Warning!!! Read first before continuing!

This is an alternate history, and with fictional characters used in subsequent timeline, some part of this might, and can, trigger your political sensitivities, discretion is advised! Hope you enjoy!

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The year is 2025, and the world stands on the brink of war... a new kind of and weapons harnessing new technologies had been set to change history forever. But how did we get here?

One of it's genesis heralded back at 19th Century, when the Sinocentric international order of tributary system in Asia was much weakened during the late Qing dynasty. Defeats by Britain in the Opium Wars and the resultant Treaty of Nanjing in 1842, as well as the Treaty of Wangxia with the United States in 1854, allowed western powers to impose European-derived international law on their relations with east Asia. The British institutionalised legally a system of treaty ports and control of Chinese maritime customs, which combined to reduce China to semi-colonial status. Meanwhile during its Meiji period Japan launched an aggressive programme of modernisation and industrialisation, which included adoption of the western lexicon into its diplomatic language.

In 1876 Japan forced China's closest ally, Joseon Korea, into signing the Kanghwa Treaty, copying the methods employed by US Admiral Perry to open up Japan to overseas trade 22 years previously. Conflict over Chinese and Japanese relations with Korea came to a head at a meeting at Tianjin in 1885 in which China rebuffed Japanese demands for the Japan-Korea relationship to be recognised under western international law. Rather than pleading ignorance of western norms as Korean negotiators had done, the Chinese viceroy Li Hongzhang told the Japanese statesman Ito Hirobumi that there was a 'striking difference' between Korea's tributary relations with China and the mere treaty obligations that she had towards Japan.

The modernizing Japan was able to undermine China's central position in Asia during the late 19th century by using the language and force of western international law to replace Chinese legal terms hitherto widely accepted in east Asia, introducing a new Sino-Japanese lexicon translated from English.

For example, at Tianjin, Ito refused to communicate with Li Hongzhang either in Chinese or Japanese but instead spoke in English, catching the Chinese viceroy by surprise. The conflict between the Chinese and Japanese visions for east Asia would be decided on the battlefield.

Despite basic naval parity Japan took advantage of a series of disastrous political and strategic errors by Li to defeat China decisively in 1894-95, establishing control over both the Senkaku/ Diaoyu islands and Korea in addition to seizing Taiwan. At a later meeting in 1905 the Chinese viceroy Yuan Shikai complained that there was a Chinese word in the text that he had not seen before, only to be humoured by the Japanese representative, who replied that the word kogi was translated from 'protest' in English. Japan, not China, was to be the new source of the modern vocabulary in kanji (Chinese characters) both legally and in other fields, from botany to economics as it continued its imperial expansion in the early 20th century starting from the formal annexation of Korea.

Fast forward to the mid-20th century. In the aftermath of World War II in Asia as the defeated Japan dissolved its empire, the first reference to Nine-Dash Line, originally Eleven, the main trigger of South China Sea dispute, was shown in a map published by the then-Kuomintang government of the Republic of China. In 1949, the newly established People's Republic of China in the mainland dropped the claim on the Gulf of Tonkin hence reduced the eleven dash to nine. In the meantime, the ROC or Taiwan maintained the same claim. Moving forward to 1954, the Geneva Accord gave South Vietnam control of the Vietnamese territories south of the 17th Parallel, which included the islands in the Paracels and Spratlys.

In 1952, the Second World War in Asia was officially concluded by the San Francisco Peace Treaty. It's content included the Treaty of Shimonoseki stipulation about the Senkaku Islands as part of Japan, but at which neither the newly formed People's Republic of China nor Republic of China in Taiwan were present in the signing.

Flash forward to 1972, as the Vietnam War was on its closing stage, US President Richard Nixon's visit to PR China triggered the start of the country's opening to the world after the death of Mao Zedong, further driving a wedge of the already split communist world.

Two years later, when a North Vietnamese victory in the Vietnam War began to seem probable, the PRC used military force in the Paracel Islands and took Yagong Island and the Crescent group of reefs from South Vietnam in order to prevent the Soviet-aligned North Vietnam to occupy it. At the same time, the Philippines and Malaysia began referring to the Spratly Islands as included in their own territory. For the former, President Ferdinand Marcos issued a presidential decree declaring the north-western part of the Spratly Islands (referred to therein as the Kalayaan Island Group) as Philippine territory. As the 1970s went to a close, Deng Xiaoping, the successor of Mao Zedong as Paramount Leader of China and General Secretary of Chinese Communist Party started in full swing the process of his country's modernization by economic growth, entrepreneurship, and foreign investment, but without political freedom, replicating the successful formula used in Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore.

