David Z

PERSIAN Chart: East Asia 1900 - 2014

Political
Chinas last dynasty dissolves and Sun Yat-sen (of the nationalist party) becomes the provisional
president of China on January 1
st
, 1912; Chinese nationalists and communists work together from 1937-
1945 against invading Japanese forces during WWII; civil war ensues between the nationalists and
communists in China following WWII; the communists win the Chinese civil war, driving off the
nationalists to Taiwan; Mao Zedong declares the establishment of the Peoples Republic of China in
1949; Japan fights with the axis powers during WWII and is defeated in 1945; Japan adopts a new
constitution in 1947 and is occupied by the allies until 1956;
Economic
China becomes a communist nation in 1949; following reconstruction, Japan today has one of the
worlds largest economies; Chinese economic reforms lead China in the present to become far more
capitalistic;
Religious
The communist movement in China caused a decline in the activity of many religious groups, especially
foreign religions such as Christianity; lack of religion is especially evident during Chinas Cultural
Revolution, which sought to remove capitalist and cultural elements from Chinese society; as of the
present about half the population of China claims to be religious; Japans constitution includes religious
freedoms; many Japanese persons practice Buddhist or Shinto beliefs;
Social
The Great Leap Forward, initiated by Mao Zedong, features economic and social reforms, leading to an
estimated 45 million deaths between 1958 and 1961; The Cultural Revolution causes social upheaval
and leads to the imposition of Communism on the Chinese population as a way of life (including
widespread persecution against enemies of the state); in 2010 Chinas population was over 1.37 billion
people, making China the most populous country in the world; China imposes many restrictions on its
population including internet access, the right to have children, and freedom of assembly among others;
Innovation
China invests heavily in scientific research and development, in 2011 China spent of $100 billion US
dollars in R & D; the Chinese space program is one of the worlds most active; China is the third
country to have sent humans into space; China has over 1 billion active cell phone users as of 2012,
which is the largest number of users from a single country in the world; Japan has the third largest
research and development budget in the world, over $130 billion; Japan is a leader in scientific research;
Arts
Karaoke is very popular in Japan; American music heavily influenced Japanese music in the modern
era, leading to the creation of J-pop, or Japanese popular music; following the Cultural Revolution,
Chinese arts have seen a great revival; the Chinese government used to heavily regulate foreign art
within the country, even restricting the number of foreign films allowed to be shown annually; today,
the Chinese government restricts foreign arts substantially less than it previously had done so;
Near
geographic
Nuclear weapons were used against Japan in 1945 in Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the United States; in
2011, Japan experienced the largest earthquake in its history, which led to the Fukushima Daiichi
nuclear disaster, which was the worst nuclear disaster since the Chernobyl disaster; Japan frequently
experiences tsunamis and earthquakes; in 2013 the World Bank estimated that 16 of the 20 most
polluted cities in the world were located in China; China is the worlds largest carbon dioxide emitter;