GetFast Question:
Why is it that the poorest developed
countries are the ones whose population
increases are the highest? Wouldn't it make
more sense for them to stop reproducing
due to the already limited amount of
resources? Does it have to do with
urbanization versus rural life?
Good question! Let’s think of how we might
apply course concepts to this question and
plan to discuss it on Tuesday in class.
End of Course Plans
Tuesday
Thursday
Mar 22-24
China
China
Mar 29-31
JaKoTa
Map test
S-E Asia1
April 5-7
S-E Asia2
New Zealand
Dr. Tom Johnston
April 12-14
Australia
Pacific
East Asia 3
Questions
Review
China
Population
Urbanization
Economic Geography
Outlying regions
As many as 40 million Chinese men unable to marry due to
massive gender imbalance caused by selective abortion and
dietary neglect of female infants
Evidence of China’s One Child Policy
1990
Mao: “every stomach comes
with two arms attached”
Post Mao: one child policy,
1976-late 1980s
Policy relaxed in late 1980s,
growth resumes
Demographic Structure
Sex at birth: 105 males per 100 females in North America
117.0 under age 1 (above),
120-130 males per 100 females in some regions of China
Urban China
38% urbanized
Massive restructuring
Urban environmental
problems
Air pollution
Congestion
Water pollution
Beijing
Forbidden City
Tiananmen
Square
Mausoleum of
Mau Ze Dong
Great Hall of
the People
Pudong Tower
Nanjing Dong Lu
Economic Issues
Energy supplies limited
Transportation infrastructure
Popular resistance and changes in central
policy have weakened china’s population
control program.
Environmental degradation
Massive migration
Rural-urban, west-east, farm-factory
$30 billion, energy of 15 nuclear power plants
Dam is 2,150 meters across and 185 meters in height
13 cities, 140 towns and over 1,300 villages will be
submerged by the Three Gorges Reservoir.
1.5 million people will have to be relocated.
1,300 archeological sites will be flooded
1,600 factories and mines will be submerge
unknown toxic effects
Quickbird
Three Gorges
Dam, 2002
AGRICULTURAL
REGIONS
ENERGY
RESOURCES
Economic Development Initiatives
Special Economic Zones
6 SEZs established; 3 in Guangdong
Investment incentives: low taxes, import/export regulations
eased, land leases simplified, etc
Open Cities
included 14 coastal cities
national investment focused on Shanghai
Open Coastal Areas
Designed to attract foreign investments
Concentrated along Pacific coast deltas and peninsulas
Special Economic Zones
Investor incentives
Low taxes
Easing of trade barriers
Simplified land leases
Hiring of contract labor permitted
Products may be sold in foreign markets
and in China (under certain restrictions)
Coastal location
Shanghai
Proximity to
Taiwan
Ethnic Chinese
Hong Kong
Macau
in Thailand
S-E Asia
Open Cities
Selection criteria
Size
Former treaty ports
Links to “overseas Chinese”
Existing industrialization
Pool of local skilled labor
Confined to coastal areas
Incentives to encourage foreign investment
Xizang (Tibet)
Harsh physical environment
Sparsely populated
Came under Chinese control during Manchu dynasty
in 1720
Gained separate status in the late 19th century
Re-occupied in 1959
Buddhism, the Dalai Lama, and monasteries
Formally annexed in 1965 and administered as an
autonomous region
Smouldering nationalism
Xinjiang
1/6 of China’s total land area, Taklamakan Desert
High mountains & arid basins with irrigated oases
Extensive reserves of oil and natural gas
Han Chinese elite account for 40%
analogous to Russification
Muslim Uyghurs account for 50% of the population
Devolutionary pressures
Calls for Chinese Muslim state
Mongolia
Arid steppe
Gobi Desert
Sparsely populated: 2.5 million inhabitants
Part of Chinese empire from late 1600s until 1911
People’s Republic in the 1920s, allied to USSR
Buffer state
Pastoral economy
Hong Kong
Ceded to Britain
in 3 parts:
Hong Kong
Island, 1841
Kowloon, 1861
New Territories,
1898
(99 year lease)
Hong Kong
Excellent deep water port, terrible airport
Occupation in 1941, Defence of Hong Kong
2,000 Canadians arrive 16 Nov, surrender 25
Dec
Korean War: embargo & manufacturing
growth
Clothing, textiles, electronics
One of the four little Asian tigers
Banking and back door to China
Hong Kong
6 million people in 400 sq miles
1 July 1997- British transferred control to
China
Hong Kong renamed Xianggang
New status as China’s first SAR (special
administrative region)
CEPA: Closer Economic Partnership
Agreement with China.
Autonomy vis-à-vis China remains unclear
Chek Lap Kok, completed 1998,
Kai Tak now closed
Macau
Portugese colony and port
Famous for gambling, some textiles
60 minutes by ferry from Hong Kong
Control transferred to China in 1999
New status as SAR