Singapore’s success has depended on its ability to leapfrog geography, but it could only do that because the geography was not hostile. It could depend on the fact that the foreign territorial waters at its door remained open. Japan has been restrained from going nuclear by the assurance of America’s treaty commitment to its defense. From north to south Asia, such assumptions appear a little shakier. [...] No global city can prosper in an environment where stability appears less certain and freedom in danger of curtailment. That is one reason why America’s commitment to Asia matters as China rises — and doubts about America stir unease. [...] It is not just that Obama, during his last visit to Asia, gave a very evasive answer to a question about whether by saying the United States would protect the Japanese-administered Senkaku Islands (claimed by China) he risked drawing another “red line.” The president said he thought the implication of the question was “that each and every time a country violates one of those norms the United States should go to war, or stand prepared to engage militarily, and if it doesn’t then somehow we’re not serious about those norms. Well, that’s not the case.” Try cashing that one at the bank. It is all of these things, plus an uneasy general feeling. The “pivot to Asia,” like the Syrian “red line,” like “Assad must go,” betrayed a common theme: words without meaning from an American president, commitments without follow-up, phrases without plans. In Asia as in Europe, these things get noted. The American idea is still strong in Asia. Look no further than the brave pro-democracy demonstrators in Hong Kong. But ideas require commitment to back them. **************** Its all right, well just adapt... we kowtow to whoever holds the Mandate of Heaven, if it slips out of the USs hands into China, then well just change our allegiance. Thats what city states do, we just suck up to the biggest ass power in the region.
Posted on: Fri, 17 Oct 2014 05:47:02 +0000
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