China and its role in East Asia

  It's almost impossible not to mention China when talking about East Asia.
China is more than Pandas, Great Wall, and Confucius.

First of all, China is a huge country with around 1.5 billion people.

Secondly, the East Asian region has been heavily influenced by China, it's culture and power for centuries. And finally, China's role is crucial in the region and globally in the coming era.

  Let's first define the Range and Culture of East Asia.

China (PRC), Korea and Japan, are the major players, but Taiwan (ROC), Hong Kong and Mongolia are also small yet important players. The region shares similar cultures and social atmosphere of Confucianism and Buddhism. Age is important when defining social ranks, as elderlies are respected. In Korea, sometimes even a difference in 1 or 2 years of age can make big differences.

Christianity may also play an unnegligible role in modern days. There is about half of population in South Korea that are Christians (Protestant, Catholics etc.), including the current president Moon.

Some people say that the number of Christians is sky-rocketing in China, reaching approximately 30% of its population. China can be the country with largest number of Christians in the world.

  East Asia has a complicated political situation, and remains a conundrum in the world stage.

Most of it derives from History, especially Japan's military aggression. Japan  spread its military influence to mainland China, Korana peninsula and Taiwan before WW1 started, and continued to the entire Asian region including South East Asia until the end of WW2, 1945. Notorious war crimes such as Nanjing Massacre and Comfort Women issues remain much resentments among the people even today. Currently Japan plays an important role in technological advancements and development aid to poor countries, but we still often see many Chinese and Korean civilians protest, demand for Japan's official apology whenever some "Remembrance Day"s arrive. You can find how school Textbooks are arranged differently in the Asian countries, which is an interesting phenomenon.

  Apart from history, current instability in the region can attribute to the battle between Ideologies.

Originally, Republic of China was established in 1912, but Nationalists lost the war to Communists (a complicated history involving Japan's invasion), thus "People's Republic of China" established in 1949. Within East Asia, Japan and South Korea, along with Taiwan (where Chiang Kai-Shek left for after defeat) and Hong Kong, belong to the Democratic block, while China and North Korea still belong to Communist-Socialist side even after USSR's collapse, each claiming it being the orthodox of Marxism-Leninism.

China and DPRK's military have been heavily supported by Russia, and till this day, they pose threat to entire World Peace.

  Territory issues is also a key factor of current controversies in East Asia.

Japan claims sovereignty over Senkaku island over PRC (Diao Yu Dao) and ROC (Diao Yu Tai).

On the other hand, Takeshima (Dokto) is a dispute between Japan and Korea.

Meanwhile, the region has gained concern over China's recent behaviors in territory issues, claimed it's intention of "Chinese hegemony" by some emotional comments.

Chinese officials continuously provoke its neighbors by drilling the seabed near demarcation lines, deploying warships to borders and constructing artificial islands. The main purpose of gaining territories lies not on the land itself , but Resources and Power. In many cases, there lies rich oil and gas beneath the seabed. When building an island, there will be increase of economic zones as well, where one can gain fishery and expand military. International regulation of maritime boundary is 12 nautical miles apart from land for territory and 200 for exclusive economic zone (EEZ).

 

Despite the issues, China remains the largest Trade partner for many countries. China has gained international attention since later half of 2000s. China has 2nd largest GDP in the world, and 1st in Asia (although it having high discrepancy between rich and poor within country). China has signed Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with many countries, but some fear that being too dependent on China's products is harmful for domestic economy. It is not a member of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), but is included in the framework of "ASEAN +3", together with South Korea and Japan. It is mainly about cooperation on economical issues, but also on some shared issues such as security and environment.  

Currently, Asia is the only region in the world without a formal framework of Regional Cooperation. Some borderless common issues cannot be solved with over-emphasizing of borders.