Focus Global South
9 December 2024 I 18:00 (CET)
Explaining Geographic Shifts of Chip Making Towards East Asia and Market Dynamics in Semiconductor Global Production Networks
Henry Wai-chung Yeung (National University of Singapore / The Chinese University of Hong Kong)
Abstract
Based on my lead-authored chapter on semiconductors in Global Value Chain Development Report 2023 (WTO/ADB, October 2023) and my award-winning monograph Interconnected Worlds (Stanford University Press, June 2022), this presentation offers some key empirical observations on the highly contested and politicized nature of semiconductor global production networks since the US-China trade war and the Covid-19 pandemic. In this capital-intensive manufacturing industry, governance and power dynamics are manifested differently from many other industries due to highly complex technology regimes, production network ecosystems, and, more recently, geopolitical imperatives. While some of these critical dynamics had been in play ahead of the 2020s in China, Taiwan, and South Korea, their intensity and significance became more apparent by the early 2020s. I then examine their most significant implications for East Asian development in the post-pandemic 2020s and the need for strategic partnership with technology leaders towards building national and regional resilience in the United States, Western Europe, and East Asia. I end with a discussion of some relevant future research agendas on technology, resilience, and politics for the interdisciplinary studies of global production networks and global value chains.
Professor Henry Yeung received his Ph.D. from the University of Manchester in 1995 and is currently Distinguished Professor of Economic Geography at the National University of Singapore, a position he has held since 2005. In January 2025, he will join the Chinese University of Hong Kong as the Choh-Ming Li Professor in the Department of Geography and Resource Management. A globally recognized expert in global production networks and the global economy, his research focuses on transnational corporations, East Asian firms, and developmental states. He is the first geographer in Asia to receive prestigious awards such as the American Association of Geographers Distinguished Scholarship Honors (2018) and the Royal Geographical Society’s Murchison Award (2017).
Professor Yeung has authored publications including Theory and Explanation in Geography (2023) and Interconnected Worlds: Global Electronics and Production Networks in East Asia (2022), which won several awards. His work is widely cited, with over 5,000 publications referencing his research in ISI Web of Science and more than 26,000 citations on Google Scholar. He has been featured in The Financial Times, The Economist, and Forbes Asia, and has contributed as a consultant to several international reports. He has also served as editor of top Geography journals, including Economic Geography and Environment and Planning A.
Venue
Geo-Bio Hörsaal, Zülpicher Straße 49a, Cologne
Event organized by Cologne Geographical Society (Gesellschaft für Erdkunde zu Köln e.V.) and Global South Studies Center (GSSC).