Structural Change in East Asia: Is Hegemonic Stability Theory still relevant?

East Asia today as a region can be argued to have a structural change happens today. During the Cold War time, people believed that the U.S. and Japan are acting as a hegemonic power served in the region. But today, people may see several important phenomena occurred in the region: (1) the rising power of the PRC both in economy and military in the region, (2) the growing threat from the North Korea, (3) the decline economy strength of Japan, (4) the reluctant U.S. under Trump administration towards East Asia’s intra-region problem. These conditions had left both South Korea and Taiwan at the most vulnerable position. Therefore it is easy to argue that there is a structural change occurs in East Asia region. But using Hegemonic Stability Theory as a lens, I argue that there are no structural changes in East Asia. South Korea and Taiwan are maintaining their traditional relations with the U.S. and Japan. And for the PRC, although its growing economic and military power is clear, but PRC is not acting as a hegemon who sacrifice their attributes to serve as a leader in the region. At last, even though North Korea is now acting unexpectedly with their nuclear weapons, East Asia region remains stable because the U.S. still performs as one hegemonic actor who is willing to maintain the stable relations among actors in the region.