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Title: MOST OF HISTORY: THE FIRST HUMANS


1
Era 7 and 8 Inter-regional StudyEast Asia in
the 20th C
Day Three, Session 5D Craig Benjamin
2
  • 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
3
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

4
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

5
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

6
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

7
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
8
  • 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
9
  • 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!
10
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

11
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
12
  • 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
13
  • 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
14
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
15
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

16
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17
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

18
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

19
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

20
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
21
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
22
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

23
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
24
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

25
(No Transcript)
26
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

27
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

28
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

29
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

30
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

31
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
32
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

33
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

34
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

35
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
36
  • 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
37
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
38
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
39
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

40
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
41
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

42
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

43
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

44
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

45
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
46
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

47
  • 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?
48
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

49
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

50
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

51
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

52
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
53
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
54
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

55
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

56
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

57
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

58
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

59
  • 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
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