Dear Rob!
Many East Asians, myself included, worry that China will start a war to conquer Taiwan and the Korean Peninsula while the US is wasting all its strength on the war in Ukraine!
I am currently questioning whether the US has the power to keep peace in East Asia!
So, I hope the war in Ukraine will end soon!
By itself? The US has never had the power to do that by itself. But Japan, India, Australia and South Korea all four are commonly underestimated. Those four by themselves are a match for China. Add in the US Navy (which isn't involved in Ukraine) and China isn't able to do much.
Dear Rob!
The world I live in is already dominated by Chinese capital.
So, I always listen to Chinese.
There are also Chinese in the S-K military.
So, the military alliance between Japan and Korea is difficult.
"So, the military alliance between Japan and Korea is difficult."
Yeah, and there's some really bloody and bitter history between the two as well. But it has always been true that in the game of geopolitics, "the enemy of my enemy is my friend." South Korea and Japan, even if they don't like each other, realize that they have the same local enemies: North Korea and China.
Rob!
I agree with you!
In particular, relations between the Korean Peninsula and China have been like brothers or enemies for over 2,000 years.
China is currently tempting South Korea with its greatest political and economic interests.
China argues that a peaceful reunification of the Korean Peninsula can be achieved with the withdrawal of US troops from South Korea.
China claims that the US can no longer protect peace of the Korean Peninsula.
What they are openly stating here is "if you quit letting US troops come in and protect you, our puppet regime in North Korea will go ahead and finish their takeover."
Then why are they so afraid of those US troops being there?
Rob, I agree with you!
China always feared that in the future the United States and Japan would ally and conquer China.