If China’s drive for self-sufficiency in semiconductors succeeded, its neighbors, most of whom had export-dependent economies, would suffer even more. Integrated circuits made up 15 percent of South Korea’s exports in 2017; 17 percent of Singapore’s; 19 percent of Malaysia’s; 21 percent of the Philippines’; and 36 percent of Taiwan’s. Made in China 2025 called all this into question. At stake was the world’s most dense network of supply chains and trade flows, the electronics industries that had undergirded Asia’s economic growth and political stability over the past half century.
