East and Southeast Asia: Regional Disparities, Economic Growth, and Cultural Diversity

Posted on Aug 6, 2024 in Geography

East Asia Realm

Intensifying Regional Disparities

  • China: People’s Republic of China (mainland) – communist/capitalist/authoritarian
  • Taiwan: Republic of China (island) – capitalist/democratic
  • Japan: Struggling
  • North Korea: Communist/(nuclear) = authoritarian (38th parallel) Demilitarized zone (DMZ)
  • South Korea: Democratic/capitalist
  • Mongolia: Poor country
  • Hong Kong & Macau: Former Portuguese colonies

Communists

  • People’s Republic of China (mainland): 1.4 billion
  • Republic of China (island: Taiwan): “renegade province” = 23 million

Physical

  • Major Rivers: Liao, Hwang/Yellow, Chang Jiang/Yangzi = New China Domat 3 Gorges, Xi Jiang/Pearl, Kobe 1995/(7.1)

Climate

  • A-Tropical: w = winter Aw: Savanna, Am: Monsoon
  • B-Dry: Bw: desert, Bs: Steppe
  • C-Mesothermal/Temperate: f = precip all year Cfa/Cwa-Humid Subtropical
  • D-Microthermal/Continental: Dfc/Dwc-Subaractric, Dfb/Dwb, Dfa/Dwa = Humid Continental c = cool summer, b = mild summer, a = hot summer “No E”, H-highland

% Labour Force Agr

  • China: 34%
  • Japan: 4%

% Arable Crops

  • China: 12% = much is poor quality
  • Japan: 11%

Chinese Arg. Hist

  • Initial collectivization (1949-57)
  • Strict commune system (1958-61) – 750,000 collective farms – 24,000 rural communes, “Great Leap Forward”
  • Modified commune system (1962-78) – smaller communes, incentives
  • Household responsibility system (1978) – one-child policy = cities

What CHN Pop?

  • China: 90% Han Chinese, 1.4 billion
  • Japan: 127 million
  • North Korea: 25 million
  • South Korea: 50 million
  • Taiwan: 23 million
  • Mongolia: 3 million

% Urban

  • China: 54% up = 1949: 9%, 1976: 12% = Mao yrs = 700 million urban Chinese – large consumer mkt, source of cheap labor
  • Life expectancy: China: 75 yrs., Rate Natural Increase: China: 0.5% down (Mongolia: 2.3%) 1.6 children/female, One-child policy: (1979-2015) China: up 10% elderly, USA: 14%

GDP

  • Japan: 37,000

  • China: 10,000 = regional disparities

  • North Korea: 2,000

  • South Korea: 33,000

  • Mongolia: 6,000

  • Hong Kong: 53,000

  • Taiwan: 40,000 = 15 countries border China

  • Xinijiang: 22 million people Islamic, natural resources, % Han Chinese: 1949: 3%, now: 40%, Uyghur: Turkik

  • Xizang (Tibet): 3 million, avg. elevation: 15,000 ft, Buddhist, provinces

Asian Tigers

  • “Chinese Dragon” – Hong Kong: no natural resources
  • South Korea: foreign investment
  • Taiwan – high value-added goods (export)
  • Singapore/Hong Kong = Japan, Singapore -(cars, electronics, steel = durable)
  • China: before 1976, isolated, poor, communist, after 1976

Leaders Name

  • Mao Zedong: Communist, authoritarian
  • Deng Xiaoping:

Special Economic Zone (SEZs)

  • Foreign tech & investment, incentives, cheap labor/land
  • Xiamen-Fujian Province, Shantou, Shenzhen, Zhuhai = Guangdong Province = 1980, coastal access, “far” from Beijing, near Overseas Chinese SE Asia near Hong Kong
  • Hainan Is. = 1988, Pudong/Shanghai = 1990, 2006 = Binhai/Tianjin/Beijing

Shenzhen

  • Guangdong Province (107 million) = cheap land/labor, consumer market, next to Hong Kong, Pearl River Delta
  • Guangzhou: provincial capital (cauton)
  • Hong Kong: 1 country, 2 systems, special administrative Region (SAR) since 1997 = 7 million, former British colony, leading financial centre, textile manufacturing, leading seaport/airport, tourism

China

  • 140,000 lawyers
  • Never colonized
  • Meiji Restoration (1860s) – industrialisation, strong British influence
  • By 1990: 90% literate Kyoto-Tokyo “Forward capital/outward looking”

4 Main Islands

  • Hokkaido, Shikoku, Kyushu – only 18% habitable, farmland limited 11% arable, rice tariffs very high, most farmers part-time
  • Most people live? – Honshu, Kansai District (Osaka) – Nobi Plain (Nagoya) – Kanto Plain-(Tokyo), Tokaido-Megalopolis “big city”

