ABSTRACT
The second half of the twentieth century witnessed a couple of geopolitical transformations as far as East Asia was concerned. The second half of the twentieth century witnessed a couple of geopolitical transformations as far as East Asia was concerned. In terms of economic development, the key area of the global economy seemed to start shifting from the Atlantic rim (the American continent and Europe) to Asia Pacific. The “history problems” among East Asian countries can be traced back to the 1980s. In the early years of the twenty-first century, anti-Japanese protests mushroomed in various provinces in China. In the 1970s, the People’s Republic of China became a permanent member of the UN Security Council. Meanwhile, its status as a Nuclear Weapons State under the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) had granted the country a significant role in East Asia’s regional politics.
