Showing papers on "East Asia published in 2010"

Sulfur dioxide emissions in China and sulfur trends in East Asia since 2000

Abstract: . With the rapid development of the economy, the sulfur dioxide (SO2) emission from China since 2000 is of increasing concern. In this study, we estimate the annual SO2 emission in China after 2000 using a technology-based methodology specifically for China. From 2000 to 2006, total SO2 emission in China increased by 53%, from 21.7 Tg to 33.2 Tg, at an annual growth rate of 7.3%. Emissions from power plants are the main sources of SO2 in China and they increased from 10.6 Tg to 18.6 Tg in the same period. Geographically, emission from north China increased by 85%, whereas that from the south increased by only 28%. The emission growth rate slowed around 2005, and emissions began to decrease after 2006 mainly due to the wide application of flue-gas desulfurization (FGD) devices in power plants in response to a new policy of China's government. This paper shows that the trend of estimated SO2 emission in China is consistent with the trends of SO2 concentration and acid rain pH and frequency in China, as well as with the increasing trends of background SO2 and sulfate concentration in East Asia. A longitudinal gradient in the percentage change of urban SO2 concentration in Japan is found during 2000–2007, indicating that the decrease of urban SO2 is lower in areas close to the Asian continent. This implies that the transport of increasing SO2 from the Asian continent partially counteracts the local reduction of SO2 emission downwind. The aerosol optical depth (AOD) products of Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) are found to be highly correlated with the surface solar radiation (SSR) measurements in East Asia. Using MODIS AOD data as a surrogate of SSR, we found that China and East Asia excluding Japan underwent a continuous dimming after 2000, which is in line with the dramatic increase in SO2 emission in East Asia. The trends of AOD from both satellite retrievals and model over East Asia are also consistent with the trend of SO2 emission in China, especially during the second half of the year, when sulfur contributes the largest fraction of AOD. The arrested growth in SO2 emissions since 2006 is also reflected in the decreasing trends of SO2 and SO42− concentrations, acid rain pH values and frequencies, and AOD over East Asia.

Asia as Method: Toward Deimperialization

Abstract: Centering his analysis in the dynamic forces of modern East Asian history, Kuan-Hsing Chen recasts cultural studies as a politically urgent global endeavor. He argues that the intellectual and subjective work of decolonization begun across East Asia after the Second World War was stalled by the cold war. At the same time, the work of deimperialization became impossible to imagine in imperial centers such as Japan and the United States. Chen contends that it is now necessary to resume those tasks, and that decolonization, deimperialization, and an intellectual undoing of the cold war must proceed simultaneously. Combining postcolonial studies, globalization studies, and the emerging field of “Asian studies in Asia,” he insists that those on both sides of the imperial divide must assess the conduct, motives, and consequences of imperial histories. Chen is one of the most important intellectuals working in East Asia today; his writing has been influential in Taiwan, South Korea, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, and mainland China for the past fifteen years. As a founding member of the Inter-Asia Cultural Studies Society and its journal, he has helped to initiate change in the dynamics and intellectual orientation of the region, building a network that has facilitated inter-Asian connections. Asia as Method encapsulates Chen’s vision and activities within the increasingly “inter-referencing” East Asian intellectual community and charts necessary new directions for cultural studies.

Patterns of East Asian pig domestication, migration, and turnover revealed by modern and ancient DNA

Abstract: The establishment of agricultural economies based upon domestic animals began independently in many parts of the world and led to both increases in human population size and the migration of people carrying domestic plants and animals. The precise circumstances of the earliest phases of these events remain mysterious given their antiquity and the fact that subsequent waves of migrants have often replaced the first. Through the use of more than 1,500 modern (including 151 previously uncharacterized specimens) and 18 ancient (representing six East Asian archeological sites) pig (Sus scrofa) DNA sequences sampled across East Asia, we provide evidence for the long-term genetic continuity between modern and ancient Chinese domestic pigs. Although the Chinese case for independent pig domestication is supported by both genetic and archaeological evidence, we discuss five additional (and possibly) independent domestications of indigenous wild boar populations: one in India, three in peninsular Southeast Asia, and one off the coast of Taiwan. Collectively, we refer to these instances as “cryptic domestication,” given the current lack of corroborating archaeological evidence. In addition, we demonstrate the existence of numerous populations of genetically distinct and widespread wild boar populations that have not contributed maternal genetic material to modern domestic stocks. The overall findings provide the most complete picture yet of pig evolution and domestication in East Asia, and generate testable hypotheses regarding the development and spread of early farmers in the Far East.

