MOST OF HISTORY: THE FIRST HUMANS

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Era 7 and 8 Inter-regional StudyEast Asia in
the 20th C
Day Three, Session 5D Craig Benjamin
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• Part One The Transformation of Japan
• Part Two Chinas Search for Order Following the
  Fall of the Qing
• Part Three East Asia in the Second World War
• Part Four The Peoples Republic of China
• Part Five Post-War Economic Growth in East Asia

To Include
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Part One The Transformation of Japan Economic
Crisis

• By the early 19th century Japanese society was in
  turmoil
• Agricultural crises and harsh taxation led to
  economic crisis and starvation amongst rural
  people
• Impoverished migrants flocked to the cities, but
  as the price of food rose, urban poor experienced
  extreme poverty and destitution
• Even the samurai and daimyo faced hardship as
  they fell into debt to a growing merchant class

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Internal and External Pressure

• Tokugawa government responded with conservative
  reforms 1841 - 43 (cancelling samurai debt,
  forcing peasants back to the land to grow rice)
  but the reforms failed
• Japan also came under foreign pressure as the US
  sought ports for its Pacific merchant and whaling
  fleets
• When Japan refused these requests, a US naval
  squadron under Commodore Perry trained his guns
  on the Tokugawa capital and demanded that the
  shogun sign a treaty with the US, and open
  Japanese ports to commercial relations
• The shogun had no alternative but to agree, and
  was forced to sign a series of unequal treaties
  like the Qing

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End of the Tokugawa

• This led to a domestic crisis, as the emperor and
  daimyo resented that fact that the shogun had
  signed the treaties
• Domestic opposition to the Tokugawa grew rapidly,
  particularly amongst the samurai
• Tokugawa imprisoned samurai critics, but in a
  brief civil war opposition armies trained by
  foreign experts and armed with western weapons,
  put so much pressure on the Tokugawa that the
  shogun resigned
• In January 1868 Emperor Meiji (pictured right)
  took power, ruling until 1912

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Meiji Reforms

• Meiji Restoration brought an end to a series of
  military governments that had dominated Japan
  since 1185
• Determined to gain equality with foreign powers,
  a conservative coalition of daimyo, nobles and
  samurai studied and copied the industrial
  policies of the West
• The Meiji government sent many students and
  officials abroad to study everything from
  technology to constitutions, and also hired
  foreign experts to facilitate economic development

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Domestic Policies

• Meiji government effectively abolished old feudal
  order by removing the daimyo from power and
  abolishing the samurai (who rebelled but were
  crushed in 1878)
• Meiji also revamped tax system by converting the
  old grain tax into a monetary one, forcing
  inefficient farmers off the land
• New constitution was written by the government
  establishing a constitutional monarchy with a
  legislature (known as the Diet) made up of an
  upper and lower house
• Emperor commanded armed forces, named the prime
  minister and appointed the cabinet, and also had
  the right to dissolve the Diet

Emperor Meiji Presiding over the First Assembly
of the Newly Formed Japanese Diet, 1890
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• Meiji created a modern transport, communications
  and educational infrastructure, and removed all
  barriers to internal trade
• Universal primary and secondary education
  introduced, and universities provided advanced
  technical education
• Most enterprises were private, but the government
  controlled military industries and stimulated
  industrial development generally
• In the 1880s the government sold most of its
  industries to private investors with close ties
  to Meiji official, which concentrated economic
  power in the hands of a small group known as the
  zaibatsu
• By the early 20th century Japan had joined the
  ranks of the major industrial powers

Remodeling the Economy
Early Meiji Assembly Line
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• Economic development came at a cost for the
  peasants, who produced 90 of government revenues
  during the reform stage
• But peasant uprisings in 1883 and 84 were
  crushed, as was a growing labor movement in 1901
• Hundreds of thousands of peasants lived in
  destitution and starvation in a state that had no
  concern for the welfare of its workers
• But by 1902 the Meiji had signed an alliance of
  equal power with Britain, and Japan displayed its
  military prowess with victories over China in
  1895 and Russia in 1905

Equal Treaties!
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Japanese Imperial AmbitionsConflict with the
Qing

• In 1876 Japan purchased modern warships from
  Britain, and used their naval muscle to force
  Korea to accept an unequal treaty with Japan
• When an antiforeign rebellion broke out in Korea
  in 1893, the Qing sent a Chinese army to restore
  order
• Meiji were unwilling to recognize Chinese control
  over a land so close to them, so they declared
  war on China in August 1894
• Japanese navy destroyed the Chinese navy in five
  hours, and the Japanese army forced the Qing
  forces out of Korea
• In the peace treaty of 1895 the Chinese acceded
  Korea to Japanese influence, and gave up control
  of Taiwan and other East Asian islands

