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Phrase: Force your hand
Estimated reading time: 3 minutes
Shall we talk about international politics today? Sure, why not?
When countries deal with each other on a national scale, they will often try to force the other’s hand.
The phrase force your hand means to make someone do something they would rather not do.
Let’s look at Japan.
In the middle of April, Prime Minister Suga went to the United States for a one-on-one summit with President Biden.
Suga and the Japanese government said it was a successful one, but if you look closely, the Americans have taken another step to force Japan’s hand when it comes to China.
China is a rising superpower, and the United States is a failing one.
China will not become number one tomorrow, and the US will not fade away overnight, but the process has begun.
Japan is stuck in the middle and trying to play nice with both sides.
However, with their joint statement on Taiwan, the US has forced Japan’s hand.
Japan was forced to make a formal declaration regarding Taiwan.
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This did not make the Chinese very happy.
Actually, to the contrary, China is now upset with Japan.
This country depends on The US for security and China for its economy.
Next, China will do something to force Japan’s hand again.
In international relations, stronger nations will always try to force the hand of weaker ones.
Japan is becoming a more vulnerable nation.
It can’t fight, has an increasingly graying population and is no longer the dominant force of innovation it once was.
Other countries will continue to force Japan’s hand unless it decides to become stronger.
Either that or Suga will have to learn how to eat hamburgers.
Flesch-Kincaid Readability Test
This post is understandable by someone with at least an 8th-grade education (age 13 – 14).
On the Flesch-Kincaid reading-ease test, this post scores 64.
The easier a passage is to read, the higher the score on a scale of 0 – 100.