East Asia Before the West: Five Centuries of Trade and Tribute

Abstract: List of Illustrations and TablesPreface1. The Puzzle: War and Peace in East Asian History2. Ideas: Hierarchy, Status, and Hegemony3. States: The Confucian Society4. Diplomacy: The Tribute System5. War: The Longer Peace6. Trade: International Economic Relations7. Frontiers: Nomads and Islands8. Lessons: History Forward and BackwardNotesBibliographyIndex

The East Asian welfare model

Abstract: This article aims to outline main features of the East Asian welfare model, to understand its past development and assess lessons that can be learned for other developing and developed countries. It describes the particular path of welfare state development in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore, by focusing particularly on developmental and political aspects of welfare state development. In the final part of the study, particular features of the East Asian welfare model are outlined, and thus the existence of a distinct, idealtypical welfare regime in East Asia substantiated.

Cultural Capital in East Asian Educational Systems The Case of Japan

Abstract: Cultural capital has been an important but often elusive concept in the study of educational processes and social class reproduction. The authors suggest that this is partly because a country’s edu...

Early wheat in China: Results from new studies at Donghuishan in the Hexi Corridor

Abstract: The earliest direct dates of wheat in East Asia come from Donghuishan in Gansu Province, China. Few other dates of wheat in East Asia are direct dates. The previous direct dates at Donghuishan were...

Powerplay: Origins of the U.S. Alliance System in Asia

Abstract: In East Asia the United States cultivated a “hub and spokes” system of discrete, exclusive alliances with the Republic of Korea, the Republic of China, and Japan, a system that was distinct from th...

How Would an Appreciation of the Renminbi and Other East Asian Currencies Affect China's Exports?

Abstract: China's global current account surplus equaled 9% of Chinese GDP in 2006 and 11% of GDP in 2007. Many argue that a renminbi appreciation would help to rebalance China's trade. Using a panel dataset including China's exports to 33 countries we find that a 10% renminbi (RMB) appreciation would reduce ordinary exports by 12% and processed exports by less than 4%. A 10% appreciation of all other East Asian currencies would reduce processed exports by 6%. A 10% appreciation throughout the region would reduce processed exports by 10%. Since ordinary exports tend to be simple, labor-intensive goods while processed exports are sophisticated, capital-intensive goods, a generalized appreciation in East Asia would generate more expenditure-switching towards US and European goods and contribute more to resolving global imbalances than an appreciation of the RMB or of other Asian currencies alone.

The ‘new East Asian regionalism’: A political domino effect

Abstract: The proliferation of regional economic agreements involving East Asian economies in the years since the financial crises is usually explained in the political economy literature by reference to economic factors. These agreements have been viewed either as a response to the costs of increasing interdependence and/or to the demand by domestic exporters to level the playing field when their rivals benefit from preferential trade agreements. A detailed examination of economic data finds no support, however, for the argument that intra-regional economic interdependence in East Asia has increased significantly since the financial crises. Case studies suggest that business has not played a major role in either promoting or opposing the agreements – not surprisingly in that the agreements are unlikely to have a major economic impact, and are not being widely used. Rather than there being an ‘economic domino’ effect at work, the new East Asian regionalism is best understood as being driven by a ‘political...

East Asian childbearing patterns and policy developments.

Abstract: Childbearing behavior in east asian countries has changed rapidly and fundamentally during the past 50 to 60 years. in the middle of the twentieth century large families with an average of five to seven children were the rule. in Japan almost immediately thereafter, and in the other countries 20 to 30 years later, replacement level was reached and since then fertility has continued its decline to the lowest levels in the world. Fifty years ago almost all women in east asia married and had children, whereas at present up to one-quarter of women may remain single at age 50 and one-fifth to onethird may remain childless. analyses of the institutional and socioeconomic environment affecting childbearing point to the likelihood of protracted very low fertility (Jones et al. 2009). Concern is growing about the future decline of these populations and their aging. in east asia increasingly perceive that the societal costs of rapid population aging and shrinkage are likely to outweigh possible benefits (ibid.). therefore , at the end of the first decade of the twenty-first century most east asian governments are pursuing pronatalist policies, whereas 50 years ago they were pioneers in implementing antinatalist policies. thus far, the pronatalist policies have not generated the desired results. the analysis in this article reinforces the conclusion that fertil ity is likely to remain very low for years if not decades and that trends will not be reversed unless forceful and innovative policies are implemented. 1 the first section analyzes fertility trends in Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, and taiwan primarily using cohort fertility data and methods. 2 this is followed by an examination of the social and economic causes of the childbearing trends. the next section provides an overview

Wealth, Health, and Democracy in East Asia and Latin America

Abstract: Why do some societies fare well, and others poorly, at reducing the risk of early death? Wealth, Health, and Democracy in East Asia and Latin America finds that the public provision of basic health care and other inexpensive social services has reduced mortality rapidly even in tough economic circumstances, and that political democracy has contributed to the provision and utilization of such social services, in a wider range of ways than is sometimes recognized. These conclusions are based on case studies of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Indonesia, South Korea, Taiwan, and Thailand, as well as on cross-national comparisons involving these cases and others.

