The other China shock
“Wild geese fly in orderly ranks,” noted Akamatsu Kaname, a Japanese economist, when contemplating the progress of Japan’s textile industry in the 1920s and 1930s. The birds’ V-shaped formation has served as a popular analogy for how manufacturing spread in East Asia. As Japan prospered and its wages rose, labour-intensive industries migrated from the leader of the flock to followers like South Korea and Taiwan.
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