"Confused, shocked, bewildered. Just a few of the words used in recent days to describe Japan and South Korea's reaction to some of Donald Trump's latest comments about the region." Reported CNN in Seoul.
Mr. Trump stunned two of America's strongest allies by suggesting the U.S. military would be withdrawn and the countries should replace the troops with nuclear weapons. "Trump's remarks about Asia cause bewilderment, unease in Japan," reported the Asahi Newspaper.
Japan continues to be the only country to have suffered from nuclear weapons attacks and, as a consequence, has had a strong non-nuclear policy and pacifist constitution since the end of WWII. "It is impossible that Japan will arm itself with nuclear weapons," stated Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida. But the Japan Times reported on May 8 that Trump had, "baffled Japanese officials by proposing pulling the U.S. military out of Japan unless the ally pays all the costs of maintaining the American forces, suggesting that Japan could instead be allowed to go nuclear for self-defense."
"It seems he only has experts on Middle East affairs and terrorism-related issues among his diplomatic brain trust but no analyst specializing in Asian matters," another Japanese Foreign Ministry official commented. "No one seems to check the accuracy of anything he says," remarked another.
While interviews of people on the street produced comments like, "He looks scary," "He seems mean," Japanese government officials said a Trump presidency would fundamentally change the course of U.S. diplomacy with Asia.
Officials in the U.S. agree, “The entire premise of American foreign policy as it relates to nuclear weapons for the last 70 years has been focused on preventing the proliferation of nuclear weapons,” said Ben Rhodes, Deputy National Security Advisor. “That has been the position of bipartisan administrations, of everybody who has occupied the Oval Office.
“It would be catastrophic for the United States to shift its position and indicate that we somehow support the proliferation of nuclear weapons.” The Japan Times reported that Rhodes insisted that U.S. treaty obligations to defend Japan and South Korea were “rock solid.”
The agreements, which have delineated East Asian geopolitics for 65 years, have projected U.S. power across the Pacific. Besides providing land for the U.S. bases, Japan and South Korea have paid 3-4 billion dollars annually to share in the cost for the 83,000 troops stationed in the two countries.
The countries also seem confused about his slogan that he would "Make America great again." To them, the U.S. economy is the envy of world. Japan has been in the doldrums for 25 years, currently struggling to avoid deflation, and other regional countries are not doing so well either.
The head of global macro investing at Morgan Stanley claimed in an article in the Atlantic Magazine, “Americans have reduced their debt burden more than the Europeans, while China’s debt has skyrocketed to extremely dangerous levels. If you look outside of China, U.S. growth is actually faster even than the emerging markets. Since the 2008 crisis, U.S. equity markets have outperformed all others — in fact 9 out of the 10 most valuable companies in the world are now American."
"The dollar is the currency of choice," he continued. "Global growth is not what it used to be, but in a bad neighborhood, the U.S. has the best house by far. For the past four years, the United States’ share of global GDP has increased while Europe’s and Japan’s have moved down." In addition to the woes in China and Japan, Mexico is also watching its growth collapse.
In reaction to Trump's comment that he believes the Chinese government had a "strong, powerful" response to the '89 Democracy Movement which ended with a massacre in Tiananmen Square, Chinese dissidents have condemned him for supporting the bloody suppression.
In an article for TIME magazine, one of the protest leaders denounced Trump for using the same language as the Communist Party. "I am disappointed by and angry at Mr. Trump's words," he writes. "If a bloody repression can be praised as a 'strong, powerful' action, what does this mean about American values, especially when this blatant mischaracterization comes from a presidential candidate?"
Fellow Tiananmen protest leader Wu'er Kaixi used Facebook to describe Trump as "an enemy of the values that America deeply defines itself by -- the same values that have long provided hope to the victims of oppressive power worldwide." He adds, "Those of us who have fought for freedom anywhere in the world worry that something is about to change in America."
The exiled Chinese political cartoonist, Wang Liming, released a cartoon on his Twitter feed addressed just "to Trump." Wang depicts the real estate mogul as a tank commander crushing a protester while declaring, "This is the best thing we imported from China."
So how do East Asians feel about Donald Trump? Confused. Maybe that's how he wants it?
For more, see the East Asian Forum.
