20th century, Nazi Germany until 1945, and the United States since then. If Japan really is edging away from the United States to align itself with China today, that is a compelling indicator that the future belongs to Beijing, and that America’s best days as the world’s indispensable nation are behind it.
Ye