For decades, pariah state Burma (Myanmyar) had only China to watch its back.
Now that Burma is trying to stop being a pariah state, they seem eager to turn their back on China:
Now, as Myanmar seeks to shed its authoritarian past, a much different picture is emerging. Japan is rapidly ramping up its presence in the country with a heavyweight deployment of government assistance and corporate heft reminiscent of the large investments at the height of Japan’s global economic power in the 1980s. ...
John Pang, the chief executive of CARI, a research organization based in Malaysia, says the Myanmar government’s pivot toward Japan “is not so much an attraction to Japan as much as a revulsion against the Chinese.”
“It’s a game the Chinese gave away,” he said.
Remember when our deep thinkers here told us that China was kicking our butts with their vaunted soft power?
Yeah, neither do they.