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War with Russia

• The easy Japanese victory startled other foreign
  powers, especially Russia
• War between Japan and Russia broke out in 1904
  and the Japanese navy destroyed the Russian
  Baltic Fleet, which had sailed around the world
  to support the war effort
• The war was over by 1905 and Japan had been
  transformed into a major global military and
  industrial power

Sunken Russian Baltic Fleet Destroyer
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• Japan entered war in August 1914 on the side of
  the allies
• It had demanded that Germany give up its leased
  territories in China to Japan without
  compensation, and withdraw German warships from
  Chinese waters
• The Japanese quickly captured numerous German
  possessions in East Asia and the Pacific

Japanese militarys acoustic locator - a device
with which one can "hear" distant engine noise of
oncoming airplanes.
Japan in the First World War
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• While the allies were preoccupied in Europe, the
  Japanese presented 21 secret demands to China
• Wanted confirmation of their hold on Chinese
  lands, industrial monopolies in China, joint
  Japanese control of the Chinese police force, a
  restriction of arms purchasing to Japanese
  manufacturers, and all arms purchases to be
  approved by the Japanese government
• The Chinese acceded to some of these demands, and
  only British support for the Chinese prevented
  total capitulation

The Twenty-One Demands
But Japan maintained a strong economic presence
in Manchuria, building the Manchurian railway
(shown in a Russian photograph above) and
stationing troops there
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Between the Wars

• After the Great War, Japan joined the League of
  Nations as one of the big five global powers
• In 1928 they signed the Kellogg-Briand Pact
• which renounced war as an instrument of
• national policy
• However, Japan suffered severely during the
• Great Depression between 1929 and 32

Japanese economy was greatly dependant on US
markets to sell its manufactured goods, and as
demand in the US fell sharply, unemployment on
export sectors in Japan skyrocketed
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Manchurian Invasion 1931
L. Japanese troops entering Shangyen
R. Chinese Civilians Killed during The invasion

• By early 1930s a frustrated public blamed the
  government for continuing economic problems
• Right-wing groups called for an end to party
  rule, and xenophobic nationalists demanded the
  eradication of all western influences
• Campaign of murders and assassinations culminated
  in the murder of Prime Minister Tsuyoshi in 1932
• Militaristic nationalists argued that Japan
  needed to protect its interests in Manchuria from
  China, and in 1931 Japans military acted to
  assert control over the region
• By 1932 Japanese troops controlled all of
  Manchuria, and when League of Nations demanded
  they withdraw, Japan responded by leaving the
  League

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Part Two Chinas Search for Order

• During the first half of the 20th Century China
  was in a state of almost continual revolutionary
  upheaval
• With the abdication of the child emperor Puyi in
  1911, Chinas dynastic eras came to an end
• In 1912 a leading opponent of the old regime, Dr.
  Sun Yatsen (pictured left) proclaimed a Chinese
  Republic, and assumed the office of President
• The old dynasty was dead, but it would be decades
  before a stable structure would take its place

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Warlords and the Republic

• Revolution did not create stability, and the
  republic soon plunged into a state of political
  and economic anarchy marked by the rule of
  warlords
• Central government ran a few agencies from
  Beijing (like the Post Office) but the warlords
  established themselves as provincial rulers
• Under the warlords irrigation was neglected, the
  opium trade revived and the economy collapsed
• Never founded a new dynasty, nor did they create
  any semblance of political order

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Foreign Powers in China

• Relationship between foreign powers and Chinese
  authority also disintegrated
• Unequal Treaties had guided Chinese relations
  with the industrialized world
• Foreign control of China prevented economic
  development, and their privileged status impaired
  Chinese sovereignty

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Following the Great War The May Fourth Movement

• Nationalist sentiment began to develop strongly
  in China after WWI
• Intellectuals and students looked forward to the
  1919 Peace Conference as the start of a new era
  for China, hoping for the termination of the
  treaty system and restoration of Chinese
  sovereignty
• But these hopes were shattered when Japan was
  given approval for increasing interference in
  Chinese affairs
• The May Fourth Movement erupted
• all over China, as citizens protested
• against Japanese interference
• Movement leaders pledged to rid
• China of imperialism

