The Far East comes near

That China is a rising global power is a given, although whether the People’s Republic will eventually usurp the United States as world hegemon is hotly debated. But as a saying goes in the Far East that reflects the region’s burgeoning confidence: “Europe was yesterday’s power, today it is the US, and tomorrow it will be Asia.” With China the world’s second largest economy and forecast to overtake the US by 2025 if not earlier, Beijing undoubtedly has the biggest say among the ascendant Asian states. Yet when it comes to a political role in the Middle East, the Far East has traditionally acted as a bystander — an exception being Japan’s involvement in the 1990 Gulf War, albeit a non-military one, by providing $12 billion to the US war chest — but this has started to change in recent years. An inkling of what’s afoot was a surprise diplomatic