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This is an archive article published on August 23, 2012
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Opinion Eastern Disorder

Unlike the subcontinent,East Asia is supposed to be pragmatic.

August 23, 2012 02:18 AM IST First published on: Aug 23, 2012 at 02:18 AM IST

Eastern Disorder

Unlike the subcontinent,East Asia is supposed to be pragmatic. While political passions continue to derail the Indic South Asia,wealth creation and order have prevailed in the Confucian East according to widespread perceptions about our region.

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There are other ideas about Asia that have gained intellectual currency in recent years. Regional cooperation in East Asia has raced ahead,while South Asia remains the perennial laggard.

East Asia has put its territorial disputes aside to focus on economic integration,while South Asia can’t overcome the political obstacles to regional cooperation.

China,we are often told,has solved all its territorial disputes except that with India; the implication being that India is politically backward in pursuing impractical territorial claims.

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It now turns out that China is even more obsessed with territory than India. While it is true that China has resolved most of its boundary disputes on land,Beijing’s territorial conflicts in the shared seas with its maritime neighbours have rapidly escalated in the last two years.

As a result,the regional perception of China has dramatically changed. Until recently,Beijing was seen as the master of “soft power”,effortlessly seducing the region into accepting China’s primacy in Asia.

China is now perceived by many as a bully that makes extravagant territorial claims and tries to secure them by deploying its growing military might.

China’s new assertiveness has sent most of its neighbours scurrying for cover and asking the United States to restore the balance of power in the region.

By declaring its territorial claims as part of China’s “core interests” — which means there can be no negotiated compromise — Beijing seems ready to risk many of the political and diplomatic gains it has won over the last three decades.

Although Beijing finds maritime tensions rising with Tokyo,Manila and Hanoi,it is not at the centre of all current territorial disputes in East Asia. Japan’s maritime disputes with South Korea and Russia have also come to the fore in recent weeks.

Burden of History

Why are China,Japan and South Korea,the three most advanced economies of Asia,fighting over small islands,most of them uninhabitable rocks barely visible at moments of high tide?

Modern capitalism is supposed to liberate nations from peasant-like obsession with land. Yet in Northeast Asia,maritime territorial disputes have acquired a new salience despite the growing economic integration among China,Japan and Korea.

Japan and South Korea have both been military allies of the US for nearly six decades. That has not reduced the bitter territorial contestation between Tokyo and Seoul.

The political leaders in China,Japan and Korea are not focused on the economic logic of these claims — their disputes are certainly in waters that are rich in fisheries and potential hydrocarbon deposits.

The conflict in Northeast Asia is about the enduring power of nationalism. It is about national self-esteem and the righteous sense that the territorial claims of the other are wrong and unjust.

If the tragic legacies of Partition continue to hobble the subcontinent,the memory of Japanese imperialism and profound national differences on interpreting the past divide Northeast Asia.

On top of it,the peace settlement arranged by the US at the end of World War II left the status of many small islands vague.

Instead of helping cool nationalist passions,the political leaders in Northeast Asia are being consumed by it. The mounting tensions in East Asia are a reminder that the region has a long way to go before it can transcend territorial nationalism. South Asia is not alone in finding it hard to shed the burdens of history.

Mass Protests

While Beijing,Tokyo and Seoul have all pandered to populism and nationalism,the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) faces big risks if it lets the current wave of anti-Japanese protests continue at home.

There is much popular anger in China and the CCP must necessarily allow some venting. But if the protests persist,the anger could easily turn against Beijing and its perceived “weakness” in dealing with Japan.

With the five-yearly congress of the CCP slated to meet in the next two months and elect a new set of leaders,Beijing would certainly not want the mass protests get out of hand.

That consideration is probably the biggest immediate barrier to the danger of current maritime disputes escalating into a shooting war in the Pacific.

The writer is a distinguished fellow at the Observer Research Foundation,Delhi

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