China Reshapes the East Asian Production Network

Abstract

From the perspective of intra-product specialization and with in-depth analysis of trade statistics, this paper investigates the influence of China’s rise on the East Asian production network. Our conclusions suggest that in integrating into the East Asian production network, China has gradually emerged as the manufacturing center of East Asia, weakening the regional influence of the Four Asian Tigers. Meanwhile, the competitive effect of China’s rise has helped promote the specialization levels of the network’s members and even the network as a whole. With cooperation in various processes of intra-product specialization, internal connections of the East Asian production network were further strengthened. In addition, China became an export platform of East Asia, transforming the export pattern of the East Asian production network to world markets from “bilateral trade” into “triangular trade,” trade via China.

Keywords: China's rises, intra-product specialization, East Asia production network, reshape