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Pacific Asia is the region of Asia bordering the Pacific Ocean. It constitutes East Asia, Northeast Asia, and Southeast Asia. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]
The region is contested by China, America, and Japan, with India recently engaging as well as part of its Act East policy and overall rise on the world stage. [6] [7] [8]
In ancient times, the central country in much of the region was China, with the Chinese diaspora creating economic integration throughout. [9] European colonization of Southeast Asia in the modern era led to a splintering of the region into rival blocs, with China itself having some of its territory split up between the colonial powers. The Japanese Empire also played a role in conquering parts of Pacific Asia. The Chinese artisans found themselves losing out to Western mass production, with China becoming an insignificant economic player in Pacific Asia. America expanded westward through the Pacific in a kind of extended "Manifest Destiny", [10] conquering regions such as Guam and the Philippines and dispelling the Spanish Empire from the region. [11] In the aftermath of World War 2, America participated heavily throughout Pacific Asia, tolerating the authoritarianism that characterized the regimes in the region due to its need for anti-communist allies to prosecute the Cold War in Asia, [12] [13] and later for the War on Terror. [14]
Deng Xiaoping's reforms in late-20th-century China led to the country becoming more economically important, re-assuming a central role in Pacific Asia by the 2007–2008 financial crisis. [15] In the 21st century, Pacific Asia has become an economically interconnected region, trading more within itself than the EU or America, having significant intermigration throughout the region, [16] and having significant solidarity in its votes and stances at the UN. [17] Tensions have emerged between Pacific Asian countries around the South China Sea (such as regarding Taiwan) and regarding the Korean conflict, [18] with Japan having somewhat of a leadership role in the region but also being rejected at times due to other Pacific Asian countries' reaction to colonial-era Japanese war crimes, [19] with America being asked to maintain influence in the region as a counterweight to Japan. [20]
Asia is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometers, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which has long been home to the majority of the human population, was the site of many of the first civilizations. Its 4.7 billion people constitute roughly 60% of the world's population.
The Far East is the geographical region that encompasses the easternmost portion of the Asian continent, including East, North and Southeast Asia. South Asia is sometimes also included in the definition of the term.
The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. In the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of 7,641 islands, with a total area of 300,000 square kilometers, which are broadly categorized in three main geographical divisions from north to south: Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. The Philippines is bounded by the South China Sea to the west, the Philippine Sea to the east, and the Celebes Sea to the south. It shares maritime borders with Taiwan to the north, Japan to the northeast, Palau to the east and southeast, Indonesia to the south, Malaysia to the southwest, Vietnam to the west, and China to the northwest. It is the world's twelfth-most-populous country, with diverse ethnicities and cultures. Manila is the country's capital, and its most populated city is Quezon City. Both are within Metro Manila.
Southeast Asia is the geographical south-eastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of China, east of the Indian subcontinent, and north-west of mainland Australia which is part of Oceania. Southeast Asia is bordered to the north by East Asia, to the west by South Asia and the Bay of Bengal, to the east by Oceania and the Pacific Ocean, and to the south by Australia and the Indian Ocean. Apart from the British Indian Ocean Territory and two out of 26 atolls of Maldives in South Asia, Maritime Southeast Asia is the only other subregion of Asia that lies partly within the Southern Hemisphere. Mainland Southeast Asia is entirely in the Northern Hemisphere. East Timor and the southern portion of Indonesia are the parts of Southeast Asia that lie south of the Equator.
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations, commonly as ASEAN, is a political and economic union of 10 states in Southeast Asia. Together, its member states represent a population of over 600 million over a land area of 4.5 million km2 (1.7 million sq mi). The bloc generated a purchasing power parity (PPP) gross domestic product (GDP) of around US$10.2 trillion in 2022, constituting approximately 6.5% of global GDP (PPP). ASEAN member states include some of the fastest growing economies in the world.
Asian values is a political ideology that attempts to define elements of society, culture and history common to the nations of Southeast and East Asia. It aimed to use commonalities – for example, the principle of collectivism – to unify people for their economic and social good. This contrasted with perceived European ideals of the universal rights of all individuals. The concept was advocated, particularly in the 1990s, by Mahathir Mohamad and by Lee Kuan Yew, as well as other Asian leaders. It has been often used by nondemocratic leaders to justify repression of political opponents, which has been described as violating their human rights, through the justification that "human rights are not part of Asian values".
The Indo-Pacific is a vast biogeographic region of Earth.
In international relations, regional power, since the late 20th century has been used for a sovereign state that exercises significant power within its geographical region. States that wield unrivaled power and influence within a region of the world possess regional hegemony.
Maritime Southeast Asia comprises the countries of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and East Timor.
The Asia–Pacific (APAC) is the region of the world adjoining the western Pacific Ocean. The region's precise boundaries vary depending on context, but countries and territories in Australasia, East Asia, and Southeast Asia are often included. In a wider context, Central Asia, North Asia, the Pacific Islands, South Asia, West Asia, and even Pacific-adjoining countries in the Americas can be included. For example, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) includes five countries in the New World. The term has become popular since the late 1980s in commerce, finance, and politics. Despite the heterogeneity of the regions' economies, most individual nations within the zone are emerging markets experiencing rapid growth. Sometimes, the notion of "Asia–Pacific excluding Japan" (APEJ) is considered useful.