A projection of future changes in summer precipitation and monsoon in East Asia

Abstract: The future potential changes in precipitation and monsoon circulation in the summer in East Asia are projected using the latest generation of coupled climate models under Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Special Report on Emission Scenarios (SRES) A1B scenario (a medium emission scenario). The multi-model ensemble means show that during the period of 2010–2099, the summer precipitation in East Asia will increase and experience a prominent change around the 2040s, with a small increase (∼1%) before the end of the 2040s and a large increase (∼9%) afterward. This kind of two-stage evolution characteristic of precipitation change can be seen most clearly in North China, and then in South China and in the mid and lower Yangtze River Valley. In 2010–2099, the projected precipitation pattern will be dominated by a pattern of “wet East China” that explains 33.6% of EOF total variance. The corresponded time coefficient will markedly increase after the 2040s, indicating a great contribution from this mode to the enhanced precipitation across all East China. Other precipitation patterns that prevail in the current climate only contribute a small proportion to the total variance, with no prominent liner trend in the future. By the late 21st century, the monsoon circulation will be stronger in East Asia. At low level, this is due to the intensification of southwesterly airflow north of the anticyclone over the western Pacific and the SCS, and at high level, it is caused by the increased northeasterly airflow east of the anticyclone over South Asia. The enhanced monsoon circulation will also experience a two-stage evolution in 2010–2099, with a prominent increase (by ∼0.6 m s−1) after the 2040s. The atmospheric water vapor content over East Asia will greatly increase (by ∼9%) at the end of 21st century. The water vapor transported northward into East China will be intensified and display a prominent increase around the 2040s similar to other examined variables. These indicate that the enhanced precipitation over East Asia is caused by the increases in both monsoon circulation and water vapor, which is greatly different from South Asia. Both the dynamical and thermal dynamic variables will evolve consistently in response to the global warming in East Asia, i.e., the intensified southwesterly monsoon airflow corresponding to the increased water vapor and southwesterly moisture transport.

The Service Revolution in South Asia

Abstract: The story of Hyderabad, the capital of the Indian state Andhra Pradesh, is truly inspiring for late-comers to development. Within two decades, Andhra Pradesh has been catapulted straight from a poor and largely agricultural economy into a major service center. It has transformed itself from a lagging into a leading region. Fuelled by an increase in service exports of 45 times between 1998 and 2008, the number of information technology companies in Hyderabad increased eight times, and employment increased 20 times. Service-led growth has mushroomed in other parts of India and South Asia as well. Indeed, growth in the services sector has enabled South Asia to grow almost as fast as East Asia in this century, with growth of just under seven percent annually between 2000 and 2007. Growth rates in South Asia and East Asia have converged. The two fastest growing regions in the world, however, have very different growth patterns. While East Asia is a story of growth led by manufacturing, South Asia has thrived on service-led growth. The promise of the services revolution is that countries do not need to wait to get started with rapid development. There is a new boat that development late-comers can take. The globalization of service exports provides alternative opportunities for developing countries to find niches, beyond manufacturing, where they can specialize, scale up and achieve explosive growth, just like the industrializes. The core of the argument is that as the number of goods and services produced and traded across the world expand with globalization, the possibilities for all countries to develop based on their comparative advantage expand. That comparative advantage can just as easily be in services as in manufacturing or indeed agriculture.

Global Production Sharing, Trade Patterns, and Determinants of Trade Flows in East Asia

Abstract: Global production sharing—the breakup of a production process into vertically separated stages that are carried out in different countries—has become one of the defining characteristics of world trade over the past few decades. Any analysis of trade patterns or its determinants that ignores this phenomenon, and the trade in parts and components that it generates, is likely to result in erroneous conclusions. This study examines the extent and pattern of these flows, focusing on East Asia, and probes its implications for the analysis of the determinants of trade flows. World trade in parts and components increased from about 18.9% to 22.3% of total exports between 1992/93 and 2005/06. Most of this growth emanates from East Asia, with its share in total world exports increasing from 27% to 39% over the same period. There was a notable decline in Japan’s share toward the end of this period, but this was more than offset by the rising importance of the People's Republic of China (PRC). In East Asia, most of this trade is in electronics. The econometric analysis reveals that parts and components are remarkably less sensitive to changes in relative prices; as a result, the sensitivity of aggregate trade flows to relative price changes diminishes as its share increases. This implies that exchange rate policy may be less effective in balance of payments adjustment, in countries where component trade is high and growing.

