GEOG 101 – World Regional Geography
Professor: Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue
Chapter 9 – East Asia

A The East Asian Realm
■
• World’s most populous realm.
• One of the world’s earliest culture hearths.
• Political and economic forces continue to transform traditional cultural landscapes.
• Intensifying regional disparities.
• Population concentrations in the east, situated in river basins.
• Political geography reveals instability.

The East Asian Realm
■ Context
• The tale of two giants (China and Japan) and a divided neighbor (Korea).
• Demographic giant: China.
• Economic giant: Japan.
• Mongoloid race.
• Also considered as the “Chinese Realm” and the “Japanese Realm”:
• Korea being a “zone of interaction” between China and Japan.
• Definition came after WWII.
• Chinese culture area:
• Mother civilization.
• Japanese and Korean cultures strongly influenced by China.
• East of the Himalayan mountains.
■ Foreign influence
• Both were not influenced from the outside until late 19 th century.
• China was forced to open Treaty Ports (Hong Kong, Shanghai, Tianjin, etc.).
• Japan remained closed but reformed with foreign technology.

The East Asian Realm
Mongolia
Himalayas and Tibetan Plateau
China
Hunan
Plateau
Coastal
Plains
N. Korea
S. Korea
Guangdong
Plains
Taiwan
Japan
Pacific Ocean
South
China Sea 0
Hong Kong
250 500 1,000 Miles

The East Asian Realm
■
• One of the most rugged topography in the world.
• Complex landforms created by tectonic activity.
• Limited flat land:
• Relative to the population.
• Creation of space for agriculture.
• Terracing and irrigation.
• Maximize agricultural productivity.
• Himalayas:
• Indian plate hitting the East Asian plate.
• Started 50 million years ago.
• Contains the highest mountains in the world.

The East Asian Realm
■
• Korea and its re-unification.
• China and Taiwan.
• The South China Sea.
■
• Growth and development.
• Huge imbalances in the regional distribution of wealth.
• Between countries.
• Within countries (China).
• Food supply.
• Resources hungry China and Japan.

The East Asian Realm
■
• Overpopulation.
• Urbanization and migration (China):
• Moving from a rural to an industrial society.
• Massive movements from the countryside to cities.
• Missing female population.
■
• Strong focus on development.
• Air quality (urban and regional):
• 16 of the world’s 20 most polluted cities are in China.
• Access to water (depletion of river systems and aquifers).
• Depletion of natural resources.

B China
China
0 250 500 1,000 1,500
Miles
2,000
United States
■ Geography
• A factor of unity as well as diversity.
• 3 rd largest country in the world.
• Comparable surface with Europe and the United States:
• U.S.: 3.6 million square miles.
• China: 3.7 million square miles.
• It is a lot but not enough.
• 65% of the country mountainous.
• Arable land represents 12% of the national territory as opposed to
25% for the United States.
• Per capita (0.086 hectare) is well below the world average.

China
Size
Main physical barrier
Main River
Population
Connectivity problems
China
East Coast
North - South
United States
3.7 million square miles 3.6 million square miles
Himalayas Rockies
Yangtze / East - West Mississippi / North –
South
East Coast
East - West

China
1
3
2
4
■ 1- Huang He (Yellow River).
• Can carry up to 40% sediment weight (highest in the world).
• Subject to flooding, especially in its delta.
• Changed course many times.
■ 2- Chang Jiang (Yangtze).
• Longest river, China’s main street
(6,300 km).
• Flood of 1998 left 14 million homeless.
■ 3- Pearl River delta system
• Most productive and sustainable ecosystem in the world.
• Rice paddies and fish ponds.
■ 4- Heilong Jiang (Amur).
• China's border with Russia.

China
Maritime border
Physical border
Cultural border
Turkic
Arid China
Mongols
Takla Makan
Gobi
Highland China
Tibetan
Political border
Tai
Miao-Yao
Han
Koreas
Taiwan
■ The Chinese Realm
• East sea border.
• West: Deserts and mountains.
• North: Deserts.
• South: Himalayas.
• Cultural division between the
Han realm and the China of the minorities.
• Han China represents 92% of the population.
• Dominantly live in mountainous or arid regions.
• Geopolitical division:
• Russia.
• South Korea.
• Taiwan.

China
Pasture and oasis
Wheat Dominant
Rice Dominant
Double-crop rice
■ Agricultural diversity
• North: continental climate growing wheat, sorghum and corn.
• South: subtropical climate growing rice.
• A China of the West with pastoralism and oasis agriculture.
• China feeds approximately
25% of the world’s population with approximately 7% of the world’s arable land.

