Pinyin System

In 1958, the pinyin system of pronunciation of Chinese characters replaced the Wade-Giles system. This was done to standardize the pronunciation for Northern Mandarin – the dialect of Chinese spoken in the capital region. That is why Peking became Beijing, the Yangtze River is the Yangzi (Chang Jiang), Mao tse-tung became Mao Zedong, and Tibet became Xizang.

• Five Dynasties (AD 907-960)

Political instability and concurrent dynasties characterize a fractured China during this time. This disunity will lead to invasion and domination by a great northern steppe power - the Mongols.

• Song (AD 960-1279)

Disunion and a Mongol invasion characterize the Song. It was an era of rich cultural and intellectual achievement in mathematics, astronomy, and mapmaking. Paper, movable type, and gunpowder are invented. Notice that China is the high-technology center of the world with all their inventiveness.

• Yuan (AD 1264-1368)

This dynasty begins before the Song is finished and is Mongol, not Chinese. It is a repressive regime with vast social differences between the Mongol rulers and Chinese subjects. Marco Polo (AD 1275) arrives from Venice to find Kublai Khan on the throne.

• Ming (AD 1368-1644)

Rule is back in the hands of the Chinese during the Ming. As with most invasions of Chinese territory, the conqueror becomes the conquered. The great sophistication of the Chinese sways their dominators to become like them instead of the other way around. Thus, the Chinese eventually absorb all invaders.

Early Ming ships reach India, Southeast Asia, the Arabian Peninsula, and Africa during the early 1400s. The great eunuch navigator Zheng He (pronounced JUNG HUH) had a navy of three hundred ships (all much larger than the ones used by Columbus to discover America) and 28,000 men. (By comparison, Columbus's first voyage had three ships and ninety sailors. His longest ship was eighty-five feet, while the longest Chinese ship was 400 feet. Europe would not see this kind of navy until World War I.) His seven voyages between 1405-1433 brought a wealth of knowledge and goods back to China. One might ask why didn't the Chinese go on to Europe, since the obviously could have. They had already learned from the Arabs that there was nothing there that interested them. The Europeans could only offer wood, beads, and wine. The Chinese were interested in African ivory, medicines, spices, exotic woods, and native wildlife.

Zheng He informed the Ming emperors of what the outside world was like. They did not like what they heard - the Confucian scholars went so far as to destroy the accounts of his travels - and feared more exposure to inferior societies would taint their great civilization. The Ming turn to isolation and burned the fleet, setting restrictions on the length and breadth of new boats and limited the number of masts to two, all to avoid cultural exchange with the outside world. "China set a course for itself that would lead to poverty, defeat, and decline." (Kristof) They eventually lost the upper hand in trading and commerce. They began to build walls around their cities in the north (e.g. Beijing and the Forbidden City) for protection. The world would not speak Mandarin Chinese because of these decisions.

• Qing (AD 1644-1911) 

Foreigners rule the largest China-centered empire ever. The Qing incorporates Mongolia, much of Turkestan, Tibet, Myanmar, Indochina, Korea, and Taiwan into Greater China. The Manchus, who number about a million, rule over one hundred million Chinese. The Manchus are from Manchuria in the northeast. They kept the Ming administration. This is the last dynasty due to external pressures from Europe and Japan. Defeat in war led to revolution and collapse.

It was these civilizations that brought China to the twentieth century. Domestication of plants and animals, irrigation, pottery, writing, architecture, and paper money made China a progressive society.

Foreign Invasion

The end of 4,000 years of Chinese continuity in the central government came when the Europeans came to trade and dominate China in the 19^th century. The British began "illegally" importing opium into China. This was economically damaging to china and led to society's undoing. The British did this because they had little else the Chinese wanted by way of trade. Because so many Chinese were becoming addicted to opium the basic cohesion of China was threatened. By 1831-32, the British East India Company was importing 5.25 million pounds of opium into China.  This was China's "Age of Addiction."