May 4th Movement Protesters
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Emergence of the Chinese Communist Party

• Disillusioned by the cynical self-interest of the
  US and Europe, Chinese intellectuals became
  interested in Marxist-Leninist thought
• In 1921 the CCP was organized in Shanghai
  according to the Soviet model
• Among its early members was Mao Zedong
  (1893-1976) who argued that a Marxist-inspired
  revolution was the only cure for Chinas problems
• Chinese communists also championed equality for
  women, opposing arranged marriages and footbinding

Party Members Speak to Chinese Citizens, Shanghai
1921
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Sun Yatsen

• Most prominent nationalist leader at the time was
  Sun Yatsen he didnt share communists
  enthusiasm for Marxist ideology
• Instead he argued for the elimination of special
  privileges for foreigners, national
  reunification, economic development and a
  democratic republican government based in
  universal suffrage
• He was determined to bring the country under the
  control of his Nationalist Party (Guomindang) but
  it was infiltrated by members of the CCP
• Advisors from Soviet Union helped reorganize both
  parties, ensuring that Soviet influence would be
  strong whoever won the political struggle

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Origins of Civil War

• After the death of Sun Yatsen, leadership of the
  Guomindang fell to General Jiang Jieshi (aka
  Chiang Kai-shek, 1887-1975)
• He quickly launched a major offensive known as
  the Northern Expedition that aimed to bring a
  unified China under Guomindang control
• But in 1927 he unexpectedly turned against his
  communist allies, bringing a bloody end to the
  period of cooperation between the two parties
• In 1928 Nationalist forces occupied Beijing, set
  up a central government in Nanjing, and declared
  the Guomindang the official government of a
  unified China
• The badly mauled CCP retreated to an isolated
  region of SE China and tried to reconstitute
  their forces

Jiang Jiesji Chiang Kai Shek
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The Long March

• New Nationalist government faced several
  problems, particularly the fact that most of the
  country was still controlled by warlords
• Communist revolution (led by the CCPs Red Army)
  was a major threat in the early 30s, and Japanese
  aggression was also a major problem
• In Oct 1934, under the relentless attacks of the
  nationalist forces, the CCP burst out of the
  military blockade around their SE base
• Some 85,000 troops of the Red Army began an epic
  long march of 10,000 kms
• After the difficulties of the journey, the
  surviving marchers arrived in a remote area of
  Shaanxi province in NW China in Oct 1935, to
  establish their headquarters

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Maoism
Although thousands died in the march, many others
were inspired to join the Communist Party Mao
Zedong emerged as the leader and principal
theoretician of the party

• He came up with the Chinese version of Marxism
  (Maoism) which argued that peasants rather than
  he urban proletariat were the foundations of a
  successful revolution
• China was on the brink of an unknown future, but
  with the Second World War about to intervene, it
  would be another fourteen years before that
  future would be determined

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Part Three East Asia in the Second World War
Japanese Aggression

• Worlds second global conflict opened with
  Japans attacks on China in the 1930s
• Conquest of Manchuria between 1931 and 32 was the
  first step in a revisionist process of aggressive
  expansionism
• Civilians in Japan lost control of the
  government militarists strengthened control
• After the League of Nations condemned its actions
  in Manchuria, Japan withdrew from the
  League and continued its ultranationa
  list and pro- military expansion

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Invasion of China

• Seeing territorial expansion as essential to its
  survival, Japan launched a full-scale invasion of
  China in 1937
• After the Battle of Marco Polo Bridge in Beijing
  (July 1937) Japanese troops took Beijing and then
  moved south towards Shanghai and the nationalist
  capital of Nanjing
• Thousands of civilians
• were killed in Shanghai
• from Japanese bombings
• By December 1937
• Nanjing and Shanghai
• had both fallen, and
• for the next six months
• the Japanese forces
• won repeated victories

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The Rape of Nanjing

• China became the first nation to experience the
  horrors of World War II brutal warfare against
  civilians and repressive occupation
• Chinese civilians suffered death and destruction
  on a massive scale tens of thousands of citizens
  of Shanghai died from Japanese bombing of the
  city
• Japanese troops in Nanjing, inflamed by
  ultranationalism and war passion, raped at least
  7000 women, murdered hundreds of thousands of
  unarmed civilians, and burned one-third of all
  dwellings in the city
• 400,000 Chinese lost their lives as Japanese
  soldiers used them for bayonet practice and
  machine gunned them into open pits

