After Mao Zedong's death, Deng Xiaoping called for modernizing China's industry, agriculture, technology, and defense. China opened up to foreign investment and sent students abroad to study science and business. Despite economic growth, China did not achieve Deng's goal of political democracy, and the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests calling for reform were violently suppressed. Japan became a major exporter after World War II but experienced an economic downturn in the late 1980s and deflation since. The Korean peninsula remains divided between the authoritarian North Korea and growing South Korean democracy, with tensions continuing over North Korea's nuclear program.