Showing papers on "East Asia published in 1992"

Asia's Next Giant: South Korea and Late Industrialization

Abstract: While much attention has been focused on Japan's meteoric rise as an economic power, South Korea has been quietly emerging as the next industrial giant to penetrate the world market. South Korea is one of a series of countries (ranging from Taiwan, India, Brazil, and Turkey, to Mexico, and including Japan) to have succeeded through borrowing foreign technology rather than by generating new products or processes. Describing such countries as `late-industrializers,' Amsden demonstrates why South Korea has become the most successful of this group. Available in OSO: http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/oso/public/content/economicsfinance/0195076036/toc.html

Business Systems in East Asia: Firms, Markets and Societies

Abstract: The Comparative Analysis of Business Systems East Asian Business Systems Differences Between East Asian Business Systems Institutional Influences on East Asian Business Systems I Pre-Industrial Japan, Korea and China Institutional Influences on East Asian Business Systems II Industrialization and Institutional Development The Effects of Institutional Environments on East Asian Business Systems East Asian and Western Business Systems Variety, Change and Internationalization of Business Systems

The Four Little Dragons: The Spread of Industrialization in East Asia

Abstract: Preface 1. A New Wave of Industrialization 2. Taiwan 3. South Korea 4. Hong Kong and Singapore 5. Toward an Explanation Notes Index

Is Japan Creating a Yen Bloc in East Asia and the Pacific

Abstract: This paper reaches seven conclusions regarding the Yen Bloc that Japan is reputed to be forming in Pacific Asia. (1) Gravity-model estimates of bilateral trade show that the level of trade in East Asia is biased intra-regionally, as it is within the European Community and within the Western Hemisphere, to a greater extent than can be explained naturally by distance. One might call these three regions 'super-natural' blocs, in contrast to Krugman's "natural" trade blocs. (2) There is no evidence of a special Japan effect. (3) Once one properly accounts for rapid growth in Asia, the statistics do not bear out a trend toward intra-regional bias of trade flows. (4) The world's strongest trade grouping is the one that includes the U.S. and Canada with the Asian/Pacific countries, i.e., APEC. (5) There is a bit more evidence of rising Japanese influence in East Asia's financial markets. Tokyo appears to have acquired significant influence over interest rates in a few Asian countries, though overall its influence is as yet no greater than that of New York. (6) Some of Japan's financial and monetary influence takes place through a growing role for the yen, at the expense of the dollar, The yen has become relatively more important in exchange rate policies and invoicing of trade and finance in the region. (7) But this trend is less the outcome of Japanese policy-makers' wishes, than of pressure from the U.S. government to internationalize the yen.

East Asia's Economic Success: Conflicting Perspectives, Partial Insights, Shaky Evidence

Abstract: Neoliberal economists say that growth is easy, provided the state does not obstruct the natural growth-inducing processes of a capitalist economy. They point to the success of South Korea and Taiwan as evidence that this proposition also holds for quite poor economies. Using chapters of Helen Hughes's edited volume by way of illustration, this article shows that the neoliberals ignore so much contrary evidence as to suggest that the neoliberal paradigm has entered a degenerative stage, like classical economics in the years before Keynes's breakthrough and like much Marxist writing of the 1970s.Two recent books about East Asia offer ways forward. The one by Alice Amsden argues that Korea has done better than other developing countries because it has created a more powerful synergy between a state that aggressively steers market competition and large, diversified business groups whose firms focus strategically on production processes at the shop floor. In conditions of “late development” this synergy is the key to success. Stephan Haggard's book accepts the core economic mechanism of the neoliberals but argues that the choice between sensible export-oriented policies, as in East Asia, or unsensible secondary import-substitution policies, as in Latin America, is determined by a complex conjunction of international pressures, domestic coalitions, political institutions, and ideas.Both books make important contributions to the debate. But they are weakened by not situating the experience of their case studies within an account of trends in the world system and by not addressing the question of what prevented massive “government failure” in market interventions in the East Asian cases. The last part of this paper takes a short step in this direction.

