ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of economic interdependence and security in East Asia from the 1970s until today. In the section on economic inter-dependence, the key indicator will be the trade intensity index (TII), which measures the relative importance of each trading partner for the other. The chapter explains the present purposes and then displays the values for this indicator of the three dyads — China—Japan, China—US and Japan—US — both in trade and investment. It contains the key points that follow: First, East Asia started from low interdependence combined with insecurity, but gradually moved towards the high interdependence-low insecurity combination by the mid-1990s; second, after the mid-1990s, the region saw the heightening of political tensions; third, economic interdependence persisted for a while despite these political and security tensions; and finally, economic interdependence began to decline in the 2010s. It undertakes a comprehensive overview of the changes in the regional security landscape from the 1980s to 2000s.
