You don’t need to be an expert on Asian economic and security issues to know that if Japan and Korea want to avoid war and to make a lot of money, they should pivot away from America completely and line up with the Chinese. This is very obvious.
It’s unclear if the Japanese and Koreans are so driven by Poland-style hatred that they are willing to sacrifice everything in order to pursue an anti-China agenda, or if they are looking for an exit strategy.
We know the Philippines is looking for an exit strategy. They just don’t have one because they are totally dominated by the Americans. South Korea and Japan both lost wars to the US and are heavily occupied, but they are clever people who might be able to figure out a pivot if they decide that’s what they want.
Leaders from China, Japan, and South Korea will meet for the first three-way talks in four years on Monday in Seoul, as they try to revive trade and security dialogues hampered by global tensions.
Chinese Premier Li Qiang, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will adopt a joint statement on six areas including the economy and trade, science and technology, people-to-people exchanges and health and the aging population, Seoul officials said.
The summit comes a day after the leaders met separately for bilateral talks with each other.
In those meetings, Li and Yoon agreed to a diplomatic and security dialogue and resume free trade talks, while Kishida and the Chinese premier discussed Taiwan and agreed to hold a new round of bilateral high-level economic dialogue.
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The leaders will agree on resuming free trade agreement negotiations when they meet, Nikkei reported on Monday.
This would certainly be a step in the right direction. The deeper the trade ties, the less military hostility there is.
Nonetheless, Japan has in recent years – since the Brandon Administration took over and started really pumping the China war rhetoric – made some very insane measures about the ends they are willing to go to defend American interests in the region, to their own detriment.
Elvis Dunderhoff contributed to this article.