States and Development in the Asian Pacific Rim

Abstract: Introduction Situating the State in the East Asian Development Process - Jeffrey Henderson and Richard P Appelbaum PART ONE: THEORETICAL ISSUES Four Asian Tigers With a Dragon Head - Manuel Castells A Comparative Analysis of the State, Economy, and Society in the Asian Pacific Rim States, Economic Development, and the East Asia Pacific Rim - Nigel Harris New Realities of Industrial Development in East Asia and Latin America - Gary Gereffi Global, Regional, and National Trends PART TWO: ECONOMIC POLICY The Developmental State and Capital Accumulation in South Korea - Hagen Koo and Eun Mee Kim The Political Economy of Regional Development in Korea - Soohyun Chon Malaysian Industrialization, Ethnic Divisions, and the NIC Model - Paul M Lubeck The Limits to Replication The Japanese State and Economic Development - Haruhiro Fukui The Profile of a Nationalist-Paternalist Capitalist State PART THREE: SOCIAL POLICY Women, Export-Oriented Growth, and the State - Lucie Cheng and Ping-Chun Hsiung The Case of Taiwan Women, the Family, and the State in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Singapore - Janet W Salaff The Political Economy of Social Policy Formation - Frederic C Deyo East Asia's Newly Industrialized Countries

Dental and cranial affinities among populations of east Asia and the Pacific: the basic populations in east Asia, IV.

Abstract: The origins of the four major geographical groups recognized as Australomelanesians, Micronesians, Polynesians, and East and Southeast Asians are still far from obvious. The earliest arrivals in Sahulland may have migrated from Sundaland about 40,000-50,000 years B.P. and begun the Australomelanesian lineage. The aboriginal populations in Southeast Asia may have originated in the tropical rain forest of Sundaland, and their direct descendants may be the modern Dayaks of Borneo and Negritos of Luzon. These populations, the so-called "Proto-Malays," are possible representatives of the lineage leading to not only modern Southeast Asians, but also the Neolithic Jomon populations in Japan. The present study suggests, moreover, that the Polynesians and western Micronesians have closer affinities with modern Southeast Asians than with Melanesians or Jomonese.

A Fragile Relationship: The United States and China since 1972

Abstract: President Nixon's historic trip to China in February 1972 marked the beginning of a new era in Sino-American relations. For the first time since 1949, the two countries established high-level official contacts and transformed their relationship from confrontation to collaboration. Over the subsequent twenty years, however, U.S.-China relations have experienced repeated cycles of progress, stalemate, and crisis, with the events in Tiananmen Square in June 1989 the most recent and disruptive example. Paradoxically, although relations between the two countries are vastly more extensive today than they were twenty years ago, they remain highly fragile. In this eagerly awaited book, China expert Harry Harding offers the first comprehensive look at Sino-American relations from 1972 to the present. He traces the evolution of U.S.-China relations, and assesses American policy toward Peking in the post- Tiananmen era. Harding analyzes the changing contexts for the Sino-American relationship, particularly the rapidly evolving international environment, changes in American economic and political life, and the dramatic domestic developments in both China and Taiwan. He discusses the principal substantive issues in U.S.-China relations, including the way in which the two countries have addressed their differences over Taiwan and human rights, and how they have approached the blend of common and competitive interests in their economic and strategic relationships. He also addresses the shifting political base for Sino-American relations within each country, including the development of each society's perceptions of the other, and the emergence and dissolution of rival political coalitions supporting and opposing the relationship. Harding concludes that a return to the Sino-American strategic alignment of the 1970s, or even to the economic partnership of the 1980s, is less likely in the 1990s than continued tension or even confrontation over such issues as trade, human rights, and the proliferation of advanced weapons. But he also explains the importance of maintaining normal working relations with China in order to promote security in East Asia, protect the global environment, and encourage an open, more realistic and stable relationship with China. Selected by Choice as an Outstanding Book of 1992 Award winner for excellence in publishing from the Association of American Publishers

Was Latin America too rich to prosper? Structural and political obstacles to export‐led industrial growth

Abstract: This essay explores the divergence in economic policy and performance between East Asia and Latin America. It offers a typology of explanations from the political economy literature. Evidence is presented for an explanation focused upon the relative size of the income sacrifice entailed in the competitive export of simple manufactures. In the 1960s, Latin American countries would have faced massive, politically unthinkable currency devaluations, had they sought to compete with East Asia. Thus Latin American dependency in the post‐war period has been more complex than often supposed. The essay ends with thoughts on export‐led industrialisation in indebted Latin America.

