East Rises, West Falls: Japan’s Ascent and China’s Self-Inflicted Curse

Introduction

“East Rises, West Falls” was once Xi Jinping’s triumphant slogan, intended to frame China’s rise as inevitable and the West’s decline as irreversible. Yet as time passes, the phrase reads less like a prophecy and more like a historical irony. The true “East” that rises is not China but Japan; the true “West” that falls is China itself under Communist rule. Xi’s words have become a self-curse, an epitaph to China’s own decline.

I. The Slogan and Its Illusion

The slogan “East Rises, West Falls” rested on illusions: confidence in population size, manufacturing expansion, and the Party’s mobilization power. It ignored China’s structural crises—demographic collapse, ballooning debt, and political rigidity. Instead of guiding strategy, the phrase served as a narcotic for the regime, soothing its anxieties while blinding it to reform and adaptation.

II. The Reversal of Reality

History has unfolded in reverse. Japan has re-anchored itself firmly in the U.S.-led order, becoming indispensable in East Asia’s security and technology networks. China, meanwhile, faces stagnation at home and isolation abroad. From growth rates to innovation, from diplomacy to social vitality, China is sinking into self-inflicted decline. “East Rises, West Falls” has inverted into “East collapses itself, West endures.”

III. Japan’s Ascent

Japan’s rise is not a resurrection of imperial ambition but the steady outcome of resilient institutions and long-term accumulation. Through technological compensation for an aging society, alliances in regional security, and breakthroughs in semiconductors, green energy, and biotechnology, Japan is quietly regaining global stature. Unlike China, it does not need to trumpet slogans—the facts speak for themselves.

IV. China’s Self-Inflicted Curse

China’s “fall” is deliberate. Population policies have destroyed future vitality; internal repression and external hostility have shut the country off from genuine progress. Xi’s slogan has turned into a curse fulfilled in reverse: the so-called “East Rises, West Falls” now reads as the East—Japan—rises, while the West—China—falls.

Conclusion

History often mocks hubris. The regime’s proudest slogan may end up its obituary. “East Rises, West Falls” is no prophecy—it is a malediction, one that charts not China’s triumph but its self-destruction.