Changing Marriage Patterns in Asia

Abstract: This paper provides an overview of changing marriage patterns in East, South and Southeast Asia. It begins by relating marriage patterns to kinship systems. Differences in kinship systems go a long way towards explaining differences in marriage arrangements and stability of marriages in different parts of Asia, and also the greater resilience of the system of arranged marriage in South Asia than in East and Southeast Asia. The paper then examines the trend toward later and less marriage throughout Asia. This has been particularly marked in East and Southeast Asia, with the important exception of China, and especially in the large cities of the region and among highly educated women. It has shown no signs of slackening; in countries such as Japan, Taiwan and Myanmar, about 20 per cent of women currently in their 20s and 30s could well remain single when they reach their late 40s. Social norms and community and family structures have not yet adapted fully to this remarkable increase in singlehood. Yet at the same time, many young women in some Asian countries are still marrying as teenagers, in many cases below the legal minimum age for marriage. An important set of issues arises from such early marriage patterns. Consanguineous marriage has been widely practiced in some Asian countries. In some countries, it is on the decline, but in others (including Pakistan and Iran) there is little evidence of such a decline. Finally, the paper examines divorce trends. Divorce rates have been rising sharply in many Asian countries, particularly in East Asia, as a result of the strains on marriage and an erosion of the belief that marriages must be preserved at all costs. However, divorce rates remain very low in South Asian countries, where the marriage system does not allow for the “escape route” of divorce, even for dysfunctional marriages.

Concentrated control, institutions, and banking sector: An international study

Abstract: Using a broad sample of listed commercial banks in East Asia and Western Europe, this paper investigates the relations among concentrated control, a set of bank operating characteristics, and legal and regulatory regimes We find that banks with concentrated control exhibit poorer performance, lower cost efficiency, greater return volatility, and higher insolvency risk, relative to widely held ones We also document that legal institutions and private monitoring effectively reduce the detrimental effects of concentrated control and that official disciplinary power plays a weak governance role, whereas government intervention exacerbates the adverse effects Further evidence shows that the relations between control concentration and bank operating characteristics are curvilinear and vary according to the types of controlling owners Overall, our findings support the contention that country-level institutions play important roles in constraining insider expropriation, and that private monitoring mechanisms are more effective than are public rules and supervision in governing banks

Ethnic diversity and statistics in East Asia: ‘foreign brides’ surveys in Taiwan and South Korea

Abstract: East Asian nations have become increasingly diverse in their ethnic composition since the 1990s. A large proportion of recent immigrants consists of women from China, Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines, who migrated following their marriage to male citizens from South Korea and Taiwan. To study this new group of foreign residents, the governments of both Taiwan and South Korea have conducted national surveys since 2000. This paper conducts a content analysis of the questions of these surveys to elaborate a criticism of the ethnic statistics produced from them. These surveys provide relevant information on this group of new residents, but they also have the potential to reinforce existing negative stereotypes due to prior assumptions that shaped the content of questionnaires. The analysis reveals that the production of statistics on migrants is influenced by three ideologies: assimilation, patriarchy and nationalism.

Managing in ethnic Chinese communities: Culture, institutions, and context

Abstract: In this Special Issue of the Asia Pacific Journal of Management on Managing inEthnic Chinese Communities, we seek to shed light on the complex and dynamicrelationships existing in many ethnic Chinese businesses around the world. This isan exciting time to study ethnic Chinese business. Ethnic Chinese business used tomean Overseas Chinese firms, that is, enterprises run by Chinese business peoplebased outside of Mainland China. That definition is no longer sufficient: successfulethnic Chinese businesses exist and are thriving all around Asia and increasingly,elsewhere (Ahlstrom & Wang, 2010;Pan,1990; Zeng & Williamson, 2007). Inparticular, the rise of East Asian economies from Mainland China, Taiwan, toSoutheast Asia has encouraged much study of how these economies (and their firms)grew so briskly while inspiring a model for economies in the developing world(Berger & Hsiao, 1988; Carney, Gedajlovic, & Yang, 2009; Fallows, 1995; Ramo,2004; Seagrave, 1995).

