Africa s wildlife is totally exterminated. India and China go to war over Tibet, control of resource-rich Burma, their disputed Himalayan border, and the Indian Ocean. India and Pakistan begin to splinter. China s communist party is replaced by an autocratic nationalist regime that reunites Taiwan. An assertive nationalist government takes power in Tokyo and deploys sea-launched nuclear weapons.
Japan emerges from years of recession as an economic powerhouse.
The surging economies of India, China, Korea and Japan vie for Asia s dwindling resources particularly oil from Indonesia and the Mideast. Malaysia occupies northern Sumatra. North Korea collapses, flooding South Korea with 10 million starving refugees which wrecks South Korea s fragile economy. By 2020, however, a recovered, industrious, united Korea challenges Japan for dominance of North Asia. South China steadily slips away from Beijing s control and is dominated by Singapore.