Chips war? Global production networks and geopolitics in the post-pandemic

When: Wednesday, December 13, 2023, 1:00 PM - 3:00 PM
Where: Online

Speaker: Henry Wai-chung YEUNG, Distinguished Professor, National University of Singapore

This talk is co-sponsored by the Economic Geography Research Group of the RGS-IBG

Based on his forthcoming chapter on semiconductors in Global Value Chain Development Report 2023 (Oct 2023) and recent monograph Interconnected Worlds (Stanford University Press, June 2022), this presentation offers some key empirical observations on the highly contested and politicized nature of semiconductor global production networks since the US-China trade war and the Covid-19 pandemic. 

In this capital-intensive manufacturing industry, governance and power dynamics are manifested differently from many other industries due to highly complex technology regimes, production network ecosystems, and, more recently, geopolitical imperatives. While some of these critical dynamics had been in play ahead of the 2020s, their intensity and significance became more apparent by the early 2020s. He then examines their most significant implications for macro-regional development in the post-pandemic 2020s: (1) continual significance of East Asia as a major centre and end market, (2) pro-ecosystem approach to capability development, supply ecosystems, and market access in regions, and (3) strategic partnership with technology leaders towards building national and regional resilience. He ends with a discussion of some relevant future research agendas on technology, resilience, and politics for the geographical studies of global production networks and global value chains.