ABSTRACT
The churn in the Asia Pacific region is palpable. The US and other East Asian nations, including China, have their own reasons to feel anxious with changes under way in Japan. Since President Hu Jintao's installation and consolidation at the helm of the People's Republic of China (PRC) government, President Xi Jinping has been pursuing the 'Chinese Dream', or what he also terms 'the Great Renaissance of the Chinese People'. The generic optics from the West, and from Japan, regarding China in the twenty-first century, are fairly clear. Already, the story of an armed conflict between the US and China makes a fine topic to a futuristic fictional war novel. China's gritty pursuit of the Diaoyu/Senkaku island affair and, more significantly, its claim to the waters of the South China Sea – islands, reefs and all, within a 'nine-dash line', plus a tenth dash placed near Taiwan – make more sense when seen within the grand scheme.
