Association of East-Asia

The **Association of East-Asia** or **Eastasia** is an Associated state of the United States founded on New Year's Day 2140. It was created to unify Eastern Asia. The Association was created as a result of an Asian economic union; with its founding states of Japan, Chita, and several Chinese states. In late 2140, Korea and the rest of the Chinese states were admitted into the Association, with countries in South-east Asia following along between 2147 and 2149.

The AEA was first proposed by Japanese Minister for Foreign Affairs Hitoshi Yoshida on 9 May 2138 as a way to solidify the political stability established by Ha-eun Zaya's military government. Originally, Yoshida had described the AEA more as a super-national union similar to the old European Union, with political integration only going so far as to re-consolidate the Chinese nation-state. Pressure from the US and from provisional governments on the Asian mainland, however, pushed for the creation of a continental federation.

The Association is at odds with the nations of Central Asia, of whom stubbornly rested outside the American sphere of influence.

## Overview

The century before the Third Mexican-American War was not kind to East-Asia. The flood left hundreds of millions of people homeless and displaced, the Great Reset and Korean War ended the dream of China as a rival superpower to the United States, the Second Chinese Civil War and World War III turned China into a battleground given momentary peace before a Third Chinese Civil War would rock the continent only 50 years later, all the while the region's population declined from low birth rates and immigration to the Space Colonies. By the Third Mexican War, East Asia was falling apart, with only Japan and Korea barely holding together as coherent entities, while the rest of the region was set against itself by competing interests from Mexico, the US and countless private organizations and splinter groups.

It ultimately took an invasion from the largest space force in history to end the nightmare of history in East Asia. General Ha-eun Zaya's Planetary Task Force India functionally conquered Asia with techniques that would have done Genghis Khan proud, assisted with relativistic weapons that were in a sense the final word in destructive power in warfare. Zaya established a military regime in Shanghai that did more in four years to rebuild and administer Asia than any regime since the death of the United Federation of China in 2108. The Quantum Economic Model was put in place across the continent, new space elevators brought much needed food and resources to the region and let millions fleet to the colonies on Venus and the outer planets. And while Zaya's regime chiefly ruled over China and Southeast Asia, she negotiated an agreement with Japan, Korea, and Mongolia to incorporate their economies under the Quantum Economic Model, laying the groundwork for the creation of the Association of East Asia.

The Association, is a federation of states that, much like Europe and even Africa, were less than willing to unite initially. The US practically created the entity at gunpoint, with the region largely under US occupation. China and South-East Asia needed little convincing after four years under Zaya's military government which had already introduced the notion of a common legislature with her Regional Council. However Japan and Korea were extremely apprehensive about joining. Had it not been for their own economic and demographic crises, and prodding by the Halvidar administration, they could have conceivably remained outside of the union even to this day.

As of 2160, the region is largely a cohesive unit, plagued, as many of the Associations are, by separatist groups, but with none being in any position to actually carry out their desire to tear the Association apart, are for the most part a social annoyance. The Association's government gives a considerable amount of autonomy to its constituent states, and its constitution largely limits itself to manage the economy and infrastructure, but not the social order. Free travel is common, and while the nations that founded the Association are certainly more separated than in Europe or Africa, intermarriage is becoming more common and nationalist tensions are continuing to erode, largely thanks to the provincial structure of the Association, with the option to leave for the myriad of American colonies serving as a kind of social relief valve for populations that might feel marginalized at any point.

## History

### **Establishment**

Events leading up to the Establishment were at the conference for the Treaty of San Juan in 2139, which was largely made up of provisional governments established only in the last few months, the U.S. agreed to pay for reconstruction efforts and aid local forces in keeping order, effectively formalizing the U.S. occupation as a fact of life. In addition, the Executive branch of the U.S. federal government assumed direct control of local commercial and social services to place them under the Quantum Economic Model. Doing so would make the delivery of goods and services to those who needed it far more efficient, and would improve the economies of these countries, as it had in the US and the military administered zones in Eurasia.

President Halvidar of the United States announced that the US was no longer going to pursue a diplomatic policy of keeping Eurasia divided, but rather hoped to unite it; and indeed the entire world. Unification would begin with the establishment of new regional states in free association, including what was now known as the Association of East-Asia. Buffer zones of varying degrees of American occupation was slowly reduced to expand these associated states.

The formation of the Association of East-Asia was announced on New Years day; January 1st, 2140. The countries of China, Manchuria, Japan, Wuyue, Chita, and Taiwan first formed the Association of East-Asia. Admiral Arthur Yaeger (b. 2084), famously known to have commanded most Pacific naval forces during the Third Mexican-American war, was placed as acting president of the Free Association under American Occupation overseen by Zaya's Regime to help make way for Elections in Early December of 2140 (To help align with the American one). Acting President Yaeger organized a Federal system of government with each traditional regions set as a state in the Free Association. While also developing regions and enforcing the Quantum Economic Model

### **Expansion**

In March, 2140, Korea, Macau, and Hong Kong joined the Association followed by the occupied provisional governments in Yangtze Federation, Hunan, Yunnan, Zhuang, Guangdong, Fuijan, Hainan, and Jiangxi in early Summer of 2140.

In the Eastasian Election of 2140, Shuu Otomo of the Eastasian centre-left Unity Party won the election, making him the first official President of Eastasia. After his inauguration in Febuary 4th, 2141, President Otomo's first term was mostly further development and reconstruction after the acting president. He established the Pan Asian Interstellar Research from defunct Asian space agencies in late 2143. President Otomo was then elected to a second term in 2144 before going on a campaign to annex regions in South-East Asia between 2147 and 2149.

Under the second President Han Jin Wei, elected in 2148, she helped expanded further westward through formerly neutral states of Mongolia, South Mongolia Republic, Ningxia, and Gansu. While many in the country had celebrated this decision. Countries in Central Asia, whom was not under the influence of the United States, began to worry about Eastasian expansion throughout Asia. This sparked tension when an alliance was formed between the Central Asians to prevent further expansion of the Association of East Asia along with protests within the recently annexed regions of Eastasia.   In 2155, President Han Jin Wei was mysteriously found dead at age 85 in her bedroom at 9 in the morning. This spawned many conspiracies.

Her vice president, Dzu Khanh Pham, was inaugurated into Presidency shortly after. President Pham's administration was filled with buffers in security and increasing responses to serious terrorist threats within the most western parts of Eastasia. However, Tuva joined the Association in 2156. President Pham did not wish to run for re-election, saying that he is "satisfied".

Conservative party candidate Raku-Li Kim won election in 2156, promising a "slow-down" of Eastasian expansion and instead focused on investment of the expansion of businesses, infastructure, and industries in Space.

## **Administrative divisions**

The Association of East-Asia is divided into 60 provinces, and one capital district, each overseen by an elected governor, legislature and provincial court system. Each province is further divided into prefectures, municipalities and villages. The provinces enjoy a degree of autonomy comparable to American states or the provincial system adopted near the end of the United Federation of China.