The US-China Chip War, Economy-Security Nexus, and Asia

초록

In few industries does the transfer of industrial leadership play a more significant role in the hegemonic competition between superpowers than in the semiconductor industry. As shown in the case of the United States (US)-Japan semiconductor conflict in the 1980s, who takes the lead will be critical in determining the future trajectory of the hegemonic competition between the US and China. This study examines how economic-security linkages and chip-related factors jointly affect the US-China Chip War and the evolving dynamics in Asia at the regional level. The economy-security nexus responds sensitively to the geopolitical structure and degree of economic dependence. Changes in the geopolitical structure create variations in which the economic-security nexus is sometimes either integrated or separated. Chips are currently the world's most critical technology, evolving quickly to create technological regimes and path dependence. Among the diverse technological features of semiconductors, this study focuses on the industrial position of an individual economy's specialization in the chip value chain. Individual states devise statecraft strategies to maximize their economic security gains and minimize risks. In the semiconductor sector, the joint effects of the economic-security nexus and chip-related factors shape each involved economy's statecraft strategy. This study theoretically reveals the concrete mechanisms through which the changing economic-security nexus shapes the economic statecraft of individual economies in the semiconductor value chain. The study also explores how East Asian economies adopt their own strategies along the spectrum of balancing, hedging, and bandwagoning in the context of competition between superpowers.

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