In June of 1839, the Chinese destroyed 20,000 chests of opium in hopes of saving their frayed society. The British immediately sent war ships to punish the Chinese. The Opium War (1839-1842) caused the total breakdown of Chinese sovereignty. Losing the war meant the loss of territory. With the Treaty of Nanking the British took control of Hong Kong and surrounding islands (which they kept until 1997), opened five other cities to foreign trading, and forced the Chinese to pay $21 million in reparations. This opened the door for other powers – Germany, France, Portugal, Russia, and later, Japan - to control parts of China.  The European doctrine of extraterritoriality - where foreign states and their representatives are immune from the jurisdiction of the country in which they are based - characterized the dominance of foreign powers in China.

Eventually, the Chinese grew weary of oppression and formed "righteous harmony fist" groups. These "boxers," as the foreign press called them, started the Boxer Rebellion of 1900. The rebellion killed foreigners and Chinese who adopted Western values. The aforementioned countries eventually suppressed this rebellion.

Modern State

China was in turmoil during WWII because of Japanese occupation. After the US defeated Japan and removed them from China, infighting broke out as it had before the war. A struggle for power ensued by the Nationals (under Chiang Kai-shek) and the Communists (led by Mao Zedong). Although Chiang was successful in many of the early battles, the Nationals eventually suffered major defeats where hundreds of thousands of their forces were killed. Eventually, the Nationals fled to the Chinese province of Formosa (Taiwan), where they remain to this day. The People's Republic of (Communist) China was declared in 1949. 

The Great Leap (a.k.a. Chinese Commune Experiment) began in 1958-59. The Chinese government sought to move youth to the fields in hopes of increasing agricultural productivity. Three years of drought coincided with this attempt and devastated China with 20 (maybe as high as 30) million deaths due to starvation. To this day elderly Chinese greet each other with, "Have you eaten today?", illustrating the incredible hardships China suffered to modernize. Farms were collectivized. Youths were forced into harsh labor on these farms. Child labor had no constraints. Hand-built levees and dams hoped to end the cycle of flooding and the loss of life. The slow process of modernization was taking place, but real development didn't come until they moved away from unfeasible communist economics. This will come with the death of Mao.

In 1978, a new premiere named Deng Xiaoping implemented the Four Modernizations. He changed the nature of the Chinese economic strategy. He focused on:

• Agriculture: "Household Responsibility System," a market driven system of agriculture whereby private plots could yield "profit" by those who produced an excess amount of food
• Industrial Complex: modernizing the way products are produced
• Science and Technology
• Defense: a massive buildup of trained forces and military hardware

Notice that this isn't true communism any more. When there is market reform, there is incentive to earn more and work harder for just that reason. Thus, economic communism died with the Four Modernizations. However, political communism lives on to this day, ever repressive and unbending.

Modernizing China has just 29% of its citizens living in cities, a number which shows they still have a long way to go in developing the entire country and not just the SEZs on the coast. But China is undoubtedly in motion. Industrialization in the Northeast, irrigation in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, and drilling oil wells in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region enabled millions of Chinese to migrate from China Proper to these frontier zones.

China: Economic Powerhouse of the 21st Century?

Throughout most of the 1990s, China's economy grew at the unheard of rate of 7 to 9% per year. China ranks as the eighth largest economy in the world, behind the G-7 countries. We have to look back a few years to find the impetus for this growth. Deng Xiaoping, who took over control of the communist party after the death of Mao Zedong, decided China should go in a new economic direction. He believed economics and politics could coexist separately. He introduced Special Economic Zones (SEZs), Open Cities, and Open Coastal Areas so as to attract foreign investments and technologies from abroad to the coastal provinces of China. The investors got tax breaks, land leases, and regulation restrictions.

Today's Special Economic Zones are:

• Shenzhen - adjacent to then-booming British Hong Kong on the Pearl River estuary in Gaungdong Province
• Zhuhai - across from then still-Portuguese Macau, also on the Pearl River estuary in Guangdong Province
• Shantou - opposite southern Taiwan

• Xiamen - on the Taiwan Strait

• Hainan Island - declared SEZ in its entirety

• Pudong - across the Huangpu River from Shanghai (it has a large state-financed project designed to attract large multinational companies)
• China has also opened 14 other coastal cities for preferential treatment of foreign investors.

