The Bamboo Curtain was the Cold War political demarcation between the Communist states of East Asia, particularly the People's Republic of China, and the capitalist and non-Communist states of East, South and Southeast Asia. To the north and northwest lay the Communist states of China, the Soviet Union, North Vietnam, North Korea, and Mongolia. To the south and east lay the capitalist and non-Communist countries of India, Pakistan, Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, Thailand, Taiwan, South Korea, British Hong Kong, and Portuguese Macau. Before the Indochina Wars the non-Communist bloc included French Indochina and its successor states South Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. However, after the wars the new countries of Vietnam, Laos, and Democratic Kampuchea became Communist states. In particular, following the Korean War, the Korean Demilitarized Zone became an important symbol of this Asian division (though the term "Bamboo Curtain" itself is rarely used in that specific context).