“In an extraordinary sign of how Trump’s hardball tactics are reshaping the world, China, South Korea and Japan — three countries with deep historical grievances — agreed to respond jointly to U.S. tariffs, according to Chinese state media,” noted Axios. Source
In close proximity, with the narrow Strait of Korea and the East China Sea separating, relations between China and Japan have been like two siblings over several thousand years. The older and larger Chinese civilisation has both greatly influenced and intimidated its younger rival for much of their history, and only in recent centuries has the shoe been placed on the other’s foot, and Japan’s ascendency and aggression, though brief, was swift and cruel.
Japan maintained mixed and sometimes infrequent relations with China’s various Dynasties. However, in the first millennium AD China strongly influenced Japan with its writing system, architecture, culture, religion, philosophy and law. In the 13th Century China’s Mongol Dynasty attempted invasion without success, and forced Japan into isolation, and it wasn’t until Western nations forced Japan to open trading in the mid-19th century that Japan started to look outward with a policy of expansion.
Now, thanks to the wannabe king, Donald J. Trump, they may start working together.
