coping with demographic change:

1. move economy out of labor intensive activities

2. more service and technologically oriented

3. increased immigration from poorer parts of Asia (to supply labor)

ASEAN countries

growing populations-- Phillipines population projected to double by 2025.

High birth rates in the muslim countries.

Ethnically mixed

Population growth is outstripping economic capacity-- leads to exportation of labor-- 25% of Phillipine GDP comes from overseas remittance.

Movement towards urban coastal cities.

Economic growth of China mainly in eastern coastal cities.

Problem with public health in eastern coastal cities.

Increasing energy needs-- fossil fuel-- coal, natural gas, oil.

Demand outstripping local supply--China is a massive importer of oil--political consequences--guranteeing access to oil fields: Iran, Sudan.

Oil delivered by ship--China must depend on US naval protection--China is now developing its own blue water Navy.

Primary source of protein for Asian populations.

Many contested fishing zones.

Treaties on fishing rights is a major priority.

Essential for modernization.

Leads to loss of governmental control.

Leads to censorship--blocks websites--politics and pornography are strictly monitored and censored in China, N. Korea, Laos, and Burma.

Huge vaccum for foreign investment.

Labor goes into Laos, Indonesia, and Phillipines because it is cheap.

(used to be China, but now that it is more advanced investors are being driven out into less developed countries like those mentioned above)