I think countries like Singapore, Korea, etc do not want the US, Korea, to leave. They are between a rock and a hard place and want to balance the US and China in order not to become too dependent on one and to benefit from both.
Singapore, which is quite "China-friendly" is saying exactly that.
What I find interesting is that the West in general, and obviously the US in particular, indeed cannot seem to imagine or accept that their complete dominance of the world is coming to an end. This is a rude awakening.
Singapore, which has an history of promoting "Asian values" and is a former British colony with 70%+ ethnic Chinese is very well place to tell us things as they are.
Even if it were true I am not sure if people of Singapore, Korea, Japan, Thailand or Taiwan would like to swap places with people of Xinjang or Tibet..
No, that is a fundamental misjudge. Singapore can be safely regarded as one of major anti China forces in the region. If you just look back several years, Singapore actually managed to got itself in the anti China side on almost every single recent major events.
On HN of all places I suspect that most people fall in a third category:
c) related to designing & parsing grammars
I struggle to believe they are. Where ever did you get that idea from
The debt is what defends the state. A coup or military takeover and that debt won't get repaid, so there is financial incentives for the US to intervene.
They pay the money upfront for them and if the regieme change was illegitimate enough to freeze the bond it would be "free money" until a legitimate claimant comes forward. Like a neighboring city's bank refusing to turn over money from the account of Gotham after joker took over the city. That is the only securing function of it - meaning others lose it if they steal it.
Perhaps that's what is happening with China. It's no longer dependent on the US in the way it was and in time, will eclipse the US as the largest superpower.
> Allowing East Asia to become China's vassal territory?
Sure, in much the same way that it was in the past, and in much the same way that all of North and South America are vassals to the United States.
It is not realistic for East and even Southeast Asian countries to care more about what the US thinks than what China thinks; I don't understand how people can advocate for this goal with a straight face.