Quoting a Sankei Shimbun column, this essay examines Russia and China as authoritarian states revived from the past, contrasting their centralized decision-making with liberal democracies. It reflects on Japan’s looming crises and compares German reunification with the Korean Peninsula, highlighting the geopolitical impact of China’s power.

It is Russia and China, unashamed of authoritarianism and personality cults, that are the monsters revived from the Middle Ages.
2020-01-04
The following is from the January 3 Sankei Shimbun column “A Word from the Editorial Writers.”
Rui Sasaki.
Russian President Putin said in an interview with a British newspaper that “liberalism is obsolete.”
It is Russia and China, unashamed of authoritarianism and personality cults, that are the monsters revived from the Middle Ages.
However, the speed of decision-making in dictatorial states far surpasses that of free and democratic nations.
Underestimation is dangerous.
Can we truly sense the crisis approaching Japan, beset by troubles at home and abroad?
We should recall that Noah built the ark “before the rain fell.”
Masako Nagato.
Thirty years have already passed since Germany’s reunification.
Although the friction of a once-divided nation becoming one still remains, when we turn our eyes to the Korean Peninsula, there is not even a sign of German-style reunification.
One thing Germany had that the Korean Peninsula does not is continuous exchange and information between the peoples of both sides at the civilian level.
However, it may be more important to consider what exists on the Korean Peninsula that did not exist in Germany.
Germany did not have wars between ethnic groups.
Above all, it did not have a powerful authoritarian state like China next door.