Here is pure capitalism in action, not the much vaunted but terribly unsuccessful communism. This economic policy is in direct violation of established Communist ideals. This new economic freedom was responsible for the protest at Tiananmen Square in 1989 where hundreds (if not thousands) of students were killed were by their government. The students got a taste of Western freedoms and wanted more. Now with the absorption of Xianggang (Hong Kong), the addition of Macau, and increasing trade with free nations, China will increasingly see how the rest of the world lives – no doubt stoking the fires of democracy once again. Current Communist head Chang Zemin will hold the reigns for the wild ride, as will the US.

As mentioned before, China has the world's eighth largest economy (behind Italy and ahead of Brazil). But when one divides total gross national product (GNP) by total population we find that they produce $750 per person, a very low standard of living. Compare that to the US ($28,020) or Germany ($28,870) and you will see the disparity. The bewildering speed of development in the 1990s has caught the world's attention, but China still has a long way to go. For instance, there are 250 bicycles to every automobile in China. [See how quickly this is changing in this article: China Drives] This is in stark contrast to the US where there are two cars per licensed driver. Moreover, many Chinese are forced to work long hours with little reward for their efforts. They even have a word for the difficult situation: guolaosi. Guolaosi means "over-work death" and it's becoming the norm in many of the SEZ areas of China.

The new capitalist economic mode of China is in direct contrast to the so-called Iron Ricebowl system in the early days of the PRC. The Iron Ricebowl was the womb-to-tomb healthcare, subsidized employment, and social security system of Communist China. Today there are no safety nets for the people of China. Everyone must take care of themselves. If one does not have a job, or somebody to take care of them, they will starve. Taking care of the populace isn't the job of the government any longer. When I was in China in May 2000 I saw the impact of losing the communist system. At every street corner was a vendor. At every tourist stop hawkers would accost you hoping you would pay a few yuan (or RMB, their monetary unit) for a trinket or postcard. Thus, you will see in this supposed communist country - where there is supposedly no disparity of wealth and income - an increasing division between the haves and have-nots. They even have a "Fifty Richest Chinese" list, an unspeakable horror in the days of Mao. This is the "capitalist" China of the 21st century, where getting rich is a way of life (for a very few). [Read this about China's ruling party for further elucidation. See this PBS/Frontline Chronology for crucial events.]

Now that this new economic model has been initiated, how has China changed? How does it compare to the United States? Do we see a new economic giant in the making, a new China being formed? See this comparison of the two economies: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/teach/red/assignment2a.html

REGIONS OF CHINA - Check this hyperlink to see the various changing aspects of China, from population to trade unions to crime crackdowns.

North China

North China contains the national core area of China. It is very densely populated and has rich loess and alluvial soils. Loess (pronounced LERSS) is a fine windborne silt or dust of glacial origin. This highly productive cropland sustains millions. However, it is not the expected rice that is grown here. Wheat is the major crop. Moreover, crops such as millet, sorghum, soybeans, cotton, tobacco, fruits, and vegetables are all grown for the ever increasing population. With increasing fertilization, irrigation, and intensive labor, the Chinese hope to keep pace with population. Night soil, human waste, is the traditional fertilizer the Chinese use to boost yields.

This region is dominated by hot, dry summer conditions, and long, cold winters. Rainfall averages 15-21 inches and is highly variable, making drought a common occurrence. The Chang Jiang Water Transfer Project (a.k.a. Sanxia, Three Gorges Dam, or New China Dam) is designed to bring water to the heavily farmed North China Plain. This will make farming more dependable. The Huang He River doesn't flow into Bohai Gulf any longer because so much water has been removed for agricultural and industrial purposes. This should let you know how vital water is to this parched region.

When it does rain, floods become problematic. The Huang He (Yellow River) is yellow because of the huge sediment load it carries. This river has long been known as "China's Sorrow" because it floods frequently. Many natural and man-made dikes try to confine this raging river upstream. This river is called a superjacent stream, meaning that the stream channel has been elevated above that of the surrounding landscape. I believe Mark Twain described this river as "too thin to plow, too thick to drink."

-Beijing-

Beijing, the capital of China, is located on the North China Plain. It is the political, cultural, and educational center of China. Beijing has 10.9 million people. Through thousands of years of development, Beijing has prevailed as the capital of China time and time again. The city first came to prominence under the Mongol (Yuan) Dynasty.

