evidence: The pressures toward national political consolidation and the costly struggle in Korea produced significant consequences. In the several provinces of Manchuria (now called the Northeast), there was a growing concentration of industrial and military presence, as well as an increased presence of Soviet economic advisers and key elements of China’s tiny corps of technicians and specialists. This was a natural development in view of the extensive economic infrastructure left behind by the Japanese in that region and its proximity to Korea. Additionally, Northeast China had long been an area of Soviet interest.