China
Exports
Population
West
Centre
Coast
Surface
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80%
West
Center
Coast
■ The three Chinas
■ The Coast
• Forefront of modernization.
• Political and economic center.
• Rich, urbanized and open to the world.
■ The Center
• Agricultural and demographic hearth.
• Poor and rural China.
■ The West
• Sparsely populated.
• Region of minorities.
• Most mineral resources.

China
Command
Isolation
Rural
Wheat
Rice
Market
Openness
Urban
■ Contrasts
• Authoritarian Government /
Opening of the Economy.
• Inward-Looking History /
Outward-Looking Future.
• Rural Interior / Urbanizing Coast.
• Wheat Growing North / Rice
Growing South.
• Hans / Minorities.
• Mandarin Hans / Non-Mandarin
Hans (Cantonese, Wu, Hakka, etc.).

China
■
• More people than the combined population of Europe, the
Americas and Japan.
• Any change has global ramifications.
• The demography of China is a powerful trend (1.29 billion):
• About 14-17 million people are added each year in 1980s.
• Average of 13 million people per year in the 1990s.
• 10 million people per year in the 2000s.
• About 1.5 billion by 2050.
• 400 million Chinese live in towns and cities (30-35%).
• 64% of the population lives in rural areas (950 millions).
• 343 million females are in their reproductive age.

The Population of China, 0-2050
1600
1400
1200
1000
800
600
400
200
0
0
2
105
2050
2000
1995
1981
1970
500
755
1083
1000
1210
1381 15621650
1753
1500
1851
1812
1887
2000

Chinese Population, 1949-2000 (in millions)
(projections to 2050)
1500
1300
1100
900
700
500
1945 1955 1965 1975 1985 1995 2005 2015 2025 2035 2045

Population of Selected Chinese Provinces, 1998
France
United Kingdom
Italy
Egypt
Hunan
Hebei
Iran
Philippines
Jiangsu
Germany
Shandong
Henan
Mexico
Nigeria
Sichuan .
0 20 40 60 80 100 120

China
■
• The population exploded after 1949.
• Population control was secondary.
• Mao Zedong saw numbers as a workforce and a way to fight the
Soviet Union and the United States.
• Calls for women to “breed for the motherland”.
■
• Excessive concentration:
• 50% of the population lives on 8.2% of the land.
• Bulk of the population along the coast.
• East China accounts for 90% of the population.
• 56%, about 728 million, are living in mountainous areas.
• High density rural areas.

China
■
• Population growth undermines Chinese development (education, health, food, transportation).
• About 10 million persons reach the job market each year.
• Increasing ethnic diversity:
• The government had not enforced the One Child Policy among the country’s 55 recognized minority groups.
• They had increased their share of still predominantly Han population to
8% in 2000 from 6.7% in 1982.
• Missing female population.
• Sustaining agriculture.
• Coping with huge urban growth.

Population Pyramid of China, 2000
Female
Male
-70
52
64
60
63
51
48
55
51
-50
42
42
31
24
21
18
12
7
70-74
60-64
50-54
1
40-44
30-34
20-24
-30
10-14
0-4
-10
Millions
10
2
5
8
13
18
20
22
29
30
41
40
42
43
43
48
50
50
58
61
58
70

China
■
• Increasing the agricultural output:
• Agricultural output increased significantly in the 1990s due to reforms.
• About 10 million new mouths to feed each year with declining agricultural surfaces.
• Production of grain is diverted to livestock (meat) and other produces (e.g. beer).
• Traditional land structures have reach optimal capacity:
• Output cannot be increased without the usage of modern techniques such as machinery and fertilizers.
• Farm size is too small (less than 1 hectare per household in coastal areas).
• Limited investments in agriculture by the peasant.

China
• Land ownership:
• Peasants do not own the land they use (collectivization).
• With reforms, most of the land has been rented.
• Peasants victims of high taxes and arbitrary expropriation.
• Urbanization, industrialization and transport:
• Decreased agricultural land in the most productive areas.
• Speculation around cities towards golf courses and leisure centers at the expanse of agriculture.
• The state is investing less in agriculture.
• Local authorities are more interested by business (more taxes).
• Dependency:
• China is now a net importer of grain.
• By 2030, China would need to import the current global grain production.

