In this issue

It’s the technology, stupid. It’s hard not to formulate that as an answer to what presents the central arena of contest these days between the United States and China, given the growing measures by Washington to throttle Chinese access to the most advanced technologies from the US and its allies. It also lies behind a US scramble to attract investment from Taiwan and South Korea to enhance its ability to produce cutting-edge semiconductors at home. Even Japan is seeking to lure Taiwanese expertise in semiconductors to its own shores. From chips to artificial intelligence to communications networks and rare-earth elements — critical inputs to a broad range of technologies and an area of Chinese dominance — the war is on. It is already having an impact on China, sharpening Beijing’s perception of its economic and national security vulnerability to overdependence on foreign technology. The blowback is sure to come, most likely in the form of massive Chinese efforts to innovate in areas where it has depended too much on outside countries. The US policies that are underpinning these efforts to thwart China are part of a broader concept that can be called “new economic statecraft” — or “state intervention to influence trade, investment and industrial policy, rather than the traditional focus on economic statecraft that emphasizes policies related to economic sanctions,” as one of the articles in the cover package of this issue of Global Asia argues.

Global Asia Magazine Description:

Global Asia is a quarterly publication of the East Asia Foundation. The foundation, established in Seoul in January 2005, strives to promote peace, prosperity, security and sustainability in East Asia by creating an open and creative forum for the exchange of ideas on regional co-operation and integration, among other goals.
The mission we have set for ourselves with Global Asia is both bold and urgent: It is to provide a compelling, serious, and responsible forum for distinguished thinkers, policymakers, political leaders and business people to debate the most important issues in Asia today.
Global Asia is not a journal with a fixed point of view, or a particular agenda. Our aim is to give voice to the global dimension of what is happening in Asia. In our pages and on our web site, we aim for Asia to speak to the world, and the world to Asia. That is important at a time when this region is playing an ever greater role in world affairs.
There are other fine publications on international affairs. What sets us apart is our focus: Asia. We believe that the world is moving into “the Age of Asia,” to borrow a phrase from one of the articles in the inaugural issue of Global Asia in September 2006. This transformation is not going to occur overnight, but it has already begun.
The region’s dynamic economic growth, stable and accountable political systems, maturing democracies, and evolving sense of community are giving Asia greater weight in the world. These developments will have enormous implications for governments, businesses, societies and individuals across the globe. How that transformation is viewed, and shaped, from within Asia and how it is perceived outside Asia is an essential part of the story we have to tell.
The forces of globalization are having a profound impact throughout the world. And they are being influenced and channeled in different ways in different parts of the world. Ours is the story of Asia’s experience with globalization, and the ideas and debates influencing it. In pursuing our mission, we aim to play a part, however modest, in helping to shape the future of Asia.