East Asia needs a geopolitical miracle to protect its economic one
Most of the region stunned economists decades ago with industrial turnarounds, but nations in conflict with each other – and the West – could prove an even tougher hill to climb
East Asia has amazed the world with its economic miracles. But the region must now overcome its geopolitical challenges. In the wake of the second world war, Japan was widely assumed to be “finished”, South Korea was a basket case of underdevelopment, and China was chaotic and poor – indeed, the terms “Chinese” and “poor” were held to be synonymous.
Taiwan was hardly worth consideration economically notwithstanding its importance geopolitically.
Half a century ago, Taipei’s main economic role seemed to be as a base for United States soldiers on rest and recreation from the Vietnam war. As for Southeast Asia, it was mired in poverty, instability and conflict.
Reflecting the perception of backwardness accompanied by a degree of condescending hopelessness, the Swedish Nobel economics laureate Gunnar Myrdal published in 1968 the three-volume magnum opus Asian Drama: An Inquiry Into the Poverty of Nations. In 1993, 25 years later, the World Bank published its report The East Asian Miracle.
Apart from confirming the fact that, yes, economists believe in miracles, the term has been quite widely used in describing economic developments in East Asia.