Asian countries not in unity, unlike countries in Europe?

[003]

If there's something to admire in Europe, that is the unity of its constituent countries. They have European Union. Although not all countries in the said continent join themselves into that, at least most of its most powerful and influential countries are part. So they've go a really staunch union. This isn't the case with the countries in Asia which are in faction, especially the powerful ones. Take for example China and Japan. The two despite their geographical proximity aren't allies, but allies of another rival countries, Russia and US respectively. Why don't just Asian countries prioritise their sibling countries and be allies with them?

 

[Onionman]

There's been talk in the past about having a common Asian union, and there are smaller economic unions in the region (notably the ASEAN bloc). But Asia just feels far too diverse and culturally different to ever imagine a union in a similar fashion to the EU. For one thing, there is still many territories being disputed by different countries, notably China, Japan and Vietnam. The EU also broadly works under the same democratic political system. Asia isn't as uniform as that.

 

[DeltaForce103]

"Geographical Asia is a cultural artifact of European conceptions of the world being imposed onto other cultures, an imprecise concept causing endemic contention about what it means. Asia is larger and more culturally diverse than Europe. It does not exactly correspond to the cultural borders of its various types of constituents"
- Quote from the Wikipedia article concerning the continent.

Under the current definition, the continent of Asia extends from Turkey to Japan. Taken as a whole, it is the most culturally diverse landmass in the world. It's hard to even scratch the surface of the religious, ethnic, economic and cultural differences that separate these countries, not to say anything of the geopolitical conflicts that exist between them.

Comparisons to the comparatively much more homogeneous EU are only possible at a highly abstract level. An Asian Union of similar scale would be an entirely different endeavour, unique and possibly the first step towards world government. A host of factors makes this extremely unlikely to happen in the foreseeable future, as the conditions that forced industrialized European countries to adopt politico-economic union simply do not exist in emerging Asia.

Even if you were only referring to a union of democratic countries within East Asia and parts of Southeast Asia, there is a lack of political or economic will among regional powers for any cooperation on this scale.

 

[missbishi]

The divides between the Asian countries are too great for complete unity. Besides religion, clulture and ethnicity, there's a huge distance between Turkey and Japan. European countries are a lot smaller and the majority of the continent stands on one land mass. The majority of European countries follow the same religion, use the same currency and have similar cultures. therefore, it is much easier for Europeans to identify with each other.

 

[Shimus]

Plus not even counting people, but as was mentioned the "most diverse landmass" is indeed true - and much of that landmass is un-populated or highly dangerous (thick jungles, mountains, even the Gobi desert) and just separated by so many other factors as were mentioned above (ethnicity, religions, ways of life in general)

In relation the EU is more tight knit and easier to run due to the higher dense population and lower spread of area.

 

[xTinx]

I don't know why you should compare Asian countries with European countries. In the first place, most European countries used to be of a bigger realm (e.g. the Roman empire, the Byzantine empire, etc.). They have a shared history that Asian countries could never compare. Unlike European countries, those of us in Asia experienced centuries of colonization. We didn't have time to discover our identities. We didn't have the opportunity to start out on our own. Moreover, most Asian countries are situated in archipelagos, thus limiting interaction and trade centuries ago. Europe is a compact continent, so it's easier to assume a guise of unity compared to Asia. But who are you kidding, really? You may have forgotten the Berlin Wall, the French Revolution, the Battle of Waterloo, the Holocaust and the Balkan wars. Those were things Europe had to go through in order to be united.

 

[RingoBerry]

I guess back then their logic was simple, for as long as they see land, they knew there will be people. European countries managed to establish connections simply because being in the same continent was convenient. With hundreds of years of shared history and interest, unifying the whole of Europe was the best move. On a different note, most Asian countries didn't have the same initiative to go on voyages just to check if there are others beyond their horizon. If they did then we'd probably in a much different situation right now.

 

[mikka254]

What you need to understand is that their form of government was implemented just the other day and what they teach in schools in mostly how to be loyal to your country and government. Their laws were altered but most of the sentiments stayed the same. To each his own. And that is why even with the peace that we are all now enjoying, there are strategies of dominance that are silently taking place such as taking the strategic beach in the Philippines and taking over the US technological market and business. They won't change anytime soon, so it's up to us to adapt and challenge this power.

 

[Rowe992]

I would agree that for the most part the Asian countries don't display the same level of unity like the EU countries. In fact the biggest threat to most of these Asian nations come from other Asian countries. I don't know what it is about Asian countries why they can't unite.

 

[vegito12]

I have seen, that the asian countries have no unity and have their own culture differences and this is holding them back and not moving forward in the world today. It is mostly due, to government or the culture is not accepted in some asian countries and not trust amongst the countries and it leads to separation occuring. I don't think they will unite now maybe later on it could happen and would be surprising to see what happens and how they do it as well.

 

[sillylucy]

It really has to do with leaders who do not want to cooperate with one another. They should be a united front and then they could be leaders of the world. They have so many people! The only thing is that their egos are so big and they do not want to deal with others.

 

[TommyVercetti]

Asian cultures aren't really as homogenous as the European ones mainly due to the history of Anglo-Saxons. East Asian cultures like China and Japan separated at a very early age in history and have diverged from one another ever since. Don't even get me started about the different southeast and south Asian cultures. Overall, Asia tends to be tribalistic while Europe has this sort of shared identity.

The good news though is that Asian countries are starting to think about having a shared identity as well, since most of the western world groups them into one classification anyway: Asian. It's like when you call a black person from the continent of Africa African.

 

[Pinoy Jade]

One big thing that lets the unity out of balance is because of territorial disputes. Japan and China are both powerful though they are not united especially to the marine water disputes. The fact that even China claims of many islands and sea on the Pacific ocean and those are just like the claims of many countries especially in southeast Asia. This fight for territory makes the entire Asia not in order.

 

[Gabriel]

Land locked countries will always be more tightly bonded, regardless of their political and religious beliefs. The problem with Asia is that the countries are separated by distance, water, culture, religion and history. There are simply too many variables for governments to collaborate. Until the generations that remember the tensions of the wars that separated them are gone, those issues will serve as a reminder of why governments don't trust one another.