The time was also the People's Republic of China, Taiwan and Japan have all put forward bold sovereignty claims over the Senkaku or Diaoyu Islands. According to Chinese view, even though the islands were vassals of both China and the Japanese state of Satsuma during the 19th century, the former relationship was more formal; the conquest of an inner tributary (Ryukyus) by an outer tributary (Japan) of China was a cause for outrage. The Japanese in contrast largely ignored the former's historical position, by claiming that the uninhabited islands were not occupied by any power, or terra nullius.

Enter the 1980s, which saw a wave of democratization sweeping through East and South East Asia. Despite oppositions from business interests, the government of Japan in that era decided to explicitly endorse and support the new wave, in response to a corruption scandal in the Philippines involving Japanese foreign aid. From the Philippines in 1986, followed by Indonesia and Taiwan both in 1987, and finally South Korea on the same year until it was halted by bloody suppressions in Myanmar and China in 1988 and 1989 while the Laotians, Vietnamese and North Korea opted for a Chinese-like economic opening and reform. Particularly for Vietnam, the Doi Moi was accelerated by Vietnam's defeat in a skirmish off Johnson Reef by China on 14 March 1988, which also paved the path for the transition to peace in Cambodia.

A special note for Indonesia; on November 1989, under a depressed economy coupled with international pressure, Indonesian President Nasution as part of the nation's transition to democracy had decided to call a referendum for the East Timor province, a former Portuguese colony it occupied and integrated as it's own province in 1975, after a UN-brokered dialogue. Despite opposition by some factions in the military, the referendum proceeded and after a transitional administration (UNTAET) marred by violence by pro-integrationist militias, East Timor obtained it's independence in 1994.

Dawn of 1990s saw Japanese stock market crashed, fueled by the burst real estate bubble, marking the start of the nation's economic slowdown that triggered the rise of new political parties in Japan.

At the same time, the Gulf War broke out, a harbinger of United States increased involvement in Middle East for the next two decade afterwards. The war saw the first live-news broadcast from the frontline, and where the newly revealed Global Positioning System played a pivotal role.

As the world attention were focused on the wars in former Yugoslavia, the sanction enforcement in Iraq, as well as ethnic conflicts in the former USSR as part of it's dissolution and also in Africa such as the Rwandan Genocide, the rising China slowly made their move.

In 1994, the occupation of Mischief Reef in the guise of "shelter for Chinese fisherman", marked the first military confrontation between China and US-allied Philippines. In 1995, Taiwanese pro-independence president Lee-Teng Hui visit to Cornell University for "Democracy in Taiwan" speech, increased tension with Mainland China and the start of Third Taiwan Strait Crisis, with missile drills by the PRC. A year later in Taiwanese general election, Lee-Teng Hui won in near-landslide victory amongst another series of missile drills. The US sent two aircraft carrier groups; USS Independence which passed through the Strait, while the second, the USS Nimitz conducted a joint exercise with the Philippines. At the same year, a Hong Kong based activist David Chan Yuk-cheung drowned in an attempt to swim into Senkaku Islands. His death became a cause celebre and galvanized further Chinese (and Taiwanese) effort to enforce it's claim on it.

Even as the Taiwanese tension were stealing the headlines, two European powers with residual holdings in China, Great Britain and Portugal, remain committed to and subsequently executed their promise to hand over their respective territories, Hong Kong and Macau, to Chinese sovereignty in 1997 and 1999 respectively.

At the same time, a speculative attack fueled by high level of borrowing in emerging Asian economics triggered an Asian-wide financial crisis that morphed into yet another global recession. Alongside the Asian countries, the crisis hit Russia hard which was compounded by an Islamic insurgency inside it's borders. Desperate for foreign capital and forced into a default, Russia sold a large amount of advanced military hardware as well as training and advisory services for foreign militaries like Algeria, Iran, Venezuela, Syria, India, North Korea, and most importantly China.

As a bid to divert it's citizen from the hardship made by economic crisis, China decided to made a surprise move. Instead of Taiwan, it's target was Senkaku Islands. On June 3rd, 1999, a report of occupation of Senkaku Islands by a group of Chinese activists turned into a shooting war when a Chinese warship opened fire against a Japanese Coast Guard vessel sent into the area. The incident marked the beginning of the Senkaku Islands War or some other historians called it the Third Sino-Japanese War, which end in Japanese victory assisted by the US Navy's 7th Fleet coupled by UN pressure on August 10th, 1999.

