Profiles, facts and figures about the 51 countries that make up Asia today, from Afghanistan and Australia, through India and Indonesia, to Uzbekistan and Vietnam. Some two-thirds of the world's population lives in Asia, home to some to the most impressive economic growth in history. But it remains a generally poor region and a volatile one: prone to economic swings, political upsets and natural disasters. This incredibly diverse region of many races and cultures is much more difficult to predict than the other important regional blocs of the Americas and Europe but this well-established and fully updated highly readable analysis, provides you with the insight and the facts and figures that reveal the forces at work, the problems and the potential. For anyone who wants to know the answers to such questions * How is China reconciling economic liberalisation with communism and how is Hong Kong faring under Chinese rule? * How serious are the problems Japan is facing and how are other east Asian countries faring after the economic shocks of the late 1990s? * In which countries does the average man die before fifty? * What has been the impact of the war in Afghanistan on the region? * Which are the coming countries? POCKET ASIA has the answers.