East Asia

1. East Asia

2. China • For centuries China stood as a leading civilization, outpacing the rest of the world in the arts and sciences • In the 19th and early 20th centuries, the country was beset by civil unrest, major famines, military defeats, and foreign occupation. • After World War II, the communists under MAO Zedong established an autocratic socialist system that, while ensuring China's sovereignty, imposed strict controls over everyday life and cost the lives of tens of millions of people. • After 1978, MAO's successor DENG Xiaoping and other leaders focused on market-oriented economic development and by 2000 output had quadrupled. • For much of the population, living standards have improved dramatically and the room for personal choice has expanded, yet political controls remain tight. • Since the early 1990s, China has increased its global outreach and participation in international organizations.

3. Japan • In 1603, after decades of civil warfare, the Tokugawa shogunate (a military-led, dynastic government) ushered in a long period of relative political stability and isolation from foreign influence. • Japan opened its ports after signing the Treaty of Kanagawa with the US in 1854 and began to intensively modernize and industrialize. • During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Japan became a regional power that was able to defeat the forces of both China and Russia. • Japan attacked US forces in 1941 - triggering America's entry into World War II - and soon occupied much of East and Southeast Asia. • After its defeat in World War II, Japan recovered to become an economic power and an ally of the US. • While the emperor retains his throne as a symbol of national unity, elected politicians hold actual decision-making power. • Following three decades of unprecedented growth, Japan's economy experienced a major slowdown starting in the 1990s, but the country remains a major economic power. • In March 2011, Japan's strongest-ever earthquake, and an accompanying tsunami, devastated the northeast part of Honshu island, killing thousands and damaging several nuclear power plants

4. Mongolia • The Mongols gained fame in the 13th century when under Chinggis KHAAN they established a huge Eurasian empire through conquest. • After his death the empire was divided into several powerful Mongol states, but these broke apart in the 14th century. • The Mongols eventually retired to their original steppe homelands and in the late 17th century came under Chinese rule. • Mongolia won its independence in 1921 with Soviet backing and a communist regime was installed in 1924. • The modern country of Mongolia, however, represents only part of the Mongols' historical homeland; more ethnic Mongolians live in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in the People's Republic of China than in Mongolia. • Following a peaceful democratic revolution, the ex-communist Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party (MPRP) won elections in 1990 and 1992, but was defeated by the Democratic Union Coalition (DUC) in the 1996 parliamentary election.

5. Taiwan • In 1895, military defeat forced China's Qing Dynasty to cede Taiwan to Japan. • Taiwan came under Chinese Nationalist control after World War II. • Following the communist victory on the mainland in 1949, 2 million Nationalists fled to Taiwan and established a government using the 1947 constitution drawn up for all of China. • Beginning in the 1950s, the ruling authorities gradually democratized and incorporated the local population within the governing structure. • This process expanded rapidly in the 1980s. • In 2000, Taiwan underwent its first peaceful transfer of power from the Nationalist (Kuomintang or KMT) to the Democratic Progressive Party. • Throughout this period, the island prospered and became one of East Asia's economic "Tigers." • The dominant political issues continue to be management of sensitive relations between Taiwan and China - specifically the question of Taiwan's eventual status - as well as domestic priorities for economic reform and growth.

6. South Korea • An independent kingdom for much of its long history, Korea was occupied by Japan beginning in 1905 following the Russo-Japanese War. • In 1910, Tokyo formally annexed the entire Peninsula. • Korea regained its independence following Japan's surrender to the United States in 1945. • After World War II, a democratic-based government (Republic of Korea, ROK) was set up in the southern half of the Korean Peninsula while a communist-style government was installed in the north (Democratic People's Republic of Korea, DPRK). • During the Korean War (1950-53), US troops and UN forces fought alongside ROK soldiers to defend South Korea from a DPRK invasion supported by China and the Soviet Union. • A 1953 armistice split the peninsula along a demilitarized zone at about the 38th parallel. • South Korea held its first free presidential election under a revised democratic constitution in 1987, with former ROK Army general ROH Tae-woo winning a close race. • In 1993, KIM Young-sam (1993-98) became South Korea's first civilian president. • South Korea today is a fully functioning modern democracy. • President PARK Geun-hye took office in February 2013 and is South Korea's first female leader. • South Korea holds a non-permanent seat (2013-14) on the UN Security Council and will host the 2018 Winter Olympic Games. • Serious tensions with North Korea have punctuated inter-Korean relations in recent years, including the North's attacks on a South Korean ship and island in 2010, nuclear and missile tests in 2012 and 2013.

7. North Korea • Following World War II, Korea was split with the northern half coming under Soviet-sponsored communist control. • After failing in the Korean War (1950-53) to conquer the US-backed Republic of Korea (ROK) in the southern portion by force, North Korea (DPRK), under its founder President KIM Il Sung, adopted a policy of ostensible diplomatic and economic "self-reliance" as a check against outside influence. • The DPRK demonized the US as the ultimate threat to its social system through state-funded propaganda, and molded political, economic, and military policies around the core ideological objective of eventual unification of Korea under Pyongyang's control. • KIM Il Sung's son, KIM Jong Il, was officially designated as his father's successor in 1980, assuming a growing political and managerial role until the elder KIM's death in 1994. • KIM Jong Un was publicly unveiled as his father's successor in September 2010. • Following KIM Jong Il's death in December 2011, the regime began to take actions to transfer power to KIM Jong Un and KIM has now assumed many his father's former titles and duties. • After decades of economic mismanagement and resource misallocation, the DPRK since the mid-1990s has relied heavily on international aid to feed its population. • The DPRK began to ease restrictions to allow semi-private markets, starting in 2002, but then sought to roll back the scale of economic reforms in 2005 and 2009. • North Korea's history of regional military provocations; proliferation of military-related items; long-range missile development; WMD programs including tests of nuclear devices in 2006, 2009, and 2013; and massive conventional armed forces are of major concern to the international community.