How have East and South Asian nations pursued economic development, and how have political regimes shaped those efforts?
The Election of Benazir BhuttoPakistan’s Benazir Bhutto became the first female prime minister of a Muslim nation in 1988. (SIPA/Spa USA)
CCHINA, JAPAN, AND THE COUNTRIES that became known as the “Asian Tigers” (South Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Taiwan) experienced fantastic economic growth in the last decades of the twentieth century. The Chinese Communist Party maintained tight political control amid liberalization and economic growth. Japan’s economy stagnated in the 1990s and struggled to recover amid growing competition from its neighbors. In South Asia tensions between India and Pakistan remained.