North Korea, China, and Isolated Japan

I think one of the things the Western media hardly ever takes into account about the regime in North Korea is that it is a form of government and not just a bunch of 'demonised' madmen. We see this kind of thing all the time. In Iraq Saddam Hussein was a 'madmen' yet it was the West, US UK and helped by Australia, that killed a million men women and children there in the name of liberation...and destroyed the total infrastructure of that relatively modern secular country, as it was, apart from the oil pipelines and oil business buildings. That is a kind of selective horror and poignant madness well in excess of old Saddam.

As for North Korea, I was talking with an old Chinese guy who had visited there ten years ago and he said that North Korea was the most inhuman government on Earth; but he also said that China and North Korea are blood-brothers and share a bond forged in war against the Americans and that China will never ever betray its brother.

So, as well as being a country in a state of perpetual Cultural Revolution, North Korea is also linked to a Han-Manchurian family structure the West doesnt really understand. We don't have families of that deep, bloody strength and tenacity. That's not our culture.

We spoke about a number of things. I told him I was trying to learn the common language of China, Pootonqa, or mandarin, whilst also trying to learn Thai. He said "Dont worry about learning the language of the small countries in Asia, they are simply the border towns. Learn the language of China. China is Asia."
I believe he is correct. When you see the scale of humanity and the rate of change that is China, then you begin to understand how this really is the rising empire and that nothing can or will stop that. China certainly won't become democratic at all. That's not on the cards. The plan they have is working very well.

At the same time the empire will be far different to that of the Romans, the UK or the USA in that it is not an empire forged in invasions, occupations and pillage and in the destruction of anything it doesnt like, as have been the others. It is an empire that does not expand militarily at all. It is not warlike. They are interested not in world domination but rather in trade. You could ask 'well, isn't that the same thing?' And the answer from the million dead Iraqis, butchered for the noble American/UK/Australian cause (or the countless murdered Vietnamese) has to be: "No, it is not the same at all. War is hell." The countless, nameless dead of Afghanistan, a country with a median population age of 17 years of age,  also have names. That's a lot of names and a lot of boys and girls.

I think eventually, and it wont take a long time, Taiwan will be somewhat unified into China with some special considerations beneficial to the people of Taiwan. I don't think North and South Korea will be unified. I think that, far more likely, China will keep its brother close, and closer, as time goes by... and this will be of benefit to the North Koreans and indeed to stability. Some degree of formal inclusion of the NK regime into the Chinese system with some market reforms, with a nominal NK leader. Very few people on earth would think that to be a bad idea.

As for Japan, well, China and Japan are not friends or brothers at all. There's still the Nanjing Massacre and the occupation of China by Japan for all those bloody and horrible years, to be dealt with. You dont kill and burn 20 million Chinese people for the love of your Emperor and never say you're sorry. You dont inject into a civilisation the terror of burning bodies, of race-hate on a scale unknown before or since, and then expect them to just forgive and forget. That can't happen. That absence of formal regret is one very real reason that North Asia is so 'tectonic' with America strongly supporting Japan and thus, strangely and strongly supporting the terror of that 'exotic adventure'. Much like the Nazi atrocities but on a much, much larger scale, it will have to be acknowledged and there will have to be real apologies and real reparations.

In Shinto culture, there is no need to apologise to the weak; that is seen as weakness in itself. The problem for Japan now is that China is strong and Japan is weak. the other problem for Japan is that the USA is growing weaker as well. For the US to continuously defend Japan, they would need to borrow money from China.

As with the Romans, it is best to be the rising power rather than be subjects of it. China's rise will benefit China, as it should. This is the natural obligation and inherent design of Family. We on the outside may find the next 100 years somewhat uncomfortable but as long as we trade and do business rather than seek war, we will be okay, mostly. China won't 'save the world economy'...the US and the Europeans broke it and it doesnt work now but that's not China's fault. All that has happened due to gross institutional and government neglect and avarice in the West is that China has accellerated along its developmental time-line at a faster rate. What would have taken 30 years in terms of rising trade and real power dominance now will only take ten years and none of that is China's fault. The future is arriving faster than planned, due to bad capitalist management in the West and good capitalist management in China.

As Leonard Cohen noted "And by the way, you won't like what comes after America." But then, he was talking to the Americans, not to the Chinese. I think the Chinese will like it a lot, and so they should. They haven't gone to war to steal it, they haven't borrowed it, they've worked hard for it, planned smart for it, and saved hard for it. They will have it.