Life Expectancy

  • 83 yrs, rate natural increase: -0.2%, 1.4 children/female, 26% elderly – affluence recession, 26% elderly = pensions health care, labor force shrinkins, 13% children, immigration? = 99% Japanese “parasite singles” “Argentina of the East?” – middle-income – Gov’t debt: 200% GDP, USA: 100% GDP

South East Asia Realm

Shatterbelt

  • Region caught between stronger colliding, external cultural-political forces, under persistent stress. & often fragmented aggressive rivals ex: Eastern Europe, Mainland Region: CBD: – compact/Cambodia, VIE: Viteam, LAO: elongated, THA/MYA: protruded? = middle, Insular/Island Region: MLY, BRU, IDN, TIM = Timor Leste/East Timor, PHI-philippieans = fragmented,
  • Singapore: compact, unity, defense, transportation/comm. efficiency, compact = best shape, fragmented = worst, ITA-4/5

Physical

  • Peninsulas, islands, tropical rainforests (deforestation), river valleys & deltas, earthquakes, volcanoes

4 Major Rivers

  • Red river – VIE, Irrawaddy river – MYA, Chao Phraya River – THA, Mekong river

Climate

  • A-Tropical: Oominat Af-rainforest Aw-Savanna winter dry Am-Monsoon very wet summer “No B D E” cwa-Humid subtropical (dry winter) H-highland

% Arable

  • Thailand: 31% – Volcanic soils
  • Vietnam: 20%
  • CBD: 22%

% of Labour Force Agr.

:IDN:39%mainland:

THA/monkeys=38,73%=LAO,KhmerRouge(CBD)6.OverseasChinese(urban):

SIN:74%,MLY:23%,IDN:1%down,Colonization:British:MYA,MLY,BRU,SIN,French:

VIE,LAO,CBD,Spanish:PHI-USA,Dutch:IDN,THA:never colonized,Portugusese:TIM,

Chinese,Indian,Japanese 7.Religion:Buddhism:mainland,Islam: IDN,MLY,BRU,Hinduism, Christianity=PHI,TIM 8.Pop:Java:150m-IND:252m-majority of SE Asia population,PHI:100m 9.% urban:mainland:20-47%-THA,IDN:50%,Life Expectancy:TIM:62yrs.,Rate Natural Increase

-mainland:THA=0.4%-2.0%-“Condom Man” THA-1.8 children/female?-AIDS Sex Industry,TIM: 2.7%-5.7 children/female=58% literate,SIN:1.2 children/female 10.GDP:SIN:62,000,BRU:58,000,

mainland:2,000=MYA-10,000-THA,PHI,IDN:5,000,MLY:18,000,TIM:21,000?=regional disparities 11.Singapore:6m,GDP:62,000,250 sq. miles,75% Chinese,13% Malay,9% South Asian,indep. 1965,leading financial centre,little/no corruption,“site limitations,but great situation”-small land

area-relative location,leading container parts world,leading foreign exchange ceutre,re-export centre, seaport linked w/airport,space-conserving,infrastructure telecomm.,very authoritarian industries,

hi-tech,strait of Malacca(pinch-point/chokepoint) 12.“social contract”between people&govt. -political liberalization vs.economic liberalization,capitalism=inequality vs. democracy=equality =different not same,competition,low fertility 13.Vietnam:90m,GDP:3,000,Indochina war:(1964-75),

N Vietnam=most people born,communist after 1976,“elongated shape”Capital:Hanoi-unified in 1976,

S Vietnam-anti-communist=USA-support-largest city-Saigon-55,000 Americans dead Draft,Mekong Delta:Saigon:(SEZs),rice production,“fragmented shape”=Malaysia:30m,GDP:18,000,W Malaysia and

E, 80% popln., Malays-50%-Muslim (rural-based),23% Chinese-Buddhist(urban-based),South Asians-

Hindu-7%,Christians,Malaysia:indep. 1963,race riots in late 60’s affirmative action for majority/Malays, Prime Minster:Mahathir Mohamad(1981-2003),“Multimedia Supercorridor”, Petronas Towers 14.Indonesia:250m and ethnic groups,religious,GDP: 5,000,Core:Java/periphery,145m,Trans migration,

policy(1974-2001),President Suharto:dictatorship,(1966-98)-cheap labor,Asian financial,3% Chinese controlled 75% economy,1999:GDP down,IMF=$40b crisis loan,East Timor/Timor-Leste-1/3 pop. died,former

Portuguese,colony,Catholic,invasion/occupation by IDN military 1975,indep. 2002,GDP:$21,000,“has oil”,“Unity in Diverisity”