Bamboo Curtain

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Bamboo Curtain in 1959
Bamboo Curtain in 1959

The Bamboo Curtain was the east Asian version of the Iron Curtain. It marked the border between the communist states of East Asia, especially the People's Republic of China during the Cold War, but excluding the eastern Soviet Union. The term was less often applied to the border between North and South Korea or the flexible border between Communism and the west in Southeast Asia.

The term "Bamboo Curtain" was used less often than the term "Iron Curtain" in part because while the latter remained relatively stagnant for over 40 years, the former shifted constantly. 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 ultimately resulting in the Sino-Soviet split. Improved relations between China and the United States during the later years of the Cold War rendered the term more or less obsolete, except with reference to the Korean Peninsula and the divide between Allies of the US and the USSR in Southeast Asia.

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