The Sinosphere, also known as the Chinese cultural sphere, East Asian cultural sphere, or the Sinic world, encompasses multiple countries in East Asia and Southeast Asia that historically were heavily influenced by Chinese culture, norms and traditions. According to academic consensus, the Sinosphere comprises Greater China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam. Other definitions may include the regions of modern-day Mongolia and Singapore, largely due to limited historical Chinese influences or increasing modern-day Chinese diaspora. The Sinosphere is not to be confused with Sinophone, which indicates countries where a Chinese-speaking population is dominant.
Pan-Asianism is an ideology aimed at creating a political and economic unity among Asian peoples. Various theories and movements of Pan-Asianism have been proposed, particularly from East, South and Southeast Asia. The motive for the movement was in opposition to the values of Western imperialism and colonialism, and that Asian values were superior to European values.
The economy of East Asia comprises 1.6 billion people living in six different countries and regions. The region includes several of the world's largest and most prosperous economies: Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, China, Hong Kong, and Macau. It is home to some of the most economically dynamic places in the world, being the site of some of the world's most extended modern economic booms, including the Taiwan miracle (1950–present) in Taiwan, Miracle on the Han River (1974–present) in South Korea, Japanese economic miracle (1950–1990) and the Chinese economic miracle (1983–2010) in China.
The People's Republic of China shares land borders with 14 countries : North Korea, Russia, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar, Laos, and Vietnam. The land borders, in counterclockwise order from northeast to southwest, include the China–North Korea border, the eastern segment of the China–Russia border, the China–Mongolia border, the western segment of the China–Russia border, the China–Kazakhstan border, the China–Kyrgyzstan border, the China–Tajikistan border, the China–Afghanistan border, the China–Pakistan border, the western segment of the China–India border, the central segment, the China–Nepal border, the Sikkim segment of the China–India border, the China–Bhutan border, the eastern segment of the China–India border, the China–Myanmar border, the China–Laos border, the China–Vietnam border. In addition, there is a 30-kilometre (19 mi) internal border with the special administrative region of Hong Kong, which was a British dependency before 1997, and a 3-kilometre (1.9 mi) internal border with Macau, a Portuguese territory until 1999. At 22,117 kilometres (13,743 mi), China has the longest land borders of any country.
China Circle refers to the economic relationship between mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. With the fast-growing economy and the development of foreign investment in China, China has become the centre of the Asian market in the 1980s. The production chain in Taiwan and Hong Kong soon merged in China and formed a new economic network named "the Circle of China".
The Act East policy is an effort by the government of India to cultivate extensive economic and strategic relations with the nations of Southeast Asia to bolster its standing as a regional power and a counterweight to the strategic influence of the People's Republic of China. Initiated in 1991, the Look East policy by Indian government marked a strategic shift in India’s perspective of the world. It was developed and enacted during the government of Prime Minister Narsimha Rao (1991–1996) and rigorously pursued by the successive administrations of Atal Bihari Vajpayee (1998–2004) and Manmohan Singh (2004–2014).
East Asia is a region of Asia, which is defined in both geographical and ethno-cultural terms. The modern states of East Asia include China, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan. Hong Kong and Macau, two coastal cities located in the south of China, are autonomous regions under Chinese sovereignty. The economies of Japan, South Korea, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau are some of the world's largest and most prosperous economies. East Asia borders Siberia and the Russian Far East to the north, Southeast Asia to the south, South Asia to the southwest, and Central Asia to the west. To the east is the Pacific Ocean and to the southeast is Micronesia.
The ancestral population of modern Asian people has its origins in the two primary prehistoric settlement centres – greater Southwest Asia and from the Mongolian plateau towards Northern China.
Modernisation refers to a model of a progressive transition from a "pre-modern" or "traditional" to a "modern" society. The theory particularly focuses on the internal factors of a country while assuming that, with assistance, traditional or pre-modern countries can be brought to development in the same manner which more developed countries have. Modernisation theory attempts to identify the social variables that contribute to social progress and development of societies, and seeks to explain the process of social evolution. Modernisation theory is subject to criticism originating among socialists and free-market ideologies, world-systems theorists, globalisation theorists and dependency theorists among others. Modernisation theory not only stresses the process of change, but also the responses to that change. It also looks at internal dynamics while referring to social and cultural structures and the adaptation of new technologies.
The first phase of European colonisation of Southeast Asia took place throughout the 16th and 17th centuries. Where new European powers competing to gain monopoly over the spice trade, as this trade was very valuable to the Europeans due to high demand for various spices such as pepper, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. This demand led to the arrival of Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch, French, and British marine spice traders. Fiercely competitive, the Europeans soon sought to eliminate each other by forcibly taking control of the production centres, trade hubs and vital strategic locations, beginning with the Portuguese acquisition of Malacca in 1511. Throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, conquests focused on ports along the maritime routes, that provided a secure passage of maritime trade. It also allowed foreign rulers to levy taxes and control prices of the highly desired Southeast Asian commodities. By the 19th century, all of Southeast Asia had been forced into the various spheres of influence of European global players except Siam, which had served as a convenient buffer state sandwiched between British Burma and French Indochina. The kings of Siam had to contend with repeated humiliations, accept unequal treaties among massive French and British political interference and territorial losses after the Franco-Siamese crisis of 1893 and the Anglo-Siamese Treaty of 1909.
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