Production and Yield of Paddy Rice in China, 1961-2004
70,000
60,000
50,000
40,000
30,000
20,000
10,000
0
Yield (kg / hectare)
Permanent crops (1,000 hectares)
Production (tons)
50
0
150
100
250
200

Production and Yield of Wheat in China, 1961-2004
45,000
40,000
35,000
30,000
25,000
20,000
15,000
10,000
5,000
0
Yield (kg / hectare)
Production (tons)
40
20
0
80
60
140
120
100

China
■
• For the last 500 years, China had an inferiority complex.
• Strong pressure to portray China as a modernizing nation.
• Large investments in grandiose projects:
• Three Gorges Dam.
• First maglev train in Shanghai (2003).
• First Chinese in space (2003).
• New international airports (Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou).
• 2008 Olympics.
• Development of the telecom market:
• Easier and cheaper to switch to the latest technology.
• China has 300 million cell phone subscribers.
• 5 million new subscribers per month.
• 70% of Beijing resident have a cell phone; 60% for Shanghai (2002).
• 42% of the Guangdong province population; 30 million.
• Half of the rural residents have a television.

China
■
• Economic growth has increased China’s consumption of resources:
• “The Dragon is hungry”.
• Consumes 50% of the world’s cement.
• 30% of the coal.
• 40% of the steel.
• Second largest consumer of oil after the United States.
• Energy supply problems with increasing blackouts.
• Completion of a natural gas pipeline in 2004 (Tarim Basin to Shanghai).
• Driving up global commodity prices:
• Increased global competition caused by China.
• Fear that China may “export inflation”.
• China may hit a “resource wall” inhibiting future developments.

China
■
• Two processes:
• Addition of new manufacturing activities either the outcome of FDI or internal investments (modern facilities).
• The closing down of many manufacturing activities, mainly the outcome of
Chinese competition and/or comparative advantages.
• 50% of the world's TVs.
• 60% of the world's cell phones.
• 50% the world's shoes (and 95% of those sold in the United
States).
• 80% of the toys sold in the United States.
• 90% of the sporting goods sold in the United States.
• 100% of Levi's blue jeans are now made in China.

China
■
• Pulling out millions of Chinese out of poverty:
• More than 200 million peasants live on less than $1 a day.
• Justifies any policy and project.
• Important environmental costs.
• Inequality is becoming a standard:
• Wages remain $50 to $70 per month.
• With inflation, standards of living are going down.
• Guangdong; the Manchester of the 21 st century.
• Chinese exports are similar to Pacific Asian exports:
• Intense competition from Thailand, Indonesia, and South Korea.
• China is however winning the competition war.
• Industrial overcapacity:
• Over investment.
• Over supply of consumption goods, driving prices down.

C Jakota
■
• Japan, South Korea, Taiwan.
• The most advanced segment of the region.
• Rapid economic development.
• Great cities:
• Tokyo, Osaka, Seoul, Taipei.
• Enormous consumption of raw materials.
• State-of-the-art industries.
• Voluminous exports.
• Global links.
• Trades surpluses.

Japan
■ Location
• “jih-pen” in Chinese:
• Since Western civilizations encountered China before
Japan, the name “Japan” stuck.
• Nihon (or Nippon), meaning
“Source of the sun”.
• Relative isolation in Pacific Asia:
• Insularity.
• Do not share a land border with any country.
• Maritime access:
• Shimaguni (island country)
• Labeled as the Great Britain of the Pacific.
Contemporary Flag
Imperial Flag

Japan
■
• Small-sized country; the size of California.
• Average-sized population (127 millions).
• Very limited array of resources:
• Favored the development of trade.
• What Japan does not have on its national territory is obtained through trade.
• Its industrial corporations and its banks are controlling a significant array of resources.
• Domination of the Pacific Asian economy:
• Vast national market.
• Productive labor force.
• Financial power.
• Technological innovator.

Japan
Sea of Japan
Hokkaido
3
Honshu
2 1
Kyushu
Shikoku
■ Linking the main Japanese islands
• Required the construction of bridges and tunnels.
• Impressive engineering achievements.
• 1) Seto-Ohashi bridge:
• Shikoku/Honshu.
• Naruto Strait.
• 2) Kanmon bridge:
• Strait of Shimonoseki.
• Kyushu/Honshu.
• 3) Seikan tunnel:
• Tsugaru Strait (Honshu/Hokkaido)
• 33 miles, 1988, longest in the world.

Japan
Hokkaido
Honshu
Kanto Plain
Yamato Plain
Shikoku
Nobi Plain
Kyushu
■ Physical constraints
• Physical geography increases the territorial exiguity.
• 16% of the land is habitable.
• Fight against the scarcity of space:
• Long narrow valleys.
• Concentration of agricultural productivity.
• Efficient management of existing agricultural land.
• Kanto plain:
• 30.5% of the population.
• 8.3% of the surface of Japan.
• 50% of the flat territory.
• Most of the Japanese population lives on an area the size of Indiana.

