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    "Yukon Huang",
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Source: Getty

In The Media

Why U.S.-China Supply Chain Decoupling Will Be More of a Whimper Than a Bang

For all the talk of sweeping change, U.S. dependence on Asian manufacturing is both deeply rooted and remarkably stable over time.

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By Yukon Huang and Jeremy Smith
Published on Jun 29, 2020
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The Asia Program in Washington studies disruptive security, governance, and technological risks that threaten peace, growth, and opportunity in the Asia-Pacific region, including a focus on China, Japan, and the Korean peninsula.

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Source: South China Morning Post

Whether by tariffs or by decree, US President Donald Trump has long sought the silver bullet that would decrease dependence on Chinese goods and revive American industry, all the while compelling China to reform its controversial trade and investment practices and reduce the bilateral deficit.

In a recent interview, Trump railed against “stupid supply chains that are all over the world”, further threatening to “cut off the whole relationship” with China and rejecting the notion that undoing the extensive links between the two largest economies comes with any trade-offs.

But to the extent that economic decoupling actually occurs, it would represent a major disruption of the market-driven evolution of supply chains over the past several decades. For all the talk of sweeping change, US dependence on Asian manufacturing is both deeply rooted and remarkably stable over time.

Read Full Text

This article was originally published in the South China Morning Post.

Authors

Yukon Huang
Senior Fellow, Asia Program
Yukon Huang
Jeremy Smith
Former James C. Gaither Junior Fellow, Asia Program
EconomyTradeForeign PolicyNorth AmericaUnited StatesEast AsiaChina

Carnegie does not take institutional positions on public policy issues; the views represented herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Carnegie, its staff, or its trustees.

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