Ezra Vogel, professor emeritus of Harvard University, is a leading specialist of East Asian affairs and an author of erudite publications that have served as a prism through which Western intellectuals can look at the East Asia of modern times. After earning his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1958, he went to Japan, which was an enemy of the United States during World War II, to study the Japanese language and research Japan’s middle-class families. Based on his field work in Japan, he published “Japan’s New Middle Class” in 1960. Three years later he put out “Japan as Number One: Lessons for America,” which became a bestseller to spur a boom in learning about Japan in Western societies.

Leading Specialist of East Asian Affairs

In 1987, Prof. Vogel spent eight months in China to study China’s economic reform program. His study of East Asia, which started from Japan and China, finally led him to Korea. Since his first visit in 1965, he has visited Korea many times and while serving as director of Harvard University’s East Asian Research Center since 1972, he has instructed a number of Korean students. In 1991, Prof. Vogel again attracted attention by publishing “The Four Little Dragons: The Spread of Industrialization in East Asia,” in which he asserted that the spirit of East Asian-style capitalism was combined with Confucian moral principles to a driving force for Asia’s economic development.

Park Chung-hee and Deng Xiaoping

Prof. Vogel’s presentation at the recent KF Forum focused on the leadership influences of two former leaders of Korea and China ― President Park Chung-hee and Chairman Deng Xiaoping. Park and Deng resembled each other in that they served as national leaders during turbulent times and both succeeded in paving the way for their country’s economic development. President Park laid the groundwork for Korea’s modernization, while Chairman Deng led China through the turmoil of the Cultural Revolution and placed his country on the path to becoming one of the world’s two leading economic powers, dubbed “G2” today.

Behind Park’s brilliant economic achievement was the shadow of a prolonged dictatorship, while Deng also had a somber past of brutally suppressing the pro-democracy movement at Tiananmen Square. “Just as Deng Xiaoping rescued China from the chaos of the Cultural Revolution and transformed his country into a global economic power, I think Korea of today wouldn’t be here if it were not for Park Chung-hee. However, Korea and China have chosen different paths in their development,” Prof. Vogel said. The following are excerpts from his lecture:

Deng Xiaoping’s Vision

A key development of 20th-century world history was the change in China after 1978, which coincided with Deng Xiaoping’s rise to power. Deng was a leader with a wide range of experiences. Before coming to power, he had handled a variety of economic and diplomatic policies. In 1949, he was responsible for provincial administration in the southwestern region of China, and later served as the general secretary of the Communist Party of China. He had also studied in France and served in the military of the former Soviet Union. He was intellectual, strategic, and highly motivated.

Deng knew that Korea had obtained a substantial amount of loans from Japan after establishing diplomatic relations with Tokyo and used the money for economic development. He began to dispatch diplomatic missions abroad and embarked on tours of foreign countries himself. In 1978 alone, he traveled abroad three times. When he visited the United States in 1972 following the normalization of Sino-U.S. relations, he took a picture on horseback in a cowboy outfit to symbolically assure the Chinese people that they might consume American culture. Deng was also the first Chinese leader to meet with Japan’s emperor. As he realized the need for various methods to maintain a sustainable relationship with Japan, he adopted an open-door policy for Japanese culture in 1978, which helped China’s postwar generations to better understand Japan.

Deng advocated practicality over ideology under his “black cat, white cat” principle (which meant the cat’s color is not important as long as it can catch mice). Above all, the famous quote of China’s top leader suggested that the communist state was willing to adopt policy measures other than the party’s planned economy system as long as they contributed to economic development. Deng introduced a performance-based personnel management system, under which anyone could join public service by passing the state-administered examination.

However, Deng was not interested in improving relations with South Korea in consideration of China’s blood alliance with North Korea. For him, China’s relationship with North Korea was far more important as it helped to keep North Korean leader Kim Il-sung from moving too close to the Soviet Union. Deng had a grand vision for China’s national integration. He promoted economic growth in ways to uphold Mao’s ideology and subdue his political opponents, while pushing ahead with open-door and reform initiatives.

