Japan, South Korea, Taiwan are liberal democracies, their existence shows what an outdated naming convention “Western world” is, because honestly they are Western countries in every way but geographically (which frankly, neither are Australia and New Zealand, yet they are Western too) and in that they don’t have a long standing Judeo-christian tradition. And even then, they have adapted a lot of views from Judeo-christian traditions and values anyway, the aspects that worked with their culture.

China has major demographic problems that stagnate its growth. No other country has engineered their people to have one child per family, and this has already started showing its issues. Even loosening their laws on this does not fix it, because people now have been cultured to want one child per family. This and the fact they live in literally 1984 makes me pessimistic about their rise. They are under the thumb of a dictator that hates what makes Chinese culture amazing, and loves what makes Chinese culture suck, so he makes legal changes for things to suck more about Chinese people.

Vietnam is developing in a positive direction. They clearly look up to Japan and South Korea on how they have Westernized their own cultures without losing their roots, and actually want to get closer to the West as a result; to take the best part of their own cultures, the best parts of Western cultures, and leave out the bad parts of each. South Korea and Japan has showed them this can be done. They have also shown incredible willingness to let go their historical grudges and enemies as long as they work together for a better future. Obviously this excludes China, but that’s because China does not want to work together with Vietnam, they want to treat Vietnam as their vassal, so it’s understandable they feel this way.

Hong Kong is lost and there is nothing the world can do yo help them regain their former glory. Which sucks because they clearly had so much to show and give to the world.