>>16
Seems like you forgot that before the late 19th century, Japan was the one copying the Chinese culture, language, technology, architecture, philosophy and almost everything else. But you can't blame Japan for that, everyone else has been doing the same and copying off the then superior Chinese ever since the beginning of civilization in the Far East. Today, Japan is one to talk only due to it obtaining by chance a very favorable position after WW2.

Historically, being the most powerful nation in the Far East for almost the entire course of history has it's drawbacks. Unlike the Europeans, the lack of any competition (except the damn Mongols for kicking everyone's ass for a period) from outside China has slowed down Chinese progress. I would say the amount of internal strife, (which is one of the main cause China fell behind in the 20th century, between the Chinese people is due to the fact that everyone else (yes, the Japanese, Koreans, Manchus etc.) is too busy kissing China's ass and sending the Chinese tributes to oppose mighty China which could back then very much wipe off anyone else from the face of the earth. When no one else is up to the challenge of standing up to the Chinese, it's surely up to one of their own to fuck things up. And then when China is in a turmoil, the rest of the world moves in to take little bites of it.

I imagine the future would see China being the sole main superpower in the East again, maybe with Japan living under China's missile shield instead of the USA's if the Americans continue to pick the crazy little extremist Middle East so much.

With that being said, I still think current China is a dirty shithole, I don't think China in it's current state is a good representation of a Chinese country so if you really had to pick a good example, go for Singapore. So for the time being, Japan>South Korea>China.