Relationship between climatic change and the nomadic southward migrations in eastern Asia during historical times

Abstract: On the basis of data obtained from ancient Chinese chronicles, this study has established time series of southward and eastward migrations of the nomad people in the southern Mongolian grasslands and eastern central Asia from 190 B.C. to A.D. 1880 and found that there is a close relationship between climatic change and the migrations. We hypothesized that such a climate-migration relationship perhaps resulted from both livestock failure of the nomad people and crop failure of the Han Chinese during cold and/or dry climatic periods.

Regional Paths of Development

Abstract: Development is the key challenge facing human society. The essence of development is to improve the quality of life, yet the striking technological revolutions of recent years have not resulted in better living conditions for most of the world’s population. These contrasts are not limited to comparisons between advanced industrial and developing societies; they are also reflected in starkly differing patterns of development within the third world. Five broad theoretical perspectives frame much of the literature on regional paths of development: neoclassical economics, world-systems/dependency theories, the developmental state, institutional analysis, and marxism. While these approaches are general in nature, there are marked affinities between individual theories and the experience of particular regions in the third word. Our review focuses on four third-word regions: Latin America, East Asia, South Asia, and sub-Saharan Africa. East Asia comes out on top according to almost all indicators of economic and...

Types of supports for the aged and their providers in Taiwan.

Abstract: This paper presents an introductory analysis of the nature of the supports needed and received by the elderly in Taiwan and the individual and institutional providers. Taiwan is an excellent laboratory for studying many of the emerging issues concerning the status of the elderly in Asia. As a predominantly Chinese culture it shares with many countries in East Asia a tradition which views the formation of a multi-generational extended family as ideal. At the same time it has undergone rapid demographic change in the last 25 years manifest in sharply lower fertility increasing life expectancy and continued urbanization; and a dramatic economic transformation from a fairly poor agricultural country to a prosperous industrialized society. In addition the existence of two distinct groups among the elderly--the native Taiwanese and their descendants and the Mainlanders the approximately one million Chinese who arrived after 1949 in the aftermath of the Chinese Civil War--provides interesting contrasts which may help reveal emerging trends. (excerpt)

Reverse brain drain in South Korea: state-led model.

Abstract: Korea’s reverse brain drain (RBD) has been an organized government effort, rather than a spontaneous social phenomenon, in that various policies and the political support of President Park, Chung-Hee were instrumental in laying the ground work for its success. Particular features of Korea’s RBD policies are the creation of a conducive domestic environment (i.e., government-sponsored strategic R & D institution-building, legal and administrative reforms), and importantly, the empowerment of returnees (via, i.e., exceptionally good material benefits, guarantees of research autonomy). President Park played the cardinal role in empowering repatriates at the expense of his own civil bureaucracy, and his capacity for such patronage derived from Korea’s bureaucratic-authoritarian political system. Returning scientists and engineers directly benefited from this political system as well as Park’s personal guardianship. For Park, empowerment of returning “brains” was necessary to accomplish his national industrialization plan, thereby enhancing his political legitimacy in domestic politics. An alliance with the R & D cadre was functionally necessary to successfully consolidate strong presidential power, and politically non-threatening due to the particular form of “pact of domination” in Korea’s power structure. RBD in Korea will continue in the near future given Korea’s drive for high technology, and the remarkable expansion of local industrial and educational sectors. Korea’s future RBD, however, needs to pay closer attention to the following four problems: research autonomy; equality issues; skill-based repatriation of technicians and engineers rather than Ph.D.’s; and subsidies to small and medium industry for RBD.

