Dear Reader, I intended to write about something that happened 75 years ago. But, last week saw a major war erupt in East Europe and I cannot ignore it. And, this week sees alarm spread across the globe that war may also break out in East Asia starting in the Taiwan Strait.
It is almost as if the second world war is repeating itself, except in mirror image: Putin’s Russia is not the victim, but rather the perpetrator, of aggression in East Europe. In East Asia, Xi Jinping’s (習近平) China plays the exact role of the Imperial Japan a century ago, demanding control of East Asia’s raw materials and maritime lines of communication, and menacing Southeast Asia, India, the Pacific isles and, needless to say, Taiwan.