Up to 200 Japanese lost their lives, mostly civilians. Chinese casualties were officially counted as 90 but international consensus agreed that it was underreported. Meanwhile, the United States lost two vessels by hostile fire for the first time since World War II, the USS Elliot (DD-967) and USS Samuel B. Roberts (FFG-58) with 65 sailors lost their lives. In addition, Chinese bombers severely damaged USS Constellation (CV-64) with anti ship missiles, costing additional 165 dead. The aircraft carrier was never repaired and subsequently retired in September that year for scrapping.

The New Millennium created new opportunities as the world had fully embraced the Information Age, but also increased instability, especially with the fact that part of the developed world's recovery after 1999 was fueled by another bubble - the dot com bubble. But like the other bubble, it had to burst.

That new bubble started right after Japanese and American victory off Senkaku Islands, with the former's Nikkei index rose by more than 45% as part of a general surge in patriotism and an exuberant national mood resembling the first bubble economy, in a similar effect as India's victory in Kargil War that year but it was considerably larger for Japan.

The first post-1999 Japanese general election in 2000 saw a reformist coalition led by a new party called "New Hope Party" formed in 1992 by several former Liberal Democratic Party functionaries won the election with 75% of the vote among 90% turnout. It was followed by the 95% increase in military spending, mostly for capital spending, especially development of new weapons systems with increased automation in mind, added by the passage of the revision of Article 9 of Japanese constitution despite an unexpectedly strong opposition on April 25th.

On the same year, March 13th, the news of America's slowing economic growth coupled by the fear of another round of recession caused a series of event that started the end of the dot-com bubble. Investor confidence was further eroded by a series of accounting scandals in the US, the most notorious was Enron Corporation's collapse in October that year. Increased US and Chinese tension due to a mid-air collision between an US surveillance aircraft and Chinese fighter jet above Hainan exacerbated things further.

Then came the 9/11. World Trade Center terrorist attacks. Despite official explanation of Al-Qaeda, an Islamic jihad group, being responsible, there were dissenting voices from across political lines and religion, which were collectively called "truthers" by the media. The attack was followed by the Invasion of Taliban-ruled Afghanistan October that year in the quest of hunting Al-Qaeda's leader, Osama bin Laden. At the same month, the passage of Patriot Act gave US government an increased power to spy on it's own citizens.

A similar law in spirit named National Security Law was passed in Japan on October 31st that year, which critics immediately compared it to the old Imperial-era Peace Preservation Laws.

Complaints pertaining to the NSL were mostly about surveillance on Zainichi Koreans involved with pro-North Korea NGO and de-facto embassy Chongryon, activists from anti-nuclear and peace movements especially from Okinawa that were often intersected with it's separatist movement, in short, anything pertaining to "progressive" left-wing causes as well as those in the extreme right (uyoku dantai).

Being omnibus in nature, the law also reorganized the nation's management of classified information and most importantly the internal and external intelligence body. In particular it's internal intelligence who got a makeover under the name of Japan National Security Service (JNSS), which had the larger power than the old Public Security Intelligence Agency, in particular an authority to make arrests akin to US FBI and most European internal security agencies.

Following the revamp of it's internal security system, a new Defense Forces Law as by-product of the Article 9 revision was finally passed on June 3rd, 2002, under influence of America's own military reorganization, Japan executed it's own reform by renaming the Self Defense Forces, JSDF or the Jieitai into a new Imperial Defense Force, JIDF, or Nippon Teikoku Kokka Boei-tai, with entailed a removal of legal restriction on offensive capabilities allowing weapon systems such as ballistic and long-range cruise missiles as well as combat drones to be introduced into service.

Two years later, the United States launched "Operation Iraqi Freedom". President George W. Bush authorized it without an official declaration of war from Congress.

Meanwhile, with the United States' attention was focused in the Middle East and Afghanistan, Russia, fueled by the increased energy revenue picked up the pace of it's industry rebuilding, especially related to it's defense industries, aiming to make the country as self-sufficient as possible as well as a viable power to counteract moves by America and it's allies especially in the cultural, energy, and the lesser extent, economic sphere.

On August 17th, 2007, President Vladimir Putin announced the resumption of flight exercises of its strategic bombers in remote areas. That same year, the United States was hit with yet-another round of financial crisis, worse than the previous ones. It's main trigger was the bursting of the US real estate bubble. Many people suspected the event was an inside job by bankers, financiers, and speculators from multiple nations, and several anti-federal protests broke out as the result. The 2008 presidential election was held within this framework of society, which helped the Democratic Party to won the presidency and the Congress.

