The Pacific Theater

Day 1,695, 23:29 • Published in USA Canada • by 5440
Over the past few months, the map in East Asia has changed considerably.

For Taiwan and Indonesia, complete dominance over their neighboring countries has proved to be unsustainable or possibly undesirable. On March 25th, Taiawan completed a full wipe of Japan and South Korea; on April 5th, Indonesia had wiped the Philippines, Singapore, and Malaysia.There has then been a lot of struggling militarily up until this point. With the way things stand in East Asia, diplomacy could hold the key to the future of these countries, and the old adage the pen is mighier than the sword may still ring true.

Representatives from a few of these countries spoke briefly on how their countries are now handling things. They explained how they dealt with some things in the past, the current views of their country, and what the plans for the future are in eTaiwan, eJapan, and eSouth Korea respectively.


--Taiwan a.k.a. ROC--

Representative: MoFA Veronica Lin


~on the relationship between Taiwan and Japan~

"we have no formal agreement right now, in the future, maybe!"

Taiwan has no official displeasure with Japan's return to 100% regions. From a Taiwanese standpoint, the internal politics of Japan seem very complex. While as in many countries, there are some who remember the past conflicts, the current Taiwanese government seems to consider the issue mostly finished for now.

~on the relationship between Taiwan and South Korea~

Taiwan is currently conducting training wars with South Korea. However, it seems that Taiwan had been somewhat concerned with South Korea's ability to communicate diplomatically, in the recent past.

~on relations with their regional allies, and internal affairs~

Taiwan is very willing to increase military cooperation with Columbia as well as the Philippines in the case of another conflict with Indonesia. Taiwan is also good long term allies with China, and even though there is RL historical context, it doesn't seem to factor into in-game. Taiwan also fought with China, when China helped liberate the Philippines, and then went on to South America. Veronica Lin said that internally, they are trying to find a balance between those that are "hawkish" and those that are "dovish" on their views on international issues. They also would be interested in baby booming, but according to Veronica Lin are difficult, especially as the admins have thus far ignored their request to add languages.

~personal notes~

When South Korea regained some of their regions, it would not be surprising for there to be uncertainty on how to deal with one another. With helping their allies being a concern, Taiwan could be able to avoid further imperialistic urges in neighboring countries.

Addionally, their spike to over 50 new citizens on day 1686 seems to have mostly been a fluke so far, but is still very high for them.


--Japan--

Representative: vMoFA Hizaya Nobunaga


~on the relationship between Japan and South Korea~

"[Japan] wishes to see eSK free because of old brotherhood"

Japan also seemed to consider South Korea's acceptance into CoT an interesting development. However that is not to say that there was any indication that Japan wishes to join CoT or any alliance.

~on the relationship between Japan and Taiwan~

Hizaya said that some of those that want South Korea to be free, also aren't big fans of Taiwan, which could be expected as Taiwan occupies South Korea. However, as was the case Taiwan, there doesn't seem to be any real interest in being hostile at this time.

Interestingly enough, Hizaya mentioned that there were a few that hoped that all of East Asia could join together, whether it be by themselves or with others, "but it's still a long way to go" he said. Once again, this is not necessarily to say that this is Japan's official platform. In terms of warfare, Japan seemed to be mainly concerned with fighting for their own independence, or with nations they consider true friends.

~on the region of Chugoku~

"Chugoku was actually part of a deal with Taiwan at the end to let them rent Chugoku"

"But (former Taiwanese CP)Caesars ended up letting us having our region back once we fulfilled our part of the agreement if we wanted"

Japan took back Chugoku on day 1685.

~personal notes~

I specifically asked about Chugoku, as it was a final Japanese region held by Taiwan for a good period of time.

Admittedly I was the least prepared to talk with Japan, and probably had the least amount of questions for them. Although, perhaps that is partly due to the nature of non-alignment.

I was also able to question Hizaya on the similarities of Dioism and wizards in Japan, as well as one or two Japanese players of interest. However, I was unsure about how relevant any of it would be to the focus of this article.

Also the sentiment of "fighting with bros" seems to be a widespread phenomena throughout erepublik.

--South Korea--

Representative: former CP KOR_Sohn


~on the relationship between South Korea and Taiwan~

"I think if eROC treat eSK with good manners, we will keep in good relations"

The first thing he mentioned on the subject, was that they have now made peace and are conducting training wars. He also seemed to agree that there were some "problems about communications with ROC". Once again language plays a factor, as he claims that they don't have many "fluent English speakers" and "we also don't have fluent Chinese speakers". However, KOR_Sohn was more optimistic about the capabilities of the July government in South Korea, compared to June's.

KOR_Sohn also said he thinks that they returned Jeju to Taiwan, because it would be more possible to negotiate with Taiwan than with China, which borders Jeju.

~on alliances~

"eSK was in EPIC recently but we were very dissapointed"
"so we moved to CoT"

KOR_Sohn also said he could certainly see a reason the East Asian pact that Hizaya said some Japanese believe in.

~personal notes~
Bulgaria seems to have significant support for South Korea at this time.

KOR_Sohn himself stated that he is not currently a member of South Korean government, and was unable to officially speak for his government on certain issues. While he may be able to add a valuable perspective, all representatives should be viewed as speaking from the position they're listed as. The word "representative" itself may or may not be a subjective term in this case.

Representatives from all three countries cited certain past experiences, ranging from recent to the more ancient, as having an effect on their foreign policy and in some cases are a stumbling block. It just goes to show, that not everything a country or an individual does in this game can necessarily be forgotten. It will be interesting to see how things will be able progress in this region.

Possibly there will be a second article focusing on the Southeast part of Asia. There was little mention on China in this article, as they seemed to have been more concerned with the Middle East or South America in recent months.