Automobile Production, United States, Japan and
Germany, 1950-2004 (in millions)
35
30
25
45
40
20
15
10
5
0
19
50
19
53
Germany
Japan
United States
World
19
56
19
59
19
62
19
65
19
68
19
71
19
74
19
77
19
80
19
83
19
86
19
89
19
92
19
95
19
98
20
01
20
04

Global Production per Car Manufacturer, 2001
Other
Mitsubishi
Renault
Fiat
Nissan
Honda
PSA
DaimlerChrysler
Volkswagen
Toyota
Ford/Mazda
GM
0 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000 12000

The Shinkansen High Speed Rail Network
Operational
Under Construction
Planned
Hokkaido
Sapporo
Hakodate
Shimonoseki
Okayama
Kanazawa
Honshu
Aomori
Hachinohe
Akita
Shinjo
Morioka
Yamagata
Niigita
Nagano
Nagoya
Sendai
Fukushima
Takasaki
Omiya
Tokyo
Osaka
Fukowa
Shikoku
Nagasaki
0 70 140 280 420
Kyushu kagoshima 0 50 100 200 300
560
Kilometers
400
Miles

South Korea
0 50 100
China
200 300
Miles
!
(
!
(
North Korea
Sea of Japan
!
( Demilitarized zone
!
(
Inch`on
!
(
!
(
Seoul
South Korea
!
(
!
(
Taejon
Chonju
!
(
Taegu
Kwangju
!
(
Pusan
Japan
■ Geography
• “The shrimp between the whales”.
• About the size of Indiana.
• Population of 48 million.
• Highly homogenous ethnicity and linguistically (100% Korean).
• Religiously divided between
Christianity (49%) and Buddhism
(47%).
• 75% urban with 27% of the population living in Seoul (13 million).
• 5 million Koreans live oversea:
• 1 million in the United States.

South Korea
■
• Antagonism of the two new nations:
• Supported by China and the USSR.
• Invasion of South Korea by North Korea (1950).
• United Nations intervention:
• Multinational force intervened and repelled the invasion (1951).
• Military intervention of China (1952).
• An armistice was signed (1953):
• Both countries are still technically at war.
• 4 million civilian perished.
• Millions of refugees trapped in the division of Korea.
• The demilitarized zone of the 38 th parallel:
• 240 km in length and 4 km in width.
• Current border between the Koreas.
• The United States maintains a force of 45,000 troops.

LCD Shipments, 2004 (in millions)
Other
HannStar Display (Taiwan)
Sharp (Japan)
Quanta Computer (Taiwan)
Chunghwa Picture Tubes (Taiwan)
Chi Mei Optoelectronics (Taiwan)
AU Optonics (Taiwan)
LG Philips (Korea joint venture)
Samsung (Korea)
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35

Taiwan
0
China
Quemoy
100
!
(
Fuzhou
Matsu
T'ainan
!
(
Kaoshsiung
200 Miles
Taiwan
!
(
Taipei
T'aichung
■ Geographical Context
• About 150 km (100 miles) from the coast of southeast China.
• About the size of Idaho.
• Similar constraints than neighboring countries:
• 60% of the territory is composed of mountains.
• Chungyang Range covers about
50% the total land area.
• 25% usable for agriculture.
• Bulk of the population lives in the western coastal plain.
• Quemoy and Matsu islands:
• Used for defensive purposes.
50

Taiwan
■
• During the 1980s the PRC offered the ROC reintegration and an autonomous status.
• Strong ideological conflicts prevents reintegration.
• Tiananmen massacre (1989):
• Reinforced mistrust towards mainland China.
• Provided additional support by the United States.
• One China Policy:
• Rapprochement with China (1991):
– Declaration of the end of hostilities (Chinese Civil War).
– Recognition of the existence of the PRC by the ROC.
• Taiwan government recognized there is one China and that Taiwan is a province of China (1995).
• Officially gave up its pretension of being the representative government of
China.

Taiwan
■
• 40 years of economic growth, independence and a market economy has changed considerably the Taiwanese society.
• Democratization and multiparty system (1987).
• The firsts elections are organized (1989):
• Ending 40 years of single party government.
• Put back the Kuomintang in power (this time a legitimate power).
• Affirmation of the Taiwanese identity.
• Creates an uneasy situation with the PRC:
• Reintegration becomes more problematic.