Question 1
ASEAN is an acronym that stands for Association of Southeast Asian Nations. This is an organization which was created and founded on August 8, 1967.This was in Bangkok, Thailand. The countries which were included in this organization were five and included Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia. From that period, there are additional five nations which have joined the bloc, these are Vietnam, Burma, Laos, Brunei and Cambodia. The main objective of setting this organization was to enhance the interests of the member countries. Some of the interests that the organization was to address include the acceleration of economic growth of the member countries. Another objective was to enhance the stability and peace enhancement of the countries involved. In tandem with these objectives the member country leaders benchmarked their objectives on three pillars which include ASEAN security, ASEAN economic community, and ASEAN socio-cultural community. The current strife of the bloc is to make the region and the member countries a competitive force to reckon in the global stage. This is strategized and in a way that there will be a single market for the countries which will come up with ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA). This will ensure that the tariff and non-tariff barriers that member countries normally face will be eradicated.
The Asian-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) is an organization which has 21 nations whose common objective is to improve the trade between the member countries. This organization was initially created in 1989 with an initial membership of 12 member countries. APEC has made evident strides to improve trade among the member countries. After ten years of its creation, the economies of the member countries made approximately 70% of the world economic global growth. The population of the member countries represents about 41% of the world population. The main objective of the creation of this organization was also to increase free trade within the member countries. This is hinged in the Bogor goals which were set in Indonesia.
The two organizations have some relations that they share. The two organizations have the same objectives. The two blocs have the same objective of creating a free trade area for the member countries. Economic growth is the ultimate goal that the member countries strive to achieve after all has been done. Another comparison that the two organizations have is that it has most countries in the Southeast Asian nations. Most of the countries in the Southeastern are included in both organizations. One difference between the two organizations is that of the number of country members. The country members of APEC are 21 while that of ASEAN is 10. Another difference between the two organizations is that the member countries in APEC include developed countries like US while for the ASEAN, the members are purely from Southeast Asia countries. The openness of the organizations is an issue that brings differences.
Question 2
Sukarno was the first president of Indonesia. There are many contributions that he made to Indonesia. One of the contributions that Sukarno made to his country is that he helped the country attain independence from Netherlands. After independence, he became the president of Indonesia from the year 1945 to 1967.There were many challenges that the president overcame to realize the successes that he had. He spent over ten years under colonial rule in fight for independence of Indonesia. He collaborated with his fellow nationalists to get support for the fight for Japan and in exchange, Japan would help Indonesia spread ideas which are nationalists. After the surrender of Japan, Sukarno, together with Mohammad Hatta did a declaration of Indonesian independence on August 17, 1945. In this declaration, Sukarno was declared as the president of Indonesia. After this appointment, he strived to resist re-colonization of Indonesia by the Dutch through the ways of diplomacy and military ways. With these efforts, the Dutch were able to recognize the independence of Indonesia in the year 1949. All these were the efforts of Sukarno.
Suharto was the second president of Indonesia from 1967 to 1998. He removed Sukarno from office in 1967. He was born in Kemusuk village in Yogyakarta during the era of Dutch era of colonialism. Suharto grew in humble backgrounds. The parents were Javanese Muslims and divorced immediately after he was born. When the Japanese occupied Indonesia, Suharto served as a security officer in the security team that was organized by Japan. With the struggle for independence in Indonesia, Suharto joined the army of Indonesia in the quest to fight for the independence of Indonesia. After Indonesia gained independence, he was promoted to being a Major General. The army that was led by Suharto countered a coup which was attempted and the attempt was undertaken by Indonesian Communist Party. He later struggled and led the army to fight communism and in this effort, he got power from Sukarno. With this coup, he was appointed the acting president in 1967 and given full presidency status in 1968.
The two presidents had their similarities and differences. One similarity between the two presidents is that they both struggled to centralize the political power and strengthened military of Indonesia. Another similarity between the two presidents is that they both struggled to have better policies and economic developments in Indonesia. The two ensured that the country got developed economically and in their social developments. One of the differences between the two people is that Sukarno fought for Indonesian independence and achieved the independence of this country in 1945. Sukarno also struggled to achieve political and democratic measures for the country. Sukarno also followed a socialist route where he confiscated assets of foreigners. He ensured that the domestic enterprises were nationalized. On the other hand, Suharto struggled to eradicate the communist party and ensured that the members of the community party were arrested. He also followed the anti-Chinese policy regarding foreign matters. He outlawed the use of Chinese language and symbols. He ensured foreign investments by having policies that supported foreign investments.
Question 3
There have been fierce relationships between the two countries from World War II. One of the fiercest conflicts that have been experienced in the two countries is the Taiwan case. Also there is the issue of the struggle for the fishing lands. The two countries are geographically located next to one another. The stability between the two countries is an important aspect that brings the needed balance in the Asia Pacific region. China and Japan have been struggling to outdo one another. There are two main wars that have been seen in China and Japan that are evident in history. The Sino-Japanese and World War II. The two wars have shaped these two countries in one way or another. During the spring of 1894, the Eastern part of Korea attempted to overthrow the government of Korea. Korea sought help from China. During this time, Japan took advantage of this to try to invade Korea. From the corruption that was seen in the Qing Dynasty, China lost the war and had to sign the Sino-Japanese Ma Guan Treaty.
