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Thebamboo curtain was a political demarcation between thecommunist states ofEast Asia, particularly the People's Republic of China and thecapitalist states of East,South andSoutheast Asia. To the north and northwest lay the communist states of: China,Russia (theSoviet Union beforeA.D. 1991), North Vietnam, North Korea, India, Nepal,Afghanistan,Islamic Republic of Iran and theMongolian People's Republic. To the south and east lay the capitalist countries of Pakistan, Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Bangladesh, the Philippines, Thailand, Taiwan, South Korea,Hong Kong andMacau.[citation needed]
Before theIndochina Wars, the non-communist bloc includedFrench Indochina and its successor states: South Vietnam, Laos andCambodia. However, after the wars, the new countries of Vietnam, Laos, andDemocratic Kampuchea became communist states. In particular, following theKorean War, theKorean Demilitarized Zone became an important symbol of this Asian division (though the termbamboo curtain itself is rarely used in that specific context).[citation needed]
The colorful termbamboo curtain was derived fromIron Curtain, a term used widely in Europe from the mid-1940s to the late 1980s to refer to that region's communist boundaries. It was used less often thanIron Curtain in part because while the latter remained relatively static for over 40 years, thebamboo curtainshifted frequently and was somewhat less precise. Thebamboo curtain was also located mostly in regions where terrain made the extensive border fortifications that characterized theIron Curtain impractical. It was also a less accurate description of the political situation in Asia because of the lack of cohesion within the East Asian communist bloc, which resulted in theSino-Soviet split. During theFirst Cold War, communist governments in Mongolia, Vietnam, and Laos were allies of the Soviet Union, though they sometimes cooperated with China, whilePol Pot'sCambodian regime was loyal to China. After the Korean War, North Korea avoided taking sides between the Soviets and China. (Since the end of a communist bloc in Asia, North Korea remains on good terms with both Russia and China, although relations between the countries have been strained in modern times.)[citation needed]
During theCultural Revolution in China, the Chinese authorities put sections of thecurtain under a lock-down of sorts, forbidding entry into or passage out of the country without permission from theChinese government. Many would-be refugees attempting to flee to capitalist countries were prevented from escaping. Occasional relaxations led to several waves of refugees into theBritish crown colony of Hong Kong.[citation needed]
Improved relations between China and the United States during the later years of the Cold War rendered the term more or less obsolete,[1] except when it referred to theKorean Peninsula and the divide between allies of the US and allies of theUSSR in Southeast Asia. Even today, the demilitarized zone separating North and South Korea is typically described as the DMZ. Until recently,bamboo curtain was used most often to refer to the enclosed borders andeconomy ofBurma[2][3] (though this began to open in 2010). The bamboo curtain has since given way to the business model called thebamboo network.[citation needed]