On Pacific Economic Integration

Abstract: While the Uruguay Round of GATT negotiations is stalled, regional integration has proliferated. The Uruguay Round is most likely to end with a smaller package of achievements than anticipated at Punta del Este in I986. Even if it is concluded, it is inevitable that the contracting parties will attempt to pursue their aims by means of alternative routes liberalisation efforts among like-minded countries in their neighbourhood. Regional integration efforts in the Pacific is no exception of this trend. However, its form and extent differs from that in Europe and North America. The word 'integration' is perhaps too strong in popular usage to describe its regionalism and may be better replaced by 'cooperation'. The aim of this paper is to analyse the current state of economic integration efforts in the Pacific region and to correct possible misunderstanding of its characteristics. Despite the absence of a formal framework, regional integration without a discriminatory impact on outsiders will help the region to achieve its high growth potential. The analysis will proceed as follows. Sections II and III give a statistical overview of the growth of the Pacific region in recent years, identifies East Asia as the core of the region's growth, and evaluates the mechanisms underlying East Asia's growth. That growth is trade-oriented and needs a free trade regime to sustain it. Section IV explains how there has been no region-wide integration framework, and several sub-regional groupings are characterised by informal arrangements with ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) being the exception. The limited achievements of the Uruguay Round has led this grouping to explore the possibility of further liberalisation (Section V). However, there seems to be a consensus in the region that it requires only a loose form of integration. The current region-wide framework the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) process will be analysed in this context in Section VI. The last Section will conclude with the likely agenda for the APEC.

International migration within and from the East and Southeast Asian region: a review essay.

Abstract: The author reviews the literature on the trends and characteristics of international migration within and from East and Southeast Asia with a focus on the past 25 years. "Five migration systems are described: settler student contract labor skilled labor and refugee. Settler migration to the U.S. Canada and Australia has consisted primarily of family members....Contract labor migration particularly to the Middle East has provided jobs foreign currency through remittances and greater participation of women but also led to illegal migration skills drain and labor abuses. The hierarchy of development has led to intra-regional flows: (1) skilled labor mainly from Japan to other countries in the region and (2) contract labor and illegal migration from the LDCs to the NIEs [newly industrializing economies] and Japan." (EXCERPT)

A comparison of the Korean minorities in China and Japan.

Abstract: Approximately 1.8 million Koreans are settled in China and some 700,000 Koreans are located in Japan. The Korean minorities in two neighboring Asian countries make an interesting contrast in adjust? ment and ethnicity. Whereas the Koreans in China have maintained high levels of ethnic autonomy and positive ethnic identity, the Korean Japanese have lost much of their cultural repertoire and have suffered from negative ethnic identity. This paper provides a comparative analysis, explaining why the Koreans in two countries have made the different adjustments. It focuses on the basic differences in minority policy between China and Japan, the difference in the context of migration, the existence or absence of a territorial base, and the differential levels of influence from Korea. This comparative analysis is theoretically valuable because it has demonstrated that the physical and cultural differences between the majority group and a minority group are not necessary conditions for prejudice and discrimination against the minority group.

Social Policy and the Elderly in South Korea: Confucianism, Modernization, and Development

Abstract: Since the 1960s, South Korea has shifted from being mainly an agrarian, rural society to an urbanized and industrial, newly modernizing one. Of the Asian modernized or modernizing societies such as Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Thailand that have Confucian ethical heritages, it appears that South Korea is one of the most closely bound to the relational aspects of this heritage. The Republic of Korea (ROK) is a society of some 44 million people in which 98 % of the population is literate and in which, in 1987, 78.1% of the labor force was in the secondary and tertiary industrial sector and 69% of the population lived in urban areas. Per capita GNP in 1989 was $4,550, and in 1990 an average wage earner's monthly family income was about $1,235. In 1990 the South Korean fertility rate was about 1.7 children per family and was expected to remain less than two children per family during the 1990s. On the other hand, life expectancy at birth in 1990 was 69.3 years for men and 75 years for women. In 1990, 4.7% of Korea's population was over 65 years old with the expectation that, by 2020, that figure would rise to 11%. ' Modernization, accompanied by demographic changes, urbanization, and industrialization, has contributed to changes in South Korea's family structure. Average household size for a family declined from 5.6 persons

Kin availability of the elderly in Taiwan: Who is available and where are they?

