LETTERS: Japan's economy was the envy of the world in the 1980s — as at that time it grew at an average annual rate (as measured by gross domestic product, GDP) of 3.89 per cent, compared to 3.07 per cent in the United States.
Many in the US feared they were about to be overtaken.
Does this sound familiar in relation to China's phenomenal rise? The US media was full of the "Japanning of America" or an "economic Pearl Harbour", and lawmakers warned of a growing trade deficit between the two countries.
And what do you know? They complained of Japanese firms stealing US intellectual property and taking advantage of unfair trade deals. In 1989, Donald Trump was on air complaining that Japan had "systematically sucked the blood out of America — sucked the blood out!"
So, the US started pressuring Japan to open its market up to American companies and reduce the trade imbalance between the countries.
The US, West Germany, France, the United Kingdom, and Japan signed the Plaza Accord, devaluing the US dollar against the Japanese yen and it led to an increase in exports and a lowering of its trade deficit with many European countries.
Furthermore, in 1987, Washington imposed 100 per cent tariffs on US$300 million worth of Japanese imports, effectively blocking them from the American market.
And as the yen increased in value, Japanese products became more expensive, and countries turned away from the one-time export powerhouse.
When Japan's central bank tried to keep the yen's value low, it sparked a stock price bubble which pushed the country into recession.
Thus, from 1991 to 2003 the Japanese economy, as measured by GDP, grew only 1.14 per cent annually, well below that of other industrialised nations.
Japan experienced a period of economic stagnation and price deflation known as "Japan's Lost Decade". While the Japanese economy outgrew this period, it did so at a much slower pace than other industrialised nations.
Today, Japan is no longer the second largest economy, having been overtaken by China. However, Dr Mahathir Mohamad is still harking back to his "Look East Policy" of the Eighties.
One would think that China's success in lifting 850 million Chinese out of extreme poverty would have prompted him to urge Malaysians to learn how they did it.
In this respect, "Chinese characteristics" or "Asian work ethic" has less to do with this phenomenal feat than the political will, the political system, and the dedication to a socialist cause to serve their people. Isn't this spirit worth emulating?
Of course, China is not Japan. We saw how Japan was propped up by the US after the Second World War despite their fascist and militarist record in order to keep China down.
China has developed into the world's second largest economy and looks primed to overtake the US within the next 10 years. Their infrastructure development and renewable energy commitments already surpass that of the US.
The fundamental difference between China and Japan is that China has developed from its socialist revolution in 1949 and is far stronger both economically and politically than Japan was in the 1980s.
Since 1945, Japan has been dependent on the US for national security, and it will not dare to be on the wrong side of the US which can only boast close to a thousand military bases throughout the world, most of these surrounding China and Russia.
So, will the "Look East Policy" prompt us to be more independent like China or to be a US client state like Japan?
KUA KIA SOONG
Former Member of Parliament
Kuala Lumpur
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of the New Straits Times