How did South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore and Hong Kong get rich so fast?

By exporting, by educating their people and, some analysts argue, with an active state, though economists still dispute the mix.

The Four Asian Tigers, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan, industrialised rapidly between the early 1950s and the 1990s, with growth rates above 7 percent a year. The starting point was low: by the end of the Pacific War, Korea was one of the poorest regions in the world. By 1965 all four Tigers had achieved universal primary education, and export policies have been called the de facto reason for their rise.

Beyond that, the experts divide. A 1993 World Bank report, The East Asian Miracle, credited neoliberal policies. Other analyses have argued that extensive state intervention and industrial policy mattered much more. Hong Kong and Singapore adopted free-trade regimes, while South Korea and Taiwan used mixed regimes that backed their own export industries. In South Korea, a military government launched the first Five-Year Plan in 1962. Dani Rodrik argues it is impossible to understand the miracle without the role of government policy in stimulating private investment.

A third voice, Paul Krugman, argued in 1994 that it was a myth that the Tigers' success was a miracle: growth came from mobilising resources, and would inevitably slow. His article was highly criticised in many Asian countries, and later studies disputed some of his conclusions.

The speed came at a price too. All four Tigers practised authoritarianism during their peak growth, and Korea's Park Chung Hee, praised for the recovery, also censored media and disregarded human rights.