-Tianjin-

Tianjin (tyahn-JEEN) is the vital port city of this area. This is the third largest city in China with 11 million. This city is the leading industrial complex of China, containing iron and steel industries and chemical plants. An earthquake struck this area in 1976 and killed 750,000 people. The large population residing in the area made this the worst disaster of the 20^th century. The Grand Canal (constructed by the Sui Dynasty - AD 581-618) stretched 1,050 miles and connected Beijing and Tianjin to southern agriculture zones before it silted up in the twentieth century.

Northeast China

Northeast China had its initial infrastructure constructed by Japan. While colonizing this area (historically known as Manchuria, for China's last dynasty called Manchus), Japan built railroads, roads, bridges, factories, and other components of infrastructure. Japan built these necessities prior to the 1940's. Therefore, when the United Nations was engaged in the Korean War (1950-1953) and was advancing toward the Yalu River - the border between China and North Korea - the Chinese opted to join the war on the side of North Korea so as to protect the vital manufacturing (and sovereignty) of their Northeast.

Today, the factories are inefficient and obsolete. Even though the communists made a concerted effort to rebuild manufacturing in this area from 1950-1970, it is known today as China's Rustbelt. This was due in part to the economic restructuring of the 1980's. The new, market-driven economic order left state-run factories to founder. They refused to adapt, restructure, and privatize.

South China

The Chang Jiang River dominates the southern part of China. It carries hundreds of vessels - from junks to barges - and connects Shanghai (the largest city in the realm) to Chongqing (chong-CHING). Chongqing is at the heart of the Sichuan (Red) Basin, a very heavily populated area (116,000,000 people). Developing the interior of China will be the toughest task faced by Beijing and the Chinese people.

-Shanghai-

Shanghai (12.7 million) is the largest city in China. This will become on of the world's major financial capitals.  This is an Open Coastal City where foreign investors are wooed. Huge construction projects continue daily as the old tenements are erased from the scene and croplands are paved over. The World Financial Center, a 1510-foot office tower, was finished for the grand opening in 2000. Already completed is the immense business and industrial complex called Pudong, and it continues to expand. This area will rival Shenzhen (supposedly the world’s fastest growing city), Xianggang (Hong Kong), and maybe Tokyo, Japan.

-Three Gorges Dam-

The Three Gorges Dam (also called the New China Dam, Sanxia, and the Chang Jiang Water Transfer Project) will displace nearly two million people and destroy natural environments. But it will provide flood control and electricity for millions of people, enhance navigation, and stimulate development. This is the largest engineering endeavor of its kind in the world. The power it generates will be equal to that of 18 nuclear power plants.  The interior of China should be able to develop quickly with the finishing of this dam, slated for 2009.

Xizang - "Western Frontier" (aka Tibet)

The home to Tibetan culture, Xizang is an occupied territory. Absorbed by the Chinese in 1950, the Tibetans have struggled for independence ever since. Their society arose between the Himalaya Mountains to the south and the Trans-Himalayas (Kunlun Mountains) to the north. The Buddhist monks and their leader, the Dalai Lama, is the focal point of the area. He has been in exile since the Chinese takeover.

Xinjiang (Uygur Autonomous Region) - "New Frontier"

This incorporated area of China is a hodge-podge of ethnicities.  Han Chinese, Muslim Uygurs, Kazakhs, and Kyrgyz make up the cultural affinities.  This area is the focus of the Chinese space program. They have also developed canals and qanats (an underground tunnel built to carry irrigation water by gravity flow from nearby mountains to the arid flatlands below), expanded oases, and quadrupled farm acreage. Today, the United Nations is planning a trans-Asian international highway over the historic Silk Road.

Mongolia

Mongolia is often referred to as "Outer Mongolia" to distinguish it from China's Autonomous Region, Inner Mongolia. Nearly four-fifths of the country is dry steppe grassland and much of the rest is cold, arid desert. Established in 1924, the country was tied to the USSR during its early existence. Communism ended with free elections in 1996. Most of the industry processes raw materials, principally animal products from its huge livestock population and minerals. Literacy levels are high, and most children receive schooling.

