East Asia

International News: Reading east Asia Through the Media

Conflict of Media Influencers and International news discussing and reflecting the conflict of how Taiwan is perceived by other world powers such being as a country/ or territory.

TheBelt and Road Initiative

“New silk road”- aims connects china w/ other countries in Asia and beyond improving infrastructure such as roads, rail, and ports; expanded to Africa, oceania, and Latin America

What Makes it a Region?

  • With a population of 1.6 billion this is the second most populous world region

  • China dominates the region in size, population, and economic power

  • Income has increased and economic growth has been rapid; cities have boomed and air/water pollution are problematic (many environmental problems result from a ;large population and rapid economic growth)

  • Its economic development strategy has transformed economies globally

  • Mongolia, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan have high levels of political freedoms; demands for political change in in China are increasing

  • Cities have grown rapidly; China’s urbanization is the fastest in the history of the world

  • Population growth has slowed, populations are aging

Geography

  • climate and landforms are complex and varied

    • deserts, forests, coastal climates, mountains, seismic activity, etc

  • there are some agricultural limitations- some countries outside of China have to import 75% of food. China is self sufficient

Subregions

Far North and West China

  • Region once played a significant role in the global economic system; traders moved over the silk road to Europe

  • the islamic faith entered this region via the same trade routes

  • this zone has historically been treated as “backward: by rulers in eastern China because of its cold, dry climate, and history of nomadic herding

  • Includes the Tibetan Plateau

North and South Korea

  • a peninsula from the Chinese mainland and a small area of Russia by two rivers

  • low-lying mountains cover much of North Korea and part of South Korea affecting the settlement and communication

  • Some of the most enduring international tensions in East Asia have been focused on the Korean Peninsula

  • Commonalities between the countries include aspects of history, language, and culture, but political and industrial differences abound (communist/ military dictatorship in North, democracy in South, industrial/ service economy in the South)

Japan

  • Japan consists of a chain of four main island sand hundreds of smaller ones

  • the Japanese archipelago is prone top severe earthquakes tsunamis, and typhoons yet holds a population of 127 million people affluent comfort

  • Has an aging and declining population

  • Has among the highest rations of people to farmland in the world: 7000 people depending on each square mile of cultivated land (its food self-sufficiency is very low is very low by international standards)

  • The largest urban region in the world is located here- Tokyo, the capital of Japan. Tokyo also holds great sway over global affairs, as most Japanese multinational corporations are headquartered there.

  • Historical dominance in pacific region

Historical Dominance:

1700s: Japan began active trade with europeans

1800s: Interest in Western culture grew and Japan modernized/ industrialized

1875-1942: Japan colonized Korea, Taiwan (Formosa), Manchuria (Northeast China which had resources), parts ofSoutheast Asia and several Pacific islands to further its program of economic modernization and to fend off European imperialism Japan fueled its economy with resources from its colonial empire

1945: Japan’s imperial ambitions came to an end

Post 1945: Japan rebuilt its infrastructure and became a leading global economy

Northeast China

  • Composed of a Loess plateau, North China Plain, and the Far Northeast

  • Massive earthmoving processes have created the plateau and the plain

  • Was the ancient heartland of china (Xian once held 2 million people and may have been the largest city in the world as well as the terminus of the silk road)

  • considered a peripheral region because of the harsh climate, mid- century was a niche in the country’s economy because of the country’s mineral deposits and other resources and more recently is considered more stagnant industrially

  • Beijing is China’s capital city (12/21 million people live there- city/metro) It hosts prestigious universities and administrative headquarters, and was once a grand imperial city

Central China

  • Consists of the upper, middle, and lower portions of the Yangtze river (Chang Jiang) basin which begins in the Tibetan plateau

  • Sichuan Province has 83 million people, and some of China’s richest resources (little old growth forest remains and rivers have been channeled into rice production)

  • The river carries tons of sediment past the industrial city of Wuhan

  • Shanghai, for many centuries, was situated well to participate in international trade and it was the base of British operations in the 1800s

  • Three Gorges Dam is an important feature of Central China

Southern China

  • Has mountainous and mostly rural inland provinces and booming cities on the southeastern coast

  • In the east (Yunnan and Guizhou) share a plateau, mild climate, and many indigenous groups and landforms are unstable though Yunnan is known as the “national botanic garden”

  • The southeast has long been linked to the outside world through trade (and the development of SEZs) and many overseas Chinese have roots in this area

  • Macao is formerly a Portuguese colony and China’s only gambling center

  • Hong Kong is one of the most densely populated cities in the world (7.4 million people in 23 square miles); Britain’s lease ended in 1997

Mongolia

  • The Mongolian plateau lies in the heart of Central Asia

  • High and dry with an extreme continental climate (very cold winters, short, warm summers)

  • Four main physical geography zones: the Gobi Desert in the far southeast, north and west of the Gobi is a huge rolling Grassland, and two primary mountains ranges

  • Mongolia declared independence from China and became a communist republic(1924-1989) then peacefully transitioned to multi-party democracy in the Mongolian Revolution

  • Nomadic herding and forestry have declined

  • China now purchases its raw materials

  • Gender roles are near equity, so its rankning on the Gender Development Index is very high

  • Mongolia has invested heavily in IT in the 21st century, so even though the country is geographically isolated, access to the internet is very good

Ethnicities of east Asia

  • Uyghurs and Kazakhs in Western china

    • Turkic- speaking Muslims

    • Han Chinese dominate bureaucracy

    • resistance movements fear cultural genocide

  • Tibetans in China

    • Buddhists

    • Temples destroyed by Chinese

    • Secular social/ economic modernization may destroy ancient cultural practices

“Repatriation without Patria” Reflections

Where is Tibet?

  • Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) is in China- Capital is Lhasa

  • the Central Tibetan Administration is the seat of Tibet’s government-in-exile, the result of the transnational diaspora to India

    • the small Himalayan town of Dharamsala is the seat, headed by the Dalai Lama

Repatriation- the return of a thing or person to its country of origin”

Tibetan Repatriation

  • most claims for the repatriation of artifacts are made by newly sovereign nation or by communities emerging form a period of domination

  • they dispute the legal and moral right of former powers to remove objects from their original home

  • what meanings can repatriation have for Tibet which exists both as a province of China and as an exile community that has established a ‘virtual’ nation with a government-in-exile ?

  • This article studies some Tibetan artifacts that have been in circulation since 1959, to show the ambiguities surrounding ideas of a ‘home’ for such objects