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Chinese Resistance
Communist Chinese airforce takes on the Japanese
military

• Despite all this, Chinese resistance continued
  throughout the war Japanese aggression ignited
  Chinese nationalism
• By September 1937 nationalists and communists had
  agreed on a united front policy against the
  Japanese, forming a united army some 1.7 million
  strong
• Although the Japanese had naval and air
  superiority, the Chinese army had tied down half
  the Japanese army some 750,000 soldiers by
  1941

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The Tenuous Coalition

• Coalition of nationalists and communists
  threatened to tear apart throughout the war
  there were numerous military clashes between the
  two
• Nationalists shied away from direct confrontation
  with the Japanese, and kept their government
  alive by moving inland to Chongqing
• Communists carried out guerilla warfare against
  the Japanese from their mountain bases,
  sabotaging bridges and railroads and harassing
  Japanese troops
• These tactics (although they did not defeat the
  Japanese) captured the loyalty of millions of
  Chinese peasants, and by the end of the war the
  Communists were poised to lead China

Top Railway destroyed by communist
Guerillas Bottom Communist POWs with
Japanese guards
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The USA Becomes Involved

• Before 1941 the USA was inching towards
  involvement in the war
• As Japanese forces continued their conquests in
  East Asia (capturing Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia)
  the US government responded by freezing Japanese
  assets in the US
• But the Japanese ignored US demands to withdraw
  from China and SE Asia, and in October 1941 Tojo
  Hideki became prime minister (pictured right)
• He and his cabinet immediately drew up plans for
  war against Britain and the USA

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Pearl Harbor

• Japanese hoped to destroy American naval power in
  the Pacific with an attack on Pearl Harbor
• On 7 Dec 1941 Japanese pilots took off from six
  aircraft carriers to attack Pearl Harbor
• More than 350 Japanese planes sank or disabled 18
  US ships, and American naval power in the Pacific
  was devastated

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Japanese Victories Continue

• USA immediately declared war on Japan, Germany
  and Italy, but the Japanese went from victory to
  victory
• Japanese captured Borneo, Burma, the Dutch
  Indies, and threatened Australia
• The humiliating surrender of British-held
  Singapore (below) dealt a blow to British
  prestige and shattered any myths of European
  invincibility

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Asia for Asians?

• The slogan under which Japan pursued the war was
  Asia for Asians, implying that the Japanese
  would lead Asian peoples to independence from
  European colonialists
• But Japanese brutality made it obvious to most
  Asians that the real
• agenda was Asia for Japan

Top Japanese in Korea Bottom Japanese torture
in Burma
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• The turning point in the Pacific war came with
  the Battle of Midway (4 June 1942)
• Three Japanese carriers were sunk in five
  minutes, a fourth later in the day
• Allies now took the offensive, hopping from
  island to island until the US gradually retook
  the Philippines and islands close to Japan like
  Iwo Jima and Okinawa

Turning the Tide
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End of the War
The fall of these islands brought the Japanese
homeland within easy reach of US bombers, and on
6 and 9 August 1945 the US used its revolutionary
new weapon the atomic bomb against the cities
of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, at a cost of 200,000
lives Japan surrendered on 15 August, and
the war was officially over by 2 September
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Part Four The Peoples Republic of China -
Communist Success

• With the defeat of Japan, civil war in China
  immediately resumed
• Between Aug 1945 and Dec 1946,Communists and
  nationalists fought each other and raced to take
  over areas occupied by Japan
• By 1949 the momentum had swung to the communists
  after the Peoples Liberation Army
• had inflicted heavy defeats on
• the nationalists in 48 and 49
• The national government
• under Jiang Jeishi (Chiang
• Kai-shek) sought refuge on
• the island of Taiwan
• (taking along most of Chinas
• gold reserves) and proclaimed itself
• Chinas legitimate government

Jiang Jeishi and wife arriving in Taiwan
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1 October 1949

• On 1 Oct 1949, Mao Zedong, chairman of the
  Chinese Communist Party, proclaimed the
  establishment of the Peoples Republic of China
• This brought an end to the long era of
  imperialist intrusion in China, and spawned a
  close relationship with the USSR
• Mao then set out to reorganize China by imitating
  the organizational structure of the Soviet Union