On January 2009, the president-elect Barack Hussein Obama was sworn into office. With several of his domestic policies spanning eight years aroused controversy, nearly two hundred new militia groups and homeschooling communities were created in the US. These groups arise for a number of different reasons, fearing that their civil liberties and values are at risk. Alternative movements also gains massive support from American citizens mostly within the middle-class across racial groups.

Overall under Obama, the US economy and the world were slowly recovering while the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan remained in effect. In fact, on February that year, the President ordered a troop surge into Afghanistan. His administration also increased the nation's awareness on cybersecurity, especially in the interest of national defense.

Other than Middle East, the administration also started a pivot to East Asia in a response of rising China as an economic and military power.

The flare up of tensions at the Asian flashpoints continued in regular basis. Chinese provocations continued at Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands, Taiwan, South China Sea, and the land border with India as the 2010s went in, in particular with the occupation of Philippine-administered Scarborough Shoal by China, followed by the expansion of the dispute further south, into Indonesia.

With China's testing the water around the country's Natuna Island, whose EEZ had overlapped with part of the former's Nine-dash line, Indonesia had entered the scene as a new party in South China Sea dispute while maintaining it's official non aligned stance for the rest of the decade.

North Korean stance at this point amplified the overall tension by its guided missile tests and multiple rounds of border skirmishes, with fatalities from both sides.

In light of the increased tension, Japan and South Korea held a summit meeting at the Jeju Island in 2013 which saw the renouncement of Japan's claim to the South Korean administered Liancourt Rocks, better known as Dokdo Islands, in return of acceptance of how economic aids to South Korea during the 60s and 70s were counted as reparation payments for the brutal treatment of Koreans during Japanese colonial era, codified as the Treaty of Jeju.

On December 17th, 2010, a Tunisian street vendor named Mohamed Bouazizi set himself on fire. His act of protest against police corruption was the immediate spark to the chain of events that would be known in the world as the Arab Spring.

Despite several changes of governments in that region, like Tunisia and Egypt as well as economic concessions in Gulf monarchies such as Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Kuwait, Oman, and Jordan, the protests were quickly degenerated into the Arab Winter starting from NATO military interventions in Libya in support of the anti-Gaddafi rebels. Such intervention was controversial inside American soil. The subsequent civil wars after Gaddafi's death as well as in Syria, Yemen in conjunction of the rise of Islamic State resulted in millions of deaths and as many refugees seeking protection, mainly in Europe, which were subsequently associated with increased terrorism in the region and beyond. These series of events along with the controversial nuclear deal with Iran, as well as perceived ineffective response on Russian invasion of Crimea and Donbas region in Ukraine. paved a way for Republican victory in the subsequent, controversial, 2016 election.

At the same time as the beginning of the Arab Spring, 2010 saw the beginning of Belt and Road Initiative, a global infrastructure building strategy by China to expand it's influence by investing in nearly 70 countries including those formally allied with the US such as the UAE, Australia, Greece, Israel, Egypt, and South Korea, and greatly increasing it's involvement in international organizations. Four years later, this program was officially codified into China's revised constitution.

Back to the American soil, the 2016 election saw a rise of a Texan businessman under the Republican Party ticket, named Alexander DeBakey as an unexpected "dark-horse" contender. His stronger immigration enforcement agenda, support to European defense including Ukraine, as well as withdrawal from the JCPOA - in short, a partial rollback on previous administration - aroused controversy at home. However, the old Pivot to Asia policy was still in place to the point of reduction of its Middle East footprint slowly reducing it's troops in post-ISIS Iraq and Afghanistan. The subsequent trade and investment war with China was reinforced by the formation of the counter BRI program called the Blue Dot Network in 2018 at the sidelines of ASEAN Summit in Bangkok, with partners include Japan, South Korea, Australia, India, and followed by the UK. Many countries had already accepted Chinese largesse in BRI but also supported the Blue Dot, either US aligned nations but also historically non-aligned ones.

Despite the Republican control on Congress and the presidency and the steady economic growth with the renewal of the nation's manufacturing and high-tech industry, third party movements had already been strong enough as a force to be reckoned with, especially with the increase of racial tension in several major cities sparked by multiple deaths of young Afro-American men attributed to police officers.

