I would not bet on Japan is no long can be super power, Japan can flip a finger and be super power tommorrow if their congress wanted to.
bold 2 It's not just Vietnam, China needed Japan, Korea, India, Taiwan and all ASEAN countries on her side. China are not technical enough to compare to US and so Vietnam to UK. Even Japan are not that close to compare to US.
Bold3 No body can stand in China being super power, it that Asia don't trust China with all the power judging that past history and current events in SCS. China needed to show that China are trust worthy to be side with, this will take time to develop.
1) Japan and Michael Jordan comparison is that while MJ is the best basketball player, he isn't tall enough to play the center position, Japan isn't big enough to be a super power without conquering some other country.
The fact Japan could go toe to toe with US is partly due to resources forcefully extracted from China and Korea and using it only for war, but they still can't match the US in production, same deal here.
China is way bigger and has way more people, this is resource Japan can never have.
In order for Japan to have 10 trillion economy, they would be the world's highest non oil, non less than 10 people per capita country, now how likely do you think that is.
2) I only mentioned Vietnam because we are debating with Vietnam members, but yea, we need all Asian nations. As to technical? You you follow Chinese news closely you would know our home market is getting more and more into our own brands in terms of technology, cars, cell phones, pcs, and what not.
Second, unless you think White people are smarter as a rule, which we can prove it isn't by all of history pre-1800s, China catching the US in tech is only a matter of time and not if.
3) Trust? Do you know US history and how US got all its states? Do you know the Spanish American war? The Indians wars? The Mexican American war? The wars that go on now?
As to current actions? What have we ACTUALLY done that resulted in armies getting destroyed and civilians slaughtered? Land being grabbed?