The rise of Coastal China and inter-regional relations among core economic regions of East Asia

Abstract

This paper examines the changing industrial landscape of East Asia by focusing on the eight core economic regions (Kanto, Kinki and Chubu of Japan, Zhujiang, Changjiang and Jing-Jin-Ji of China, and Korea’s Seoul capital and Yeongnam region). The three Japanese regions have been leading the formation of industrial geography of East Asia in the past three decades. Since the reform and opening of China in the 1980s, the industrial landscape has significantly changed from a unipolar structure to a multipolar structure. Three Chinese coastal regions advanced successfully in manufacturing production and they became a substantial force in shifting economic balance towards China away from Japan and Korea. Obviously, the rise of the three Chinese coastal regions has expanded trade and investment relations with other economic regions and they are now becoming centers of expanding inter-regional trading networks of East Asia. The three Japanese core regions, however, seem to retain their influence over other regions perhaps due to Japan’s investment and production networks built over the past decades. The continued growth of Chinese coastal regions suggests a different configuration of inter-regional relations in the future, posing an important question of whether the rise of coastal China will make inter-regional relations complementary or competitive in the future.