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That present-day China is a totalitarian state is just a statement of fact about its government, not an opinion or a judgement about the Chinese people. (And pe
by veidr 14y ago
That present-day China is a totalitarian state is just a statement of fact about its government, not an opinion or a judgement about the Chinese people. (And personally, I really wish them the best in changing that situation.)
But, the Chinese government being what it is, you have to consider it when deciding to live or do business here.
Japan was indeed once a dangerous and belligerent actor on the world stage (Nanjing massacre, sex slave camps, attempted genocide, and lots more evil stuff.) However, Japan's military was then thoroughly annihilated, its cities were nuked, its capital was burned to the ground, and most of its leaders were put to death. Throw in a new constitution protecting human rights and the creation of a functioning democratic government, and we end up with an extremely different Japan today, 67 years later.
And (in my opinion), today's Japan is a really great place to live and to do almost any kind of technology-related business.
So I'm not making any statement absolving Japan's historical atrocities (incidentally, I'm American, and both my grandfathers fought against Japan in WWII). But I also don't think they are all that relevant to the times we live in. The perpetrators are now all dead, and the empire they fought for was thoroughly dismantled before I was born.
On the other hand, I'm a lot more interested in what's happening right now. And as far as I can see, Japan doesn't threaten its neighbors or the stability of the region in any way. China, on the other hand, with with its recent threats of military action against Japan, almost daily maritime incursions into Japanese territory, support of North Korea, and so forth, seems extremely unhelpful. (Plus, that whole totalitarianism thing... historically, seems to usually end badly.)
So as a practical matter, I think that the interests of regional stability and peaceful business pursuits would probably be better served if Japan had a military more in line with its economic power, rather than relying on the protection of a country across the ocean, most of whose citizens couldn't find Japan on a map.
- handrake 14y agoAfter seeing how Japanese government handled Fukushima accident, I as a Korean don't feel very safe with them wanting to play with a bigger gun. If Japanese government doesn't or can't take care of its own people, how do I believe it will care so much about world peace?
- OGinparadise 14y agoWhat makes you think S Korea or USA would have handled it differently? History is full of cases where governments to lie and cover up.
- wyuenho 14y agoTechnically, China has never issued any formal threats of using force against Japan(google that one), North Korea is as much as PITA for China as well as the rest of the world. The only reason DPRK is still here is because China doesn't want any massive influx of refugees (North Koreans can't cross into the South directly because of the landmines in the DMZ). As much as I hate the current regime in China, I don't see them being a threat to world peace. The fear of totalitarian regimes is pretty much a BS notion manufactured by the American media. A totalitarian leader is only a threat to world peace under the following conditions: 1) He's extremely charismatic. 2) His country is running out of resources. 3) He believes he is under a great external threat. China hasn't seen a charismatic leader since Mao, tho running out of resources, it is actively addressing it by developing renewable resources. There is also no country openly hostile to China, including Japan. I don't have anything against Japan increasing meagerly its military budget, or even repeal Article 9. It's fully their right to do so as long as they are not hostile. But saying Japan is not potentially dangerous is not entirely correct. Japan is still mostly ruled by a right wing aristocracy that have extremely close relationship with the government officials during WWII. Economy has stagnated and arguable steadily declining since the 90s. It has almost no natural resources for an industrialized nation to speak of and it believes it is under constant thread from North Korea. All that it takes is a charismatic Japanese leader and a crappy Chinese defense to see Japan aggression rise up again.