Out of these third parties, the Regeneration Party lead the way to become the first third party to actually won multiple state and territorial elections in both Continental United States as well as in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, taking advantage of the struggles particularly rural folks and younger middle and lower class alike, strongly linked to increased perception of disenfranchisement caused by rampant corruption and waste in both factions inside the Beltway.

The leader of the party was an energy entrepreneur and former US Navy officer Captain Gary Allen, who became prominent when he won the 2012 race for the Governor of North Dakota, one of the main oil producers of the US.

Upon his retirement from military service with combat records in First Gulf War and Kosovo as commanding officer of aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt, Allen initially joined the American Solidarity Party, a third way party formed in 2002, but later due to disagreements on the party's opposition to capital punishment, he and some other cadres surrendered their membership and joined what was initially a movement called the Front of American Regeneration (FAR) that subsequently transformed into a full-scale political party in 2008.

The principal source of his popularity was from conservatives due to his support to family owned businesses, tighter stance on illegal immigrations, the "family right to education" a growing legal term for homeschooling, as well as the Second Amendment - right to bear arms. On the other hand, part of the other side of North Dakota's political divide was also attracted to his side by the reformed state social safety net, a commitment to renewable energy and other pro-environment causes, and an improved racial relations and a third-lowest incarceration rate across the United States as the result of the state law enforcement and prison reform.

Using the state's sovereign wealth fund, he incentivized the construction of wind farms as well as canola and corn-sourced ethanol fuel to be blended with petroleum, one of the first in the country as part of the drive to create jobs in light of 2007 stock market crash. The renewable energy push also helped the state weather another storm in the form of a pandemic as 2020 dawned. A global pandemic that had not been seen since the Spanish Flu in 1918 which was a variant of SARS coronavirus disease which was later officially called by World Health Organization as COVID-19.

Starting from the city of Wuhan in China, the economic and health toll of COVID-19 hit the entire globe hard. Even with the success of the global vaccination campaign that helped the world to live in an uneasy harmony with the virus which was dubbed as the new normal, the pandemic only fueled the increased discontent with various governments and establishments around the globe resulting in protests which in some cases ended up in violence or activist-fueled cyberattacks against government and financial institutions.

Back in the USA, knowing that it's time to put things forward after a successful two terms as Governor, Allen promptly agreed for a call for him to run as President with a Native American lawyer from Montana as his running mate, Sikyatavo Dubray. By this point, he had amassed a group of like-minded candidates to run for Congress and Senate under the RP banner, especially as multiple scandals rose from both sides of the aisle related to how COVID-19 was being handled, in particular, the wasteful handling of the stimulus money.

Other hot button issues include the increasing perception of America's fragile infrastructure against outside attacks, increased social tension as well as censorship by tech companies, particularly regarded as threatening to the foundation of the nation's political system as a whole. By the end of 2020 election, dubbed as the "most heated and most divided" election of the century, the RP reached what was initially deemed impossible by the country's entrenched mainstream media, by seizing control of not only the presidency but also the Congress.

The Regeneration Party's near complete domination in the elections increased the odds that their agenda of radical systemic change was going to pass, even with significant opposition force
Even before they were fully in office, all RP candidates, dubbed as "The Circle" journeyed to a small resort in Rhode Island to spend the week identifying the new party leaders, federal agencies, legislative priorities, political appointments, committee chairs and members based on their skillsets.

The Circle outlined a very detailed plan for delegating who within the party would be responsible for pushing specific items of the RP agenda. These men and women - still mostly men - were working together like no other Congress before them to try and craft legislation and executive orders to hit the ground running and take control of the situation in the United States. At a time when social tension and economic concentrations was at an all time high, the RP vowed to do everything in their power to keep America whole, no matter the cost.

Immediately a process of house cleaning, or purge was underway, starting from it's powerful intelligence community followed by federal law enforcement bodies and later the military, finance, academia, mass media, and technology sector by every lawful means available.

Other RP cadres and affiliates put their weight to influence the United Nations and other international bodies, largely seen by this point as being compromised by China. Along with that, a special attention was given to securing and restoring energy, food, and technological security of the nation and it's European allies, in light of the yet another increase of tension with Russia and China as well as in the Middle East along the general worldwide economic downturn due to the China's property sector collapse.

The first was the Lebanese general collapse in 2021 after a revolution that became the main factor of the degeneration of Saudi Arabia and Iran rivalry to a point of no return in 2022 after decades of proxy fighting across the Middle East in a bid for supremacy, when Iran-supported Houthi rebels in Yemen launched multiple ballistic missile attacks that nearly destroyed the largest refinery of Saudi's pride, the Ras Tanura, jacking up the oil price above one hundred and forty dollars per barrel since late 2000s.

