Geopolitics in East Asia

This chapter outlines the geopolitical landscape of East Asia. Its main argument is that the Korean Peninsula and Taiwan are two regional “flash points” where continental and maritime powers have collided. After laying out the analytical framework, it offers an overview of the strategic history of East Asia focusing on four historical episodes to establish connections between Korea and Taiwan: Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s original plans to invade China in the late sixteenth century (1592–1598), the rise of seikanron (conquest of Korea) and the expedition of Taiwan in the 1870s, the First Sino-Japanese War (1894–1895), and the Korean War (1950–1953). It further demonstrates their continued importance in the context of US-China rivalry by assessing their military value and outsized role in the production of semiconductors which makes them “chiplands.” The chapter concludes with a brief remark on the evolving regional structure and the value of geopolitical analysis.