I said I would drop the convo, but it seems you have understood my points on the previous posts, so I consider this another convo
The difference is huge.
S.Korea and Japan (and many others) are part of the American Empire. That alone is sufficient enough to explain the difference between these 2 terms.
Now what do I practically mean when I say part of the American Empire?
These two countries have a sizable number of US troops on their own countries. Does China has troops (nevermind the number) in Russia? No.
Their economy is completely controlled by the US. Not by directly looking at the trade data, but instead looking at the tech IP. US holds the IP for everything these two countries do. Biden with a stroke of his pen could delete their economies if he wanted. Does China have a similar kind of control to Russia? No. However, with China increasingly becoming the only high-tech exporter to China, we could see Russia getting in a similar position in >5-10 years. So that's something to keep in mind here. Not that China would use it as a threat, but merely the possibility of it would signal that Russia has taken a junior partner role because Russian policy makers would be double and triple worried to not be against China.
3rd. Currency. What currency do they use. The entire American Empire has marching orders to support their master's currency, the dollar. (If you ask about Euro, it is a complex case and there were a lot of intertwined objectives when creating it). But in any case, either dollar or euro its all western currency, and the US never hesitates to sabotage its vassal's currency (otherwise known as harvesting). Now what about Russia and China, is Russia supporting RMB as much as possible? No, but as for yesterday it seems the answer is yes. Of course this will also take a long time (5-10 years?), but the statements yesterday were very clear on that. So on currency, Russia on the long term will be on similar situation that other countries are with dollars.
4th. Diplomacy. Here, the less said the better. The US has (or trying to gain) full control of its vassal's diplomacy. And does China do the same with Russia? No! Russia is a full blown independent diplomatic power. The only decline on its diplomatic power will be because its economy will become too small for it to retain influence in world matters (specifically in Central Asia). However, Russia will still remain an independent power.
5th. Culture. Same with above, the less said the better. Western societies must drink the US-served cultural poison. There is no possibility of rebellion here. So what about Russia, does China forces its culture to Russia? No! In fact, Russia is more European oriented than Asian (Nevermind China).
6th. Media. Need I say any more? Same story. Does China have control of Russia's media/MSM? No!
7th. "Alliances". The whole American Empire territories serve the US under NATO (US basically) or other kinds of formal "alliances" (pledges of defence basically to the US). Does China have something similar with Russia? No!
8th. Military. American Empire territories depend on US military tech/maintenance/expertise/IP. Does Russia depend in a similar manner to China? No!
The most fundamental difference between junior partner and vassal is that the vassal is locked in to forever remain under the boot of its master. No control of economy, tech, currency, diplomacy, geopolitics, military, society, culture, espionage, governance, laws, cyberspace control, etc.
The junior partner can freely jump ship if he wishes so. The junior partner understands that the senior partner is driving the ship, but this ain't a one-man trip. The junior partner can refuse, can object, resist, have opinion, consult, change partners, jumb ship, sometimes play both sides etc.
That's why even though he is called "junior" he is still a "partner" thus "junior partner". Whereas the vassal is a vassal. If your Lord says go and die, you pack up your things and go and die, simple as that
