East Asian elites articulated a shared Confucian-tinged civilizational identity against the West

Evidence

Third, while recognizing the differences among Asian societies and civilizations, East Asians argue that there are also significant commonalities. Central among these, one Chinese dissident observed, is “the value system of Confucianism —honored by history and shared by most of the countries in the region,” particularly its emphasis on thrift, family, work, and discipline. Equally important is the shared rejection of individualism and the prevalence of “soft” authoritarianism or very limited forms of democracy. Asian societies have common interests vis-à-vis the West in defending these distinctive values and promoting their own economic interests. Asians argue that this requires the development of new forms of intra-Asian cooperation such as the expansion of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and the creation of the East Asian Economic Caucus. While the immediate economic interest of East Asian societies is to maintain access to Western markets, in the longer term economic regionalism is likely to prevail and hence East Asia must increasingly promote intra-Asian trade and investment. In particular, it is necessary for Japan, as the leader in Asian development, to move away from its historic “policy of de-Asianization and pro-Westernization” and to pursue “a path of re- Asianization” or, more broadly, to promote “the Asianization of Asia,” a path endorsed by Singaporean officials. — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the…, 295

Categorization

• XREF: This East Asian civilizational self-assertion against Western values closely parallels the Islamic revivalism and African/Western themes Huntington develops throughout the book — the universal pattern of ‘the West vs the Rest’ rejecting Western universalism.