A Conspiracy Theory

When one looks at Asia’s increasing reliance on China’s import demand on the back of her rising production clout, it is easy to theorise a conspiracy for the China threat — that China’s aggressive industrial expansion beats her Asian neighbours in exports, and cuts off their growth source from the global market so that she can make Asia rely on China-induced growth as a way to spread influence in the region. Such a conspiracy theory has been exploited by many politicians, both within and outside Asia, to promote their political interest often at the expense of the economic truth (see next chapter for more). Let us examine the two fears of the China threat — Asia’s over-dependence on China and China’s stress on the global supply chain — in detail to evaluate this conspiracy theory.