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Ruthless Party Dictatorship

• New constitution was declared in 1954, which
  stipulated a national assembly chosen by popular
  election
• But in reality political power was now
  monopolized by the central committee and
  politburo chaired by Mao
• To protect its authority, the party orchestrated
  campaigns to remove from power individuals likely
  to be a threat , particularly those affiliated
  with the nationalist government
• In 1951 alone, tens of thousands were executed,
  and many more sent to labor camps

Political prisoners carry pails of water in a
Chinese labor camp, early 1960s
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Industrial Transformation
New heavy industry infrastructure in China, 1950s

• The economy of China was transformed when
  landownership was declared collective and rapid
  industrialization began
• Chinese introduced their first Five Year Plan in
  1955, which attempted to speed up economic
  development by expanding heavy industry at the
  expense of consumer goods

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Agricultural Transformation

• A series of agrarian laws led to an unprecedented
  transfer of wealth, virtually eliminating
  economic inequality at the village level
• Government confiscated landholdings of wealthy
  peasants and redistributed it, so that everyone
  had at least one plot
• Government then took over grain distribution and
  prohibited farmers from marketing their crops, so
  that collective farms replaced private farming

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Social Reforms

• Health care, primary education and social
  services administered through the collectives
• Radical social reforms often eliminated
  traditional Chinese traditions
• Supporting equal rights for women, the CCP
  introduced marriage laws that gave women equal
  access to divorce and legalized abortion
• Footbinding was also banned

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Relationship with the USSR

• Moscow and Beijing were close during the early
  years of the Cold War both saw the USA as their
  common enemy
• Chinese were disturbed by the American
  rehabilitation of their former enemy Japan, and
  client states South Korea and Taiwan
• China recognized the USSR as the undisputed
  authority in world communism, and received Soviet
  weapons and economic aid in return
• Soviets worked in the UN to have the Chinese seat
  in the Security Council transferred from Taiwan
  to the CCP

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Deterioration of the Relationship

• But cracks soon appeared in the partnership when
  China began to receive less aid from the Soviets
  than non-communist Egypt and India
• Tensions between China and India (and military
  skirmishes in the Himalayas) grew over the
  question of the sovereignty of Tibet
• Soviets infuriated the Chinese by outwardly
  remaining neutral, yet giving a huge loan to
  India
• By the early 60s there were occasional border
  clashes occurring between Soviet and Chinese
  troops in Central Asia

Indian troops struggle to get artillery into
position in the Sino-Indian war in the
Himalayas, early 1960s
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Further Splits in the Communist Partnership

• By 1964 both countries were publicly engaging in
  name-calling
• CCP declared the USSR under Khrushchev to be
  revisionist (highly insulting term) for pursuing
  a policy of peaceful coexistence with the USA
• Soviets declared Mao was a dangerous left-wing
  adventurist because he insisted war between
  communism and the west was inevitable
• When the Chinese
• successfully tested
• their own nuclear
• weapons in 1964, this
• only further increased
• tensions in the
• communist world

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• During all this, Mao embarked upon programs to
  distinguish Chinese communism from Soviet
  communism
• Great leap Forward (1958-61) was an attempt to
  have the Chinese economy match that of more
  developed nations by collectivizing all
  agriculture and industry
• But abolition of private ownership had a
  disastrous impact on agricultural production, and
  as harvests failed and collectives couldnt meet
  artificial quotas, a deadly famine ensued
• Between 1959 and 1962, up to 20 million Chinese
  died from starvation

The Great Leap Forward?
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The Cultural Revolution

• In 1966 Mao again tried to reignite the
  revolutionary spirit of China with a cultural
  revolution, which was designed to root out
  revisionists
• Millions of people particularly teachers,
  professionals, managers and intellectuals were
  singled out by the Red Guard for humiliation,
  persecution and death
• Victims were beaten and killed, jailed, or sent
  to labor camps in the country
• The Cultural Revolution, which cost China years
  of stable development and gutted the education
  system, did not die down until Maos death in 1976

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Deng Xiaoping (1904-1997)

• After a power struggle, Mao was
• replaced by Deng Xiaoping in 1981
• Deng moderated Maos commitment
• to self-sufficiency and isolation, and
• brought China into the international
• trading and financial system
• This was facilitated by the normalization of
  relations between China and the USA in the 1970s
• To push economic development, Deng opened the
  nation to capitalist values
• Sent tens of thousands of Chinese students to
  foreign universities to build a professional and
  managerial elite

