ABSTRACT
In 2004 China overtook the US to become the world’s largest electronics exporter. In just a decade, the locus of global production for many familiar electronics products – ranging from HP computers to Apple iPods – has shifted from Japan and East Asian developing economies to China. As in other industries, the China electronics juggernaut has generated anxiety within the region about the implications of China’s ascendance. Among upper and middle-income East Asian economies there is fear that China’s rise is hollowing out their electronics industrial base. Lower-income countries worry that they cannot compete with China’s seemingly endless supply of low-cost labor.
