Superpower Angst: Why It’s Lonely at the Top for Uncle Sam

Excerpts of commentary around the Pacific Rim. JAPAN

“Japan’s security houses garner their majority share of the market by doing things that American and European securities companies will not do. . . . When (Japan’s institutional investors) lose in the market, they say ‘Can’t you do something for us?’ and the securities houses ‘Do something for them.’ ”

--Tetsundo Iwakuni, mayor of Izumo, on Japan’s securities scandal “I like American candor. One should not talk with Americans in a roundabout manner. Speak frankly. The more heated the debate, the friendlier you become with Americans.”

--Hajime Karatsu, opinion leader “I used my brain more when I was a lawyer, in terms of fine thinking.”

--Harue Kitamura, Japan’s first woman mayor, on her new job “Those ignorant American politicians complained: ‘Japan did not shed any blood.’ But Japan should tell them: ‘Instead of blood, Japan gave you the semiconductors that minimized the bloodshed.’ ”

--Shintaro Ishihara, author of “The Japan That Can Say No,” on Japan’s contribution to Gulf War.

TAIWAN

“Even a superpower must respect the furies of nature. With that . . . Washington can declare itself distracted by other, more ponderous, matters and get on to the real business of being a superpower--getting others to subsidize both its standard of living and its foreign adventures.”

--China News editorial on why Pinatubo gave U.S. a face-saving way out of Clark “Adding billions in risky debt for the Soviets would topple (the U.S. banking system)--and the Americans know it.”

--China News editorial on why Washington is wary of giving money to Moscow

INDONESIA

“We have several Schwarzkopfs. . . . But the question is whether the great Schwarzkopf would be able to win over Pol Pot.”

--Cambodian Prince Norodom Sihanouk, quoted in Straits Times, on his country’s peace talks “And sudden U.S. withdrawal from Asia would create a security vacuum that could tempt emerging regional powers.”

--Straits Times editorial “It would be condescending, to say the least, and suspect for the West to preach human rights to the East.”

--Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, quoted in the Straits Times “With the end of the Cold War, we cannot assume that the Western powers will continue to woo Asean (Association of Southeast Asian Nations). Asean must reassess itself.”

--Singapore Foreign Minister Wong Kan Seng, quoted in the Straits Times

PHILIPPINES

“Mt. Pinatubo belied the American claim that it would take three years to withdraw (from Clark). It took them less than 48 hours.”

--Solita Collas-Monsod, Philippine Star columnist “We have the opportunity to liquidate an unequal relationship that has lasted almost a full century.”

--Philippine Daily Inquirer editorial on why bases treaty with U.S. must be rejected

SINGAPORE

“What is so sad today is that people think that things you find in Hollywood and soap operas are Western culture, therefore decadent and objectionable.”

--Gwee Yee-Hean, president of the country’s academy of fine arts

THAILAND

“The possibility of a ‘Fortress North America’ exists.”

--Amnuay Viravan, chairman of Bangkok Bank’s executive board, on U.S.-Canada-Mexico free-trade zone. “They said they were afraid more of starvation than of AIDS.”

--Lawyer Thongbai Thongpao on why rural Thai girls take up prostitution