"China’s exports to Southeast Asia jumped by 20% in 2022, despite a year-on-year decline in China’s total exports driven by a 19% drop in exports to the US and a 17% drop in exports to the European Union.
Southeast Asia’s 700 million people stand at the cusp of an economic transformation comparable to the rise of the “Asian Tigers” – Taiwan, South Korea and Singapore – during the 1980s and 1990s.
China’s leading position in digital as well as physical infrastructure has created a natural economic partnership with Southeast Asia, which represents a vast pool of young workers to replace China’s aging and shrinking industrial labor force.
Southeast Asia leads the world’s economic growth league, along with South Asia.
In 2020, China exported almost twice as much to members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) as it did to developed Asia (Japan, Taiwan and South Korea).
Despite China’s leading position in Southeast Asian trade, US and European investors dominate foreign direct investment in the region. China funded just $13 billion of direct investments in the region in 2021, compared with $40 billion for the US and $
27 billion for the European Union.
China appears less interested in gaining control of regional assets than in trade. Southeast Asian nations are sensitive about national sovereignty and reluctant to cede ownership of critical assets to the economic giant to their north.
Overall, Chinese exports to the Global South, including ASEAN, Africa, and Latin America, nearly doubled from pre-Covid levels to an annual rate of around $900 billion in 2022 – double China’s exports to either the United States or the European Union.
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https://asiatimes.com/2023/02/digital-infrastructure-propels-new-se-asian-tigers/
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