This study will discuss and contrast the varieties of political and economic development in China, Japan, and North and South Korea in the post-World War II era. The study will also consider the impact of the policies of the United States as they affected political and economic development in the three nations. Specifically, the argument of the study will be that China and North Korea have developed politically and economically based on policies which are more strictly controlled by the government than is the case in Japan and South Korea. In the latter two countries---especially in Japan---the market has been allowed to dictate development. Japan, out of the four countries, has the most open democratic political system. The control exercised by the governments of China and North Korea has manifested itself largely in terms of national isolation and dependence on communist or socialist principles and practices. The study will also argue that China and North Korea, because of that political and economic isolation, have been less affected by the policies of the United States than have been Japan and South Korea. At the same time, however, especially in the case of China, American policy, with no success in liberalizing Chinese policy for the bulk of the post-war period, has inadvertently resulted in stiffening Chinese resolve to pursue isolationist and communist policies. In recent years, however, the Chinese government has been forced by internal pressures (from the people and from economic necessity) to gradually ease this isolationist and ideological stance.
The post-World War II era for China most significantly began in the triumph of the Communists over the Nationalists in 1949. From that time forward, the post-war development of China has been controlled by the ideology and practice of the Communist leaders of that nation. Although China has in recent years begun to open its borders to external economic influences, and has sh...