BBC World Histories Magazine - 03.2020

e are told that this will be

the Asian century, during

which China in particular

will attain global economic

and political supremacy – and perhaps

cultural dominance, too.

But many also believe that if there is

to be a Third World War, it could begin

in east Asia. Perhaps it might be sparked

by some convulsion within North Korea,

or a confrontation in the Taiwan Strait

• which has long held the unenviable
  title of the world’s number-one military
  flashpoint. Or it might erupt on Dokdo
  (Takeshima in Japanese), islets off the
  east coast of South Korea claimed by
  Japan as well as both Koreas.
  Though Japan and South Korea
  would appear to have many mutual eco-
  nomic, military, diplomatic and cultural
  interests, and though Japan and China
  are among each other’s greatest trading
  partners, barely a season passes without
  a diplomatic spat, the imposition of trade
  sanctions or military jostling between

them. The tension is multidirectional:

China imposes sanctions on South

Korea for hosting a US missile system

one day, Japan changes South Korea’s

status on its most-trusted trading nations

list another, South Korean courts find

Japanese firms guilt y of war crimes the

next. All while China is amassing the

world’s largest military, Japan’s rulers

attempt to overturn its pacifist consti-

tution, and a unilateral declaration of

independence from Taiwan, threatened

for years (albeit still pretty unlikely),

would almost certainly prompt China

to invade. Then, of course, there is K im

Jong-un, his finger poised over a nuclear

button in Pyongyang.

Open aggression

Animosity occasionally spills out onto

the streets. In 2012, after the Japanese

government nationalised the Senkaku

Islands (more disputed outcrops lying

between Taiwan and Okinawa),

51-year-old Li Jianli was beaten almost

View-

point

Expert opinions on

historical issues that

touch today’s world
W

Eastern enmities

China claims Taiwan; Koreans resent the Japanese,

and that feeling is reciprocated. East Asia is a

tinderbox of tensions with long historical roots

BY MICHAEL BOOTH

Michael Booth is a journalist and author.
His latest book is Three Tigers, One Mountain:
A Journey through the Bitter History and
Current Conflicts of China, Korea and Japan
(Jonathan Cape, 2020)