Earlier this week I blogged a little bit about the tremendous changes currently being experienced in China as an indirect result of the tragic Sichaun earthquake, and the credibility crisis of 21st century authoritarian capitalist states. Picking up where we left off, this week has brought more and more surprising and historically unprecedented news from China: namely, that they have announced that they will accept earthquake relief aid from Japan, essentially inviting the first Japanese military air mission to China since the end of World War II. Any student of Chinese history will tell you that this announcement by Beijing involves one of the greatest departures from the nation’s historical narrative in recent memory. In my view, it ranks along with Anwar Sadat’s visit to Jerusalem in 1977 and Richard Nixon’s visit to China in 1972. The history of East Asia may never be the same, and Washington should be paying much closer attention to their rapidly depreciating relevance in global affairs.