Matters made worse by the aftermath of the attack with Saudi and it's fellow Sunni monarchies such as UAE and Kuwait retaliated by instigating a coup d'etat against the Shia theocratic government of Iran by the Pahlavi dynasty royalists which resulted in a short but bloody civil war across the Persian land. American support was minimal, but was enough to finally neutralize the threat of Iran.

Speaking of Europe, the reorganization of the European Union was initiated by the surprise election of former Hungarian Prime Minister Janus Orban as the President of the European Council. His team brought home a new hope of keeping Europe as a "united entity but with respect to cultures of it's many nations at the same time" with strong conviction that a less bureaucratic EU will allow for a better relationship with it's external partners amongst the internal challenges of the continent, especially the need of securing the continent borders against the massive influx of refugees and economic migrants who were trying to enter from Middle East and Africa; there was simply not enough food and shelter to take in hundreds of thousands of newcomers.

Even countries that were generally welcoming such as Germany, UK, Belgium, and France finally came to their senses about a need to help themselves and restore their cultural sphere before they could be of any real value to anyone else.

Orban's thoughts on a potential conflict with Russia were notably absent from public view during his campaign, to the chagrin of his opposition. While the main focus was certainly going to be on working together with every European stakeholder to get it's people, including already integrated immigrants, back to work, willingly or otherwise, the President knew that he had to do whatever was necessary to prevent Russia from becoming a too much of a threat for Europe and NATO at large, despite by the fact that communiques from that country indicated that it would like for a detente with the now European Community well as the UK and US.

Despite Russian continued effort to restore and modernize its military strength spurred by their loss of occupied Eastern Ukraine by NATO-trained and armed Ukrainian forces further fueled by the fact that the sudden death of the old spy nearly plunged the country to a civil war, the alliance did reduce their collective rhetoric against Russia publicly in a good faith, but maintained plans for any contingency.

The Chinese factor had also became the basis of the late 2021 formation of the Indo-Pacific Strategic Defense Coalition or IPSDC or simply SDC in short, nicknamed the Asian NATO, especially with the fact that institution wise, despite being a separate entity, multiple NATO member states acceded to the treaty, led initially by Britain and France who still possessed territories in the Indo-Pacific Area. In 2024, Canada and Germany joined the treaty, followed by Denmark, Norway, Poland, Hungary, Spain, Italy, three Baltic states and the Netherlands on the same year.

Initially, it's Indo-Pacific members and "observers" were India, Bhutan, Australia, New Zealand, Republic of Korea, Republic of China (Taiwan), Japan, and the Philippines. The 2022 intake consist of Singapore, Brunei, Malaysia, Nepal, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, and Fiji. The accession of Papua New Guinea in 2024 and East Timor in 2025 left Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Laos and Cambodia to either become the ally of PR China or stay neutral. Multiple rounds of Chinese Communist Party asset confiscations were also executed, started from the United States and Japan, followed by the European Community plus the UK.

An ocean away in Japan, the New Hope Party's reform in light of the gradual but noticeable decline of Japanese competitiveness in the world stage compared to South Korea and China continued. These process was culminated in the rise of relatively young Rui Nishikino, a 49 years-old physician, hospital manager, and Minister of Health, Labor, and Welfare who led the party and it's coalition partners into a yet another solid majority in the 2023 snap election after his predecessor Yoshihide Sakamoto was forced to resign due to a bribery scandal.

The said scandal was pertaining to an exploration contract for new potential oil reserves off the coast of Niigata. Despite the proven case, the project was allowed to proceed in the name of the energy security; and that's when the country hit the jackpot.

Augmented with renewables such as wind, solar, hydrogen, and wave generators as well as the established nuclear industry, the amount of oil and gas found on that area was shockingly enough to keep the country supplied for at least a quarter of century more plus it's associated government revenue augmenting it's revived manufacturing sector fueled by a need to be less China-dependent, as well as it's globally significant creative industry and service sector. It was followed by the success of a joint Japanese-American-Australian exploration for rare-mineral offshore mining project off the shores of Minamitorishima island, heralding the new era of energy security for the country.

It won't be long before envy reared it's ugly head in China with it's own demand of energy and superpower ambition compounded with the mass confiscation of it's assets abroad...

Note:

(1). Such territories are for example the French Polynesia, Reunion (France), and Diego Garcia (Britain)