The current economic status of China is seen to be thriving. Over the last three decades, China has experienced consistent economic development in unprecedented levels, which resulted in taking the country to the second biggest economy in the world. It began in the early 1980s, when it sought to transition to a market economy, with an extraordinary modernization process taking place to change the face of the economy, by transforming coastal areas and cities. New industries had to be developed, the business environment had to be changed to be modern, and improving participation in a global economy making it the current major player especially in emerging markets. The internal and external politics that exists between the two countries is that of the fact that Taiwan is still an issue to be considered. Taiwan claims that the independence that they have is from China. On the other hand, Japan claims that they contributed a lot in Taiwan’s independence. This is an issue that has been stressing the good relations between these two countries. Another development that can stress the relationship between the two countries is that of the permanent member of the United Nations. The United Nations has a requirement of permanent members. Japan still claim they are qualified to be part of the permanent members of the UN. This is an issue of strife that has been seen to be going on with the two countries. The reason that Japan gives for them to be considered as permanency members is that they have a bigger percentage in the funding of the UN. This has some implications in the China side as they feel they should also be included and this is the start of a fight and struggle between these two countries.
The country which is likely to have stronger relationships with the United States for the next 25 years is China. Under president Hu, the country has been consistently experiencing economic growth, and development. In fact, the country attained the second biggest economy in the world under his leadership. Under his watch, the country engaged in what is known to be the scientific development concept or perspective. It is an ideology which sought to deviate from the former regime in some areas while retaining some policy matters. The concept aims to incorporate a multi- pronged development agenda that includes overall sustainable development, social welfare, a humanistic society, improved democracy, and creating a harmonious society. In his agenda and theme the state could engineer sustainable development through tested and proven methodologies of governance. The model seeks to minimize conflict amongst different interest groups in the society, in order to create and maintain stability on the national level resulting in the advancement both economically and culturally. The model pursued a socialist approach with Chinese characteristics with the state participating in economic development with social services. Japan, on the other hand is undergoing the strife and the struggle to be a force to reckon in the region.
The two countries have had stringent relationships from the past. This has seen the two countries struggle and competes in many aspects. With the development of technology and the struggle to own Taiwan, there is still a lot of struggling that will be seen in the countries. The struggle between the two countries is still something that will be seen to continue.
Question 4
Nationalism
Nationalism in Asia has been seen in the way the struggle for power and control of the many nations in this region. The rivalry between Russia and Japan for the border issues led to war which led to Japan emerging victorious. Japan took controlled of Korea and other parts in the region. In China, there was the realization that the monarchy was not effective and the economy was stagnant in its undertakings. In the year 1911, there was evolution and by 1912, China became a republic out of this revolution. Outer Mongolia and Tibet also declared that they were independent in their own making. The factions that were considered as rivals in China went to war. Japan joined the war and helped their allies in the World War I. Germany lost ground in China and the islands that they once occupied became under Japan. The war brought profound changes in western Asia. The Ottoman Empire, which was initially an ally of Germany, lost all its possessions of the aliens except Turkey. Mesopotamia was reduced to a kingdom of Iraq. Syria was put to be under French. There were experienced many independent kingdoms that came up in Saudi Arabia. With the war, Nepal was able to gain independence from Great Britain in 1923. There was also a movement for independence that was experienced in India. The Soviet Union became a force in Outer Mongolia and in 1924; it became a people’s socialist republic.
Authoritarianism
There have been authoritarianism is Southeast Asia and North Asia. The Philippines were under authoritarianism under their leader, Mr. Marcos out of the leadership. Dictatorship was seen in Philippines under Marcos. The issue that came up was the challenge of installing change. Authoritarianism was also seen in Indonesia where the fall of President Suharto in 1998. This was because of the role of the military in leadership. The military were also involved in politics. In most nations, the military took over and there was authoritarianism in leadership and politics of the day.
Democratization
Democratization has not been successful in most nations of Southeast Asia. One example is that the process of democratization in Philippines and Indonesia where all the ills of dictatorship had not been eradicated. Democracy is seen to have stabilized in Indonesia and many other nations. There are many elections which have been undertaken in many nations of Asia. This shows the extent in which democracy has been undertaken. In Philippines, there are attempts to eradicate cases of corruption where human rights activists have demonstrated in the streets going against corruptions in public places. Indonesia is considered as the most close country in practicing democracy.
References
Hanns-Günther. Hilpert, and René Haak. Japan and China. Palgrave, 2002.
Ralston, David A., David H. Holt, Robert H. Terpstra, and Yu Kai-Cheng. "The impact of national culture and economic ideology on managerial work values: A study of the United States, Russia, Japan, and China." Journal of International Business Studies (1997): 177-207.
Clarida, Richard H. "Japan, China, and the US Current account deficit." Cato J.25 (2005): 111.
Jansen, Marius B. Japan and China: from war to peace, 1894-1972. Rand McNally College Publishing Company, 1975.
