9.5 Geographic Insights: East Asia Review and Self-Test

• 1. Climate Change and Water: East Asia has long suffered from alternating droughts and devastating floods, and scientists fear that these hazards will only intensify with climate change. Meanwhile, the rivers of China, many of which originate in the Tibetan and neighboring plateaus, are dependent both on seasonal rainfall cycles and on glacial meltwater that are expected to diminish over the next few decades.

  • Question

    What are some physical and social conditions that have contributed to the destructive droughts and floods experienced by East Asians? What has been done to protect the population from such hazards?

  • Question

    How might the melting of China’s highest glaciers affect the country’s rivers? Which areas might be more affected than others?

  • Question

    In which ways is China more vulnerable to global warming than Japan, the Koreas, or Taiwan?
• 2. Food and Globalization: East Asian countries have enough economic development to be able to buy food on the global market, but they are less able to produce sufficient food domestically. Much agricultural land has been lost to urban and industrial expansion and to mismanagement, but the increase in the region’s affluence has led to a demand for more imported food.

  • Question

    East Asian countries are able to buy food on the global market but not produce the food they need at home. Why might this situation constitute food insecurity? What problems might this create both for East Asia and the rest of the world?

  • Question

    What is East Asia’s, and especially Japan’s, role in the global harvesting of wild-caught fish in the oceans?
• 3. Urbanization and Development: China’s move to join the global economy more than three decades ago has led to spectacular urban growth, a stronger emphasis on consumerism, and a massive rise in industrial and agricultural pollution of the air, water, and soil.

  • Question

    What roles does China play in the global economy and how might that change in the future?

  • Question

    Where has urbanization proceeded the most? What has determined China’s patterns of urbanization and rural stagnation?

  • Question

    What types of pollution are the most prevalent and how are they connected to economic development in China?
• 4. Power and Politics: As economic development has grown across East Asia, pressures for more political freedoms have also risen.
  Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan are now among the more politically free places in the world, and pressure for similar levels of freedom is intensifying in China and North Korea.

  • Question

    How might increasing levels of economic development and pressures for greater political freedoms help bring about greater democratization in China?

  • Question

    What is the background of the adversarial relationship between China and Taiwan?

  • Question

    How can conflict on the Korean Peninsula affect global peace and security?

  • Question

    What role did Japan play in East Asia during the colonial period?
• 5. Population and Gender: China’s “one-child policy” has created a shortage of females. Long-standing cultural preferences for male children mean that if their one child will be female, many parents choose abortion or put the baby up for adoption. The shortage of females is accentuated by the fact that many women are deciding to have a career rather than to marry and have children.

  • Question

    Why do most families want a male child? What problems have been created by the resulting shortage of women?

  • Question

    What problems of an aging society are arising in Japan related to its rapidly aging population? What might be the solutions to such problems?

  • Question

    Are there any social consequences to the disappearance of siblings, cousins, aunts, and uncles?