Asian cross-border marriage migration : demographic patterns and social issues

Abstract: Contents - 6[-]List of Tables and Figures - 8[-]Acknowledgments - 12[-]1. Introduction - 16[-]2. Marriage Migration to East Asia - 32[-]3. Feminization of Immigration in Japan - 50[-]4. Examining Cross-border Marriage in Hong Kong: 1998-2005 - 88[-]5. Minority Group Status and Fertility - 104[-]6. The Rise of Cross-border Marriage and Divorce in Contemporary Korea - 128[-]7. Vietnamese-Taiwanese Marriages - 158[-]8. Cross-border Marriages - 180[-]9. Foreign Spouses' Acculturation in Taiwan - 202[-]10. Transnational Families among Muslims - 222[-]Contributors - 242[-]Collective Bibliography - 246

The United States and the Rise of China: Implications for the Long Haul

Abstract: Today, economically wounded though it is, the United States nonetheless remains the worldʼs most powerful state when power is measured in terms of economic and military assets. In the future, the U.S. economy will continue to grow, and the United States will remain the most powerful military nation on earth for some time to come. However, Americaʼs economic and military edge relative to the worldʼs other great powers, will inevitably diminish over the next several decades. The country best positioned to challenge Americaʼs preeminence, first in East Asia, and then perhaps later globally, is China. If Chinaʼs economy continues to grow for two more decades at anything close to the rate of the last two decades, then it will eventually rival and even surpass the United States in the size of its gross domestic product (GDP—measured in purchasing power parity terms, not in constant dollar terms), although not in per capita GDP. Even if its economy never catches up to Americaʼs, Chinaʼs remarkable economic growth has already given it significant political influence in East Asia, and that influence will only grow as Chinaʼs economy continues to grow. Moreover, having emerged as the low-cost manufacturing platform of the world, Chinaʼs economic influence extends well beyond East Asia and affects not only the rich great powers but also the struggling smaller developing ones, because of both its competitive prices for low-cost goods and its voracious appetite for raw materials. China is determined to climb up the technological ladder and may well give the United States a run for its money. China is already the dominant

Soft Balancing, Hedging, and Institutional Darwinism: The Economic-Security Nexus and East Asian Regionalism

Abstract: East Asia has increased its formal institutional linkages in both the economic and security arenas. This article addresses three questions concerning this expansion. First, why has the number of institutions increased? Second, why is there so little overlap in the purposes and memberships of these many new bodies? Third, why have most regional institutions achieved such limited policy successes? The article demonstrates that the bulk of the new economic institutions represent collective responses to generalized pressures from globalized finance, whereas the new security bodies deal with regionally endogenous problems of a highly particularistic character. Furthermore, most regional bodies in East Asia still reflect the preeminence of individual state strategies rather than any collective predisposition toward multilateralism per se. East Asian regionalism thus represents a complex “ecosystem” of institutions whose future is likely to see the enhancement of some and the diminution of others through a process referred to here as “institutional Darwinism.”

Hierarchy and Legitimacy in International Systems: The Tribute System in Early Modern East Asia

Abstract: The East Asian “tribute system” from 1368 to 1841 comprised an enduring, stable, and hierarchic system, with China clearly the hegemon, in which cultural achievement was as important as economic or military prowess. Most significant is the recognition that the Chinese tributary order was in fact a viable and recognized international system with military, cultural, and economic dimensions that all intersected to create a very interesting and stable security system. Recently it has become fashionable in historical circles to question the viability of the tributary system in part because scholars have become increasingly aware of the realties behind Chinese rhetoric. However, more nuanced studies and new interpretations only serve to underscore the centrality of the system for its participants. This paper demonstrates that there is a hierarchical relationship—generated by a common culture defined by a Confucian worldview—in place in the context of China and the East Asian states and helps clarify the distinc...

Power, leadership, and hegemony in international politics: the case of East Asia

Abstract: The article inquires into the conditions of effective leadership of states in international politics, and develops a framework for the study of so-called (new) regional powers such as Brazil, China, India, and South Africa in processes of regional institution-building. Various theoretical strands will be discussed as to the requirements of effective leadership in international affairs. Most importantly, the relationship between power, leadership and hegemony will be outlined. It is argued that the connection between leadership and hegemony is one of co-constitution. Leadership is necessarily based on hegemony, while hegemony can only be sustained through leadership. Furthermore, it will be shown that both leadership and hegemony are essentially political in character, whereas power has no such insinuation but has to be translated into leadership and hegemony through discursive means. Finally, the analysis asks for the preconditions of leadership in East Asia, using China's and Japan's roles in East Asian regionalism as an illustration.