Park Chung-hee’s Unique Leadership

In contrast, President Park Chung-hee sought to induce a heavy inflow of foreign capital and encourage competition among government officials. His economic policy of fostering the heavy/chemical industries and boosting exports was highly successful. However, with his Revitalization Reform in 1972, which benchmarked the Meiji Restoration of Japan, he turned Korea into a centrally-controlled police state. His heavy-handed rule gave rise to antipathy among intellectuals, and in October 1979, he was assassinated by one of his aides.

Dictatorial leaderships are harsh but at times can eventually produce beneficial results for their nations. Park Chung-hee exerted efforts to modernize Korea against a backdrop of North Korean threats, uncertain U.S. assistance, and a weak foundation for economic development. He was a selfless leader who did not embezzle public funds, and above all, he was an aggressive risk taker. Under his rule (1962-1979), Korea’s per capita GNP surged from $83 to $1,640. He vaulted Korea, one of the poorest countries in the world, into the ranks of newly industrialized countries (NICs). The Park Chung-hee model is the fruit of his unique leadership style, characterized by his unusually courageous risk-taking.

Impact of Devastating Earthquake in Japan

During a subsequent media briefing, Prof. Vogel responded to questions about the potential consequences of the recent earthquake/tsunami disasters in Japan. As an authority on Japanese affairs, he has authored several books as well as many theses on Japan, including “Pax Niponica” contributed to Foreign Affairs, an influential U.S. diplomatic journal.

Excerpts from the questions and answers are as follows:

- What impact will the earthquake in Japan have on its relations with surrounding countries?
Korea and Japan have active people-to-people exchanges. I believe about 2 million Koreans visit Japan a year. In view of this, I think no other country in the world knows Japan better than Korea. After the disaster, Korea set out to help Japan very quickly and I think this is good. It will bring about considerably positive results in the future relations. Korea fell behind Japan after the Meiji Restoration, and was one step behind in the modernization process. But now, Korea is lending a helping hand to Japan, which is of great psychological significance. I’m optimistic about Korea-Japan ties. Meanwhile, in China, the earthquake will provide an opportunity to show sympathy toward the Japanese people from a generation that has maintained nationalistic sentiments against Japan since the 1990s. As a result, the incident will play a positive role in enhancing Sino-Japanese relations as well.

- Now that China has replaced Japan as the world’s No. 2 economy, what would you say about the prospect of Sino-Japanese relations?
The question is whether China is really the world’s second-largest economic power. There are various different ways to determine the global economic rankings. What’s certain is that China’s self-confidence has grown. As China has re-emerged as a power in Asia, there will emerge movements and tendencies to resist China. We have to convey a message to China that “we will resist if you push too hard, but we wish to have cooperative relations as friends.” Unlike many Chinese people, who thought Japan was China’s enemy, Deng Xiaoping believed that China needed to make friends with Japan too.

- What would you say about the possibility that the earthquake may serve as an opportunity to call for strong leadership in Japan?
Japan has a stable and potentially capable bureaucratic system. It will provide a strong push to overcome the aftermaths of the earthquake. However, even a solid bureaucratic society can properly function only when it is supported by strong political leadership. I suspect that Japan went through its so-called “lost decade” of economic stagnation in the 1990s due to a lack of strong political leadership, despite the nation’s sound political, economic and bureaucratic systems. In China, politicians fear a loss of power if the country’s economic growth slows down, but things are different in Japan. An excessively solid bureaucratic system tends to be late in reacting to changes

I totally agree with the argument that Japan has too weak political leadership. After the collapse of the communist bloc, only one dominant political remained in Japan, which was the Liberal Democratic Party. There was no longer the need to cooperate with one another for various factions of the party. Since then, they have never been united into a cohesive force, but have all been scattered. It isn’t easy to work out fundamental change under these circumstances. I would like to say Japan may need a presidential system. Japan needs a strong leader today.

A Brief Profile of Ezra Vogel
Born in 1930; Obtained Ph.D. in sociology from Harvard University
rofessor of social sciences at Harvard University in 1964-2000; Director of the East Asian Research Center, Harvard University, in 1972-1977 Director of the Fairbank Center, Harvard University, in 1995-1999.

Kim Sae-won Visiting Professor, Korea University