There has been much discussion over past decades on the rise of China and the Asian century viz a viz the USA and Europe. In recent months there have been clear Covid19 or Coronavirus amelioration strategies while the US, UK and several European nations have struggled, leading to significant economic impacts. More from the Asia Times:
Asian century began in May 2020
Region has emerged as an economic zone as closely integrated as the European Union
By DAVID P. GOLDMAN
MAY 21, 2020
Economic historians may date the start of the Asian century to May 2020, when most Asian economies bounced back to full employment while the West languished in coronavirus lockdown. Asia has emerged as an economic zone as closely integrated as the European Union, increasingly insulated from economic shocks from the United States or Europe.
Google’s daily data on workplace mobility uses smartphone location to determine the number of people going to work – by far the most accurate and up-to-date available reading on economic activity. As of May 13, Taiwan, South Korea and Vietnam were back to normal levels. Japan and Germany had climbed back to 20% below normal. The US, France and the UK remain paralyzed. Google can’t take readings in China, but the available evidence indicates that China is on the same track as Taiwan, South Korea and Vietnam.
Asian economic recovery is consistent with success in controlling the Covid-19 pandemic. China, Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, Hong Kong and Singapore have Covid-19 death rates a tenth of Germany’s and a hundredth of the rate in the US, UK, France or Spain. As I reported May 21, the US is struggling to re-open its economy despite a much higher rate of new infections than the Asian countries or Germany. That entails substantial risk. Two Ford Motor plants in the US that had re-opened May 17 shut yesterday after employees tested positive for Covid-19, for example.
Asia’s short-term surge followed its success in disease prevention. But the long-term driver of Asian growth is China’s emergence as a tech superpower. This week’s session of the People’s Congress in Beijing is expected to pass a $1.4 trillion of new government investments in 5G broadband, factory automation, self-driving cars, artificial intelligence and related fields.
Asia now acts as a cohesive economic bloc. Sixty percent of Asian countries’ trade is within Asia, the same proportion as the European Union. The Google mobility numbers confirm what we learned earlier this month from China’s April trade data. Intra-Asian trade surged year-over-year, while trade with the United States stagnated.
The surge in Chinese trade with Southeast Asia, South Korea and Taiwan shows the extent of Asian economic integration. China’s exports to Asia have grown much faster than its trade with the US, which stagnated after 2014.
China’s stock market meanwhile is this year’s top performer, down only 2% year-to-date on the MSCI Index in US dollar terms while all other major exchanges are deep in negative numbers. The strength of China’s stock market is noteworthy given the escalation of economic warfare with the US, including a US ban on third-party exports of computer chips made with US intellectual property to blacklisted Chinese companies, and the threat to de-list Chinese companies on US stock exchange……
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From The Guardian:
Dawn of Asian century puts pressure on Europe to choose sides, says diplomat. EU foreign affairs chief says end of US-led global system may have arrived and Europe needs robust strategy for China.
The Asian century may have arrived marking the end of a US-led global system, the EU’s foreign affairs chief has said amid a growing discussion in Europe on how to weave a path between China and the US.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/25/asian-century-marks-end-of-us-led-global-system-warns-eu-chief
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Asia illiteracy
EDWARD ASPINALL
27 MAY 2020
A national institution’s inward turn comes at a strange time.
For decades, successive Australian governments have recognised that Asia holds the key to our nation’s economic prosperity and security. Australia has built up massive trading relationships with Asian countries, invested hugely in diplomatic relationships in the region (our largest embassy is in Jakarta rather than Washington) and developed major programs to encourage educational and cultural ties. Federal governments routinely proclaim the importance of Asia to Australia’s future, most recently in the 2016 defence and 2017 foreign policy white papers.
Yet, in the midst of a global pandemic that originated in the region, and at a time when China’s rise is shaking geopolitical certainties throughout the world, one of our major national institutions has decided to turn away from Asia. Ironically, the same institution was a pioneer of Asian engagement.
https://insidestory.org.au/asia-illiteracy/
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How is an advanced Australia faring in the Asian century?
The power of proximity has long surpassed the “tyranny of distance” in Australian trade relations.
China’s barley tariffs have thrust the challenges of trade into the headlines with a prominence rarely seen in the popular Australian media. Although a crucial basis of national prosperity, the “trade” side of Australia’s international engagement has seemingly always had a lower profile than the “foreign affairs” aspect.
Yet the history of Australia’s trade, as told by key players involved, offers plenty of lessons for the present. The perspectives offered in a series of interviews over the course of a substantial research project are instructive about shifts in philosophy and tactics, ambition and attitudes.
Asia has long been a key focus. Paul Keating was known as passionate advocate for Australia’s engagement with the Asia-Pacific.
Indeed, as business leader Heather Ridout eloquently explained:
John Howard was very diligent in building relations in Asia, but his heart was really in the Anglo-American world. Bob Hawke was managerial and competent in Asia. I would say Paul Keating put himself on the line over Asia, like he did in Aboriginal Affairs with the famous Redfern speech. Keating was a risk-taker – a calculated risk-taker, not a reckless one – but a risk-taker, nonetheless. He had confidence in himself and confidence in Australia that the country could do great things as part of the Asia region.
It was Keating himself who once famously said, “We get our security in Asia, not from Asia.”
https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/how-advanced-australia-faring-asian-century
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