Someone send some generals and diplomats to Tokyo ASAP, please?!

Will America abandon long-term ally Japan? Unfortunately, Washington’s most important alliance in Asia is in jeopardy. “Many Japanese analysts and commentators have worried that the United States is losing interest in Japan,” states a report released last week by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs.

As Gordon Chang writes in “How to Lose Half an Ocean,” Japan is the cornerstone of the American-backed order that’s led to freedom and prosperity in East Asia. If they feel compelled to cut a deal with China, the entire continent east of India—and, he writes, maybe the Pacific west of Hawaii—becomes subject to Beijing’s whims.

Many of these diplomatic storms eventually blow over as clear-eyed calculations of interest dictate a choice of action, but remember, governments are made of people and can be swayed by emotions—here, insecurity—very powerfully, often making some terrible decisions.

Confucius, Œc. Vol.

Don’t ask impertinent questions like that jackass Adept Lu.