The Asian Century
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The Asian Century
The 19th Century was dominated by Europeans, while Americans dominated the 20th Century. The 21st Century, on the other hand, is set to be dominated by Asia. The Asian Century is when Asia’s economies will dominate all other world economies (Heinz and Murray, 2018). One of the reasons why Asia is considered to have dominated the 21st Century is because the continent contains almost half of the entire world’s population. Other causes include; Asia is deemed to be the highest number of manufacturing industries, has thirty largest cities, and has 50% of its GDP. This essay seeks to explain the probable impact of the Asian Century on the entire world.
Examples of countries in the Asian continent experiencing a tremendous economic growth rate include China, India, Hong Kong, South Korea, and Thailand. The mentioned countries are outperformers because their per capita growth has defeated US development from around 1965 (Studwell, 2017). The main reason behind the growth of Asia’s economies is globalization and cheap labour availability, making Asia the largest industrialized hub (Auslin, 2017). According to the Asian Digital Transformation Index 2018, Singapore is the country with the world’s most digital technological advancement.
As time goes by, Asia evolves from a global economy’s spectator to become the global economic leader. Trade between Asian countries and other nations of the world is continuously expanding because of the regional business’s re-establishment in the colonial years (Loong, 2020). The rate of intra-Asian trade activities that started to happen after the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) has increased. Currently, the Asian intra-regional trade is second to the European Union (Aygen and Logan, 2016). Notably, the Asian intro-regional trade influenced trade activities between Asian countries in the manufacturing, finance, technology, and logistics sectors.
The intra-Asian regional cooperation has resulted in the formation of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). BRI I aims to connect Asia with other continents such as Asia, Africa, and Europe via road and sea trade routes. BRI’s goals bring about regional integration and promote economic development in different countries across the world (Mahbubani, 2018). For instance, the BRI has infrastructure development projects in foreign countries that might cost around 1 trillion US dollars. Growth of economic power, as well as regional cooperation, will make Asia dominant compared as compared to other continents (Lo, 2017). For instance, Asian companies will spread to other parts of the world, making many Asians spread to different world regions.
The reasons that cause Asia to experience rapid development also make the continent to experience inequalities. Therefore, people should be vigilant of risks that this rapid growth issue might pose to Asian nations shortly. Reducing the poverty level has become a challenging task for the respective governments even though the continent has lately been experiencing a period of rapid economic growth (Kawai, 2017). The first of the side effects caused by Asia’s rapid growth is environmental pollution. The fact that Asia mainly relies on fossil fuel as a form of energy has minimized the clean air and water supply in Asian countries (Heinz and Murray, 2018). For instance, Asia is ranked first in greenhouse emissions that later result in global warming and the greenhouse effect. Increased climatic disasters in Asian countries should alert Asian policymakers to develop ways of protecting Asian people from further damages that might occur soon.
Another challenge that Asia might face in the coming decades is inequality in terms of distributing resources. Over the past years, Asia has experienced an increase in the gap between the poor and the rich. For instance, the Gini coefficient used in measuring the rate of inequality has increased from 39 to 46. In terms of education, the number of poor children going to school is continuously decreasing compared to rich children who get educated. In Asia, the infant mortality rate is increasingly becoming high for low-income families than in able families (Heinz and Murray, 2018). Continuous increase in the population will also make the low population in Asia luck proper sanitation and electricity in the coming years (Lingle, 2019). At the moment, about 45% of the Asian population can access appropriate sanitation.
The 21st Century is the Asian Century because the Asian continent is experiencing rapid development compared to any other continent. Therefore, the Asian continent might become dominant over different continents. The development of Asia will have poses a threat to future generations of the continent. For instance, industrialization in the continent might lead to environmental pollution, making the continent unsuitable for human existence. Therefore, the Asian government should develop measures to ensure that future generations are safe from such threats.
References
Auslin, M. R. (2017). The End of the Asian Century: War, Stagnation, and the Risks to the World’s Most Dynamic Region. Yale University Press.
Aygen, Z., & Logan, W. (2016). Heritage in the Asian Century: Responding to Geopolitical Change. A companion to heritage studies, 410-25.
Heinz, C. B., & Murray, J. A. (2018). Asian cultural traditions. Waveland Press.
Kawai, M. (2017). Will the 21st Century be an Asian century?: A global perspective (No. 1702e).
Lingle, C. (2019). The rise and decline of the Asian Century: False starts on the path to the global millennium. Routledge.
Lo, K. (2017). Asian energy challenges in the Asian Century. Journal of Asian Energy Studies, 1(1), 1-6.
Loong, L. H. (2020). The Endangered Asian Century. Foreign Aff., 99, 52.
Mahbubani, K. (2018). The case against the West: America and Europe in the Asian Century. Foreign Affairs, 111-124.
Studwell, J. (2017). How Asia works: Success and failure in the world’s most dynamic region. Open Road+ Grove/Atlantic