3. The Global Architecture Reconfigured: Implications for East Asia

Chapter 2 focuses on the emergent long-term changes to the global architecture established by the USA. Initially, the chapter looks at the transformation of trade and production towards global commodity chains and the transformation of the financial system. It continues on to detail the reformation of the various regimes and institutions covering the spheres of trade, finance, production, and knowledge. The chapter then moves on to examine the implications for East Asia and their shifting of much of their production offshore in reaction to the USA’s new foreign economic policy. It argues that East Asian firms’ policy of relocating much of their production offshore occurred just at the time that Deng Xiaoping was attempting to open China to investment.