Abstract: Rising interest in the status of the elderly in Taiwan and in many other parts of Asia stems in part from the convergence of rapid demographic and socioeconomic change. The former is leading to a dramatic increase in the number and the proportion of the population in the older age groups and a simultaneous decline in family size among elderly individuals. In addition socioeconomic changes call into question the persistence and strength of family arrangements that generally have been the source of support for the elderly in these societies. Taiwan provides an excellent setting for studying many of the emerging issues concerning the status of the elderly in Asia. As a predominantly Chinese culture it shares with many countries in East Asia a tradition which views the formation of a multi-generational extended family as ideal. At the same time Taiwan has undergone rapid demographic change in the last 25 years manifest in sharply lower fertility increasing life expectancy and continued urbanization; and a dramatic economic transformation from a fairly poor agricultural country to a prosperous industrialized society. In addition the existence of two distinct groups among the elderly--the native Taiwanese and their descendants and the Mainlanders - the approximately one million Chinese who arrived in 1949 and shortly thereafter as a result of the Chinese Civil War--provides interesting contrasts which may help reveal emerging trends. (excerpt)

Trade policy options for the Asia-Pacific region in the 1990s : the potential of open regionalism

Abstract: At the end of the Uruguay Round, AsiaPacific decision makers need to select trade policy options that will advance, rather than detract from, the region's overriding interest in a more open global trading system The new process of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), launched in Australia in 1989, provides the first opportunity for regional Ministers to meet regularly to identify these options and to foster the cohesion and trust needed for their progressive implementation APEC's 12 original participants (the six members of ASEAN, the United States, Canada, Japan, Korea, Australia, and New Zealand) were joined by China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan in 1991 This diverse, but correspondingly complementary group of economies accounts for more than half of world GDP and almost 40 percent of world trade Close to 65 percent of their exports are to each other; this is higher than the corresponding share for the European Community (EC) APEC's guiding principles, built on the intellectual foundations laid by the Pacific Economic Cooperation Conference (PECC) since 1980, stipulate that cooperation should be outward-looking, building consensus on a gradually broader range of economic issues Participation is to be open-ended, based on the strength of economic linkages; Mexico is the likely next participant Regional trade liberalization is to be promoted, provided it is consistent with GATT principles and notto the detriment of other economies The last of these principles is unique For the first time, a powerful regional group of economies has come together to promote global economic interests, rather than to defend their own narrower markets by forming a trading bloc APEC's concept of open regionalism is radically different from the discriminatory nature of the EC' APEC was launched too late to exert real influence on the Uruguay Round, but as its perception of common interests develops, APEC can become increasingly effective in shaping the global economic agenda By bridging the Pacific, APEC can provide a nonconfrontational, high-level forum to identify the strong common global economic interests of East Asia and North America APEC can also provide "a convenient regional framework within which Japan can move towards a position of shared policy leadership with the United States, in buttressing and extending the GATT-based trade regime" (Peter Drysdale, 1991 p 6)

The Foundations of Rapid Economic Growth

Abstract: The fast pace of economic growth of the East Asian nations known as the “Four Tigers”–South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore–has become a legend It is usually claimed that the export-oriented industrialization (EOI) strategy was the basic cause of that rapid growth However, it is contended that the growth strategy of these countries was the result of certain unique historical and geo-political factors The colonial government had created the necessary infrastructure and international linkages which set the stage for initiating the EOI strategy Furthermore, because of the political support accorded to them from foreign governments, these countries, with the exception of Hong Kong, excluded major oppositional groups from sharing political power, and thus they were able to pursue effectively growth and export-oriented policies South Korea and Taiwan also received a large amount of foreign aid from the U S This aid, and the fact the U S laid open its huge market for cheaper Asian exports without insisting on reciprocity, prepared the conditions for export-led growth in those countries

