Other subordinate and dependent systems have yet a different character. Discussing the rapid
economic growth of South Korea and Taiwan after the powerful stimulus given by Vietnam war
spending, Bruce Cumings observes that it resumes a process of development begun under
Japanese colonialism. Unlike the West, he notes, Japan brought industry to the labor and raw
materials rather than vice versa, leading to industrial development under state-corporate guidance,
now renewed. Japan's colonial policies were extremely brutal, but they laid a basis for economic
development. Needless to say, these economic successes, like those of Singapore and Hong
Kong, are no tribute either to democracy or the wonders of the market; rather, to harsh labor
conditions, efficient quasi-fascist political systems, and, much as in Japan, high levels of
protectionism and planning by financial-industrial conglomerates in a state-coordinated economy.