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Tiananmen and Beyond

• These students were exposed to democratic ideals,
  and they began staging pro-democracy
  demonstrations in Beijings Tiananmen Square in
  1989
• Deng, wary of revolutionary movements, approved a
  bloody crackdown
• After the student movement was crushed, China
  faced hostile world opinion
• The issue facing China as it entered the global
  economy in the 1990s was how (or whether) to reap
  the economic benefits without compromising its
  identity and authoritarian political system
• This issue gained added weight as Hong Kong came
  back under Chinese control in 1997

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Part Five Post-War Economic Growth in East Asia

• Trend towards globalization and worldwide
  economic integration in the latter part of the
  20th C benefited enormously from economic
  developments in S and E Asia
• Economies of Japan, China and the so-called
  Asian tigers underwent dramatic growth, largely
  as a result of economic globalization

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Post-War Japan Role of the USA

• US policies jump-started Japans economic revival
  after its defeat in 1945, and by 1949 the
  Japanese economy was already back to pre-war
  output levels
• In the same way that European recovery benefited
  from the Marshall Plan, Japan received over US2
  billion in investment
• In addition, no restrictions were placed on the
  entry of Japanese goods into the US market
• US also signed a mutual defense treaty in 1952
  which stipulated that Japan could never spend
  more than 1 of its GNP on defense
• The US took care of Japanese defense, and Japan
  invested all its money into the economy

First Day Cover 1952 Treaty Signing
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Low Wages

• From the beginning, Japanese economic planners
  focused on building export- based growth
  supported by low wages
• Japanese workers prepared to work long hours for
  low wages gave Japanese manufacturers a
  competitive cost edge over international rivals
  who were paying high wages
• Although Japan had to import raw materials, the
  low cost of labor assured price competitive
  production and export

Fuji Factory, 1959 Assembling a telescope
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Made in Japan

• Initially the Japanese economy churned out
  labor-intensive manufactured goods like textiles
  and steel
• But during the 60s Japanese companies used their
  profits to invest in more capital-intensive
  manufacturing, producing radios, televisions,
  motor cycles and automobiles
• In the following decades Japanese corporations
  took advantage of highly skilled workers to shift
  their resources to technology-intensive products
  like memory chips, LCDs and CD-Rom drives
• By the 80s the label Made in Japan signified
  state-of-the-art products of the highest quality

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Into the 21st Century

• Japans economic success gave its financial
  institutions and government an increasingly
  prominent voice in global affairs
• Japanese success also served as an inspiration
  for other Asian countries
• By the 1980s it was conceivable that Japan could
  overtake the US as the worlds largest economy
• But by the 90s it became clear that these growth
  rates were not sustainable, and the Japanese
  economy sputtered into a recession that lasted
  into the 21st Century

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The Little Tigers
Hong Kong (left) and Singapore (right)

• Earliest and most successful imitators of the
  Japanese model for economic success were Hong
  Kong, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan
• By the 1980s the four little tigers had each
  become a major economic power
• All four suffered from a shortage of capital, few
  natural resources and overpopulation
• But like Japan a generation earlier, they
  transformed these disadvantages into advantages
  by focusing on export-driven industrialization
• The four became serious competitors to Japan by
  imitating Japanese products, then undercutting
  them with cheaper versions
• Before long, Indonesia, Thailand and Malaya had
  joined the original tigers

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Socialist Market Economy Emerges in China

• Because of the disastrous policies of the Great
  Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution, Chinas
  leaders were forced to introduce economic reforms
  in the late 70s that reversed Maos plans
• Under Deng Xiaoping foreign investment was
  encouraged and foreign technology imported
• With the economy growing dramatically, the
  government in 1992 signaled the creation of a
  socialist market economy

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Global Economic Superpower

• Planned economic system of the past gave way to a
  market economy, where demand for goods and
  services drove production and price
• Role of government was to provide a stable but
  competitive environment
• As well as becoming a major exporter, the
  government attracted massive foreign investment
  because of the attractions of low labor costs and
  a massive market
• In Dec 2001 China joined the World Trade
  Organization and was already a global economic
  superpower

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• East Asia provides a superb inter-regional case
  study to illustrate the extraordinary global
  changes that took place in the 20th Century
• China has enjoyed the longest continuous history
  of any society on the planet, and traditions that
  emerged thousands of years ago continue to guide
  and influence Chinese development to the present
  day
• At the same time,
• other East Asian
• societies developed
• their own cultural
• traditions, although
• all of them were
• heavily influenced
• by China
• This is a rich and
• diverse story of
• triumph and
• tragedy without
• parallel in
• world history!

Conclusion