North Korea

There's not much to say about this repressive, communist state except it is the worst social and economic experiment on the Pacific Rim. Popularly know as the "Hermit Kingdom," North Korea is led by Kim Jong Il - the "Dear Leader." This dogmatic leader has the country's "best interests" at heart. He has run this country into the ground - millions have reportedly starved to death in the last few years - while he eats lavish meals and has his own private stockpile of Hollywood films. All the while he keeps his country "safe" from outside influence by jamming incoming radio traffic and suppressing media broadcasts from foreign sources. During the time of his (and his father's) leadership, their ethnic/linguistic kinsmen to the south have had unparalleled economic prosperity. Look at this link and find the Korean Peninsula. Now tell me by the view of night lights which part of the peninsula has development and which does not. Communism versus Capitalism: Communism will lose every time, especially when autocrats murder by indifference.

JAKOTA TRIANGLE: Japan, South Korea & Taiwan

The original economic tiger, Japan had unexpected economic growth for a country of its geography. Japan has little fossil fuels, few minerals and ores, 125 million people living on an area smaller than the size of California (California feels crowded with its 35 million), and limited arable land to grow crops. Against all odds they persevered and over achieved, hence "Tiger" status.

Japan had other Pacific Rim states follow its lead. These states modernized, industrialized and Westernized their economic bases just as Japan did after WWII. The other so-called economic tigers of the Pacific Rim are South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, and Hong Kong (before it was absorbed into China). How did Japan and the others do it? 

Meiji Restoration

In 1868, a group of Japanese sought to modernize the country and restore enlightened rule. The Emperor Meiji was returned to the throne as the divine leader of Japan, replacing the Tokogawa Shōgunate. The modernizers also hoped to upgrade the economic portion of their society, but not the cultural aspect of it. They sought contact with the outside world, something they had done without for centuries. They had remained in isolation because of the empirical expansion of Spain and Portugal, the Dutch and the British.  The Japanese had feared colonization like had happened to their neighbors all across east Asia.

To avoid colonization they used the world as their classroom. They also made concessions and pacts to ward off occupation. The British also befriended them because the Brits needed a naval power in the east to occupy Russia's time. [The European colonial powers were always competing for new territories.] The British lent guidance on how to modernize the country, but it was the major economic and military powers of the world from which the Japanese sought knowledge. They sent their best students to learn the ways of the modern world in:

• England, to study the navy and merchant marine

• Germany, to study the army and medicine

• France, to study local government and law

• and the United States, to study business methods.

They moved their capital from Kyoto to Edo and renamed the city Tokyo or eastern capital. The Japanese kept their Shinto belief system (with an added Buddhist influence), as well as other cultural aspects of Japanese society (i.e. multiple gods, venerated ancestors, and the emperor’s divinity). But the industrial period was rapid and the military buildup was great.  It would not be long before the Japanese would be the conquerors, not the conquered.

Japanese Imperialism

Japanese factories turned out weapons and equipment. Their first colonialist venture was in the Ryukyu Islands (1879), they call it Nansei Shoto. Later, Japanese interest in raw materials in Taiwan, Korea, and Manchuria (China) moved them to war with Russia (Russo-Japanese War 1904-1905). They unexpectedly won and took Manchuria and half of Sakhalin Island. Their expansion encompassed Korea, China, and Southeast Asia by the 1940s.

Even the destructive force of the 1923 earthquake, a subsequent fire, and flood from a tsunami (a seismic sea wave) that killed 140,000 and destroyed much of Tokyo could not stop Japan’s push for world power and imperialist expansion. The undoing of Japan was its war with the United States. By bombing Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the Japanese sealed their fate. In August 1945, the Japanese unconditionally surrendered to US forces and were occupied for seven years thereafter. In fact, Japan is still governed by the constitution General Douglas McArthur wrote during the occupying years.

Economic Regions

The major economic regions and associated cities of Japan are better known as the Tokaido Megalopolis, Japan's Pacific Corridor. It contains around 50 million people and is responsible for about 80% of Japan's total gross domestic product (GDP).