Neo-Confucian education : the formative stage

Abstract: In the early days of the modernization of East Asia, Neo-Confucianism was often held responsible for the purported intellectual, political, and social failings of traditional societies in the nineteenth century. Today, with frequent comparisons between the rapid success at modernization of many of these societies and the slowness of other underdeveloped countries, Neo-Confucianism has come to be seen under a very different light; analysts now point to the common Confucian culture of China, Japan, Korea, and overseas Chinese communities as a driving force in the East Asian peoples' receptivity to new learning, disciplined industriousness, and capacity for both cultural and economic development. Central to this remarkable capacity for development, these essays argue, lies the influence of the great twelfth-century thinker Chu Hsi. He has been considered responsible for providing much of the intellectual mortar that preserved the established order for centuries. However, when viewed in their historical setting, many of Chu's views can be seen as liberalindeed, progressive. This is the first comprehensive study of Chu as an educator and of the propagation of his teachings throughout East Asia. Covering a wide spectrum of intellectual and social developments, the contributors address the ways in which Neo-Confucian thought and ethics were adapted to changes in Chinese society that anticipate many features and problems of modern society today."

The Politics of Emerging Pacific Cooperation

Abstract: T HE PAST DECADE has witnessed the delineation of a new political and economic grouping in the Pacific, which could be expected to consolidate into a significant bloc in the global system by the end of the century, setting a new framework for what has been widely touted as the "Pacific Century. " This grouping ties together the western industrial countries of the U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand, with Japan, the newly industrial countries of South Korea and Singapore, the next tier of Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines and Brunei, with China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. The forging of close relations between the industrialized countries and selected less industrial countries of the Pacific Basin has been expressed in a political process of constructing common organizations, most recently including the intergovernmental Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation conference (APEC). This organizational network has not emerged smoothly, nor is it as yet fully defined. But it is a profound innovation in the Pacific, which has lagged behind every other world area in constructing explicit, cooperative arrangements, perhaps as a result of the high degree of diversity in cultures and economic levels found here. While these problems will continue to be relevant, the emergence of increasing levels and mechanisms of cooperation also signals greater cohesion, especially in economic affairs, a cohesion that may soon justify the term "bloc, " in parallel to the European bloc. This essay focuses on the politics of Pacific cooperation, which has been a culmination of struggles over which countries are to be included, what issues are to be considered commonly, and the nature of the common institutions. Emerging Pacific cooperation rests on the base of vastly accelerated economic interaction, particularly among the countries of East Asia and North America. However, it does not merely flow from those growing economic transactions, but also from political considerations that range from changing domestic conditions, to perceptions of a possibly threatening international political economy, to competition among various organizations to remain central in a more complex set of regional institutions. It is these political elements that are the focus of this article.

The Emergence of Eastern Asia and its Implications for Canada

Abstract: In 1959 Kenneth Waltz made a compelling case in his book, Man, the State and War, that three images or levels of analysis human beings, their national groupings or states, and the international system itselfare central to explaining the origins of war. In the 1990s those of realist persuasion (and others) will find it increasingly useful to explain international behaviour by concentrating on a fourth level somewhere between the state and the international system: the region. Even though we live in a world of unprecedented transnationalism and supranationalism above the state and resurgent ethno-nationalism below it, regions are assuming greater importance for two fundamental reasons. First, the ending of Soviet-American strategic competition has placed greater emphasis on local rather than on global dynamics in security matters. Second, the globalization of production and finance is having the unexpected consequence of accelerating regional economic integration, usually along continental lines, in the most economically advanced areas of the world. Most North American and European analysts have been transfixed by the dramatic events surrounding the ending of the Cold War in Europe, the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, and the new era in RussianAmerican relations. These developments certainly have had their reverberations in an area covering the Asian side of the Pacific