Australia ponders place in Japan's East Asian Community

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mushroomcloud at 12:44 AM JST - 2nd November

Hatoyama has a pretty good plan. Creating an East Asian Community, with China as the center, will benefit the regions tremendously as it will allow greater dialogue in all things economic and security related.

The creation of this plan also is acknowledgement, acceptance, and accomodation to China's rise as it would lock China in to the region's embrace, thereby increasing understanding between the member states and decreasing misunderstandings about China's intentions, be it military, economic related, or otherwise.
NeoJamal at 08:24 AM JST - 2nd November

Screw Pan Pacific dialogue, it ought to be China v.s. NAFTA v.s. ASEAN+Japan and Korea. How else could anyone seriously commit to such an "Asian Community"?
cow76 at 09:57 AM JST - 2nd November

Woolcott is the guy who told Suharto that Australia would look the other way while Indonesia invaded East Timor. 200 000 people died. So when he's talking about 'community', I start wondering about his definitions.
ronaldk at 12:42 PM JST - 2nd November

China's economic dominance, if it ever comes, will be short lived because of the demographic problem that will make Japan's seem mild in comparison. Long term I put my money on India as the dominant economy in Asia.
Junnama at 01:28 PM JST - 2nd November

Don't tell the Chinese that - they're expecting to get rich before they get old (sadly the numbers aren't playing out that way).

As an aside, how Aus fit in the community if none of the other countries play cricket?
biglittleman at 01:42 PM JST - 2nd November

I agree that India will be the next economic power of Asia. I think China will be the next USSR.
imomofo at 03:25 PM JST - 2nd November

I also agree India would be the next economic power in the world. Only if... we're living in an alternate universe where George Bush is a humanitarian, Mother Theresa is Hitler and Canada does not have universal health care. People, you got to wake up and smell the chai.... India is not gonna be the next anything, it's been in the gutters for a while and will be for the foreseeable future unless India gets it's head together.
Seiharinokaze at 03:55 PM JST - 2nd November

Historically speaking, China doesn't consider herself to be in East Asia. East Asia or east ocean 東洋 from the standpoint of China means Japan. China thinks she is the center of Asia or even the world. So China may rather think herself to belong to the Central Asia or more specifically values Shanghai Cooperation Organization (China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan) than any other regional framework.

Some day the organization may develop into a non-western alliance including ASEAN, Korea, Iran and even India vying with NATO. East Asia pales beside such a dynamic formation of emerging countries many of which are also rich in natural resources. East Asia itself may even be incorporated into SCO. Will then Australia have a place in it? And I also wonder if Japan will show her mettle if not cowardice to sit on the fence for a time between Eurasian Community vs Asia Pacific Community, though I personally have a hunch that Australia may be a major player of 22nd century.
imomofo at 06:47 PM JST - 2nd November

I also agree India would be the next economic power in the world. Only if... we're living in an alternate universe where George Bush is a humanitarian, Mother Theresa is Hitler and Canada does not have universal health care. People, you got to wake up and smell the chai.... India is not gonna be the next anything, it's been in the gutters for a while and will be for the foreseeable future unless India gets it's head together.
mushroomcloud at 10:29 AM JST - 3rd November

'Long term I put my money on India as the dominant economy in Asia.'

When you mean 'long term', do you mean within 50-100 years? I think India could be one of the dominant economies in Asia, but in order to do so, India needs to fix it's horrendous infrastructure, as their roads/railroads, bridges, power grids and ports are in a terrible state of decay. You need good infrastructure (like China's) in order to get your product to market.

"India's electricity shortage reached an eight-year high last year. Highways, which move almost 80 percent of the goods transported in India, account for only about 2 percent of the country's roads. It takes an average 85 hours to unload and reload a ship at India's major ports, 10 times longer than in Hong Kong or Singapore, according to government figures."

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601091&sid=a_K0nqM9qEhM&refer=india
mushroomcloud at 10:36 AM JST - 3rd November

'Long term I put my money on India as the dominant economy in Asia.'

When you mean 'long term', do you mean within 50-100 years? I think India could be one of the dominant economies in Asia, but in order to do so, India needs to fix it's horrendous infrastructure, as their roads/railroads, bridges, power grids and ports are in a terrible state of decay. You need good infrastructure (like China's) in order to get your product to market.

"India's electricity shortage reached an eight-year high last year. Highways, which move almost 80 percent of the goods transported in India, account for only about 2 percent of the country's roads. It takes an average 85 hours to unload and reload a ship at India's major ports, 10 times longer than in Hong Kong or Singapore, according to government figures."

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601091&sid=a_K0nqM9qEhM&refer=india
ronaldk at 11:05 AM JST - 5th November

Besides the demographic time bomb in China that people fail to acknowledge, it is a closed government not subject to the scrutiny of the people. I am highly doubtful that such a system can reach the same ranks as EU/North America/Japan economically. USSR tried and failed as it manipulated the numbers for as long as it could.

India, however bad its government, the warts and knobs are there for all to see, thus there is a chance that it can overcome its liabilities and exceed China.