• Kanto Plain (Tokyo-Yokohama-Kawasaki) - international banking and finance, petrochemicals, heavy metal products, auto/truck manufacturing, scientific instruments, and electrical/electronic goods

• Kansai District (Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto) - shipping, ship building, engineering, manufacturing, and electronics

• Chubu District on Nobi Plain (Nagoya) - heavy engineering, chemical textile, and machinery manufacture

Do these economic regions of Japan make a difference? Base your answer on these data. No city in the world is without a Japanese automobile. Cameras and Fuji film, optical equipment, microwave ovens, VCRs, ocean vessels, camcorders, computers, and more make this the second largest economy in the world. Businesses operate on a 24-hour clock. Workers spend a week at the time at the office. Sleeping cubicles are provided so one doesn’t waste time going home. At least this was the way it used to be. In the 1980s the Japanese could do no wrong. In the 1990s, the Japanese could do no right. They have been mired in three consecutive recessions over the past decade. But don't think they are finished. They are still ranked second in GNP and these economic regions continue to produce the world's toys, electro-computer gadgets, and great cars. Their biggest problem will be finding the workers to fill the jobs. You'll see from this article [Aging Japan] that nearby China will eventually fill the bill for needed guest workers as Japan's developed population declines.

In agriculture, the farmers employ intensive agriculture. Multiple crops of rice are grown in the paddies and every inch of arable land is cultivated. Terrace farming occurs on the hillsides. In the fallow time catfish, koi, and talapia are raised in a flooded paddy - called aquaculture. Their droppings fertilize the field for the next season’s crop. Fruit trees grow on the berms of these fields to maximize the output of these plots of land.

South Korea

The peninsula of Korea had been under the control of China for centuries and Japan’s imperialist state until the end of WWII. At the end of WWII the country was divided among the victors, USSR and the United States (much the same way Germany was divided after the war). It was divided at the 38^th parallel into two countries – North Korea and South Korea. Due to this division the North sought to unite the two Korea’s in 1950. North attacked South (and eventually United Nations forces). This was a costly 2-year war, but the South Koreans came out of the war with Western backing. The two countries remained divided at the demilitarized zone (DMZ) - a de facto (realized or actual) boundary - to this day.

Today, these countries are as different as night and day in regards to economic prosperity. South Korea is one of the Pacific Rim’s economic tigers, while North Korea is subject to famine and poverty. If the countries ever reunite they exhibit excellent regional complementarity. Since the two countries are at different levels of economic prosperity, they can cooperate very well. Yet ideologically they remain opposed to each other. Peace overtures in 2000 led to President Kim Dae Jung to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, but no agreement has yet been reached.

Taiwan

This island was formerly called Formosa (Portuguese for "beautiful"). Non-communist Chinese Nationals, for the most part, inhabit Taiwan. After all foreign invaders and imperialists (British, Japanese) were expelled from continental China, nationalists under Chang Kai-shek fought against the communists for control of the government. The communists won and the nationalists left for Taiwan to continue the fight. For awhile the United Nations recognized Taiwan (Republic of China) over China as the ruling government of China (People’s Republic of China). So Taiwan remains a property of China and has no autonomy, yet has become an economic tiger with its own functioning government. To push for sovereignty would force China to suppress the Taiwanese rebellion. For China to invade Taiwan would force the United States to defend the nationals.

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Sources

Published Material

• de Blij, Harm and Peter Muller. 2001. Geography: Realms, Regions, and Concepts (10th edition) John Wiley & Sons, Inc. New York.
• Geography Education Standards Project. 1994. Geography for Life: National Geography Standards National Geographic Research & Exploration
• Hammond: The New Comparative World Atlas 2001. Hammond, Inc. New Jersey.
• Kristof, Nicholas. "1492: The Prequel"  New York Times Magazine - June 6, 1999 (80:1)
• National Geographic Desk Reference 2000. National Geographic Society, Washington, D.C.
• National Geographic Magazine - Multiple articles
• National Public Radio - Numerous broadcasts
• Rowntree, Lewis, Price, and Wyckoff. 2000. Diversity Amid Globalization: World Regions, Environment, Development Prentice Hall, New Jersey.
• Reischauer, Edwin O. Japan: The Story of a Nation, 4th ed. (McGraw-Hill Publishing Co. New York).
• Rubenstein, James M. 1999. The Cultural Landscape: An Introduction to Human Geography (6th edition) Prentice Hall, New Jersey.

Online Material

• www.infoplease.com
• antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/