The Semiconductor Industry in an Era of Geopolitical Realignment

The ongoing intensification of the US-China semiconductor trade war is directly involving US allies of Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and Netherlands into the US-led trade sanction and export control against China, while even more states such as India and Vietnam eye opportunity to benefit from the trade diversions resulting from the trade war.
The current trade war has similarities and differences when compared with the previous semiconductor war between the US and Japan of the 1980s-1990s. Examining continuity and changes in the nature of the semiconductor industry, the ways states view this industry, the policymaking structures, the geopolitical contexts surrounding the international investment and trade, the evolution (or lack thereof) in the multilateral governance of high-tech trade, and the tools of policy interventions and their successes across the two periods will likely yield far more insights than the current journalistic interpretations of the ongoing Sino-US trade war from an overwhelmingly geopolitical viewpoint. This more detailed and nuances approach to study the semiconductor trade wars allows us to answer such questions as: “Why and to what extent are Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and Netherlands/EU cooperating with the US in erecting trade restrictions against China?”, “What are the bargaining among the US and its allies?”, “What is the degree of policy cohesion among the US and its allies?”, “What are the Chinese responses and the risks they bring onto the US-led strategy?”
This panel will gather papers that examine policy of at least one of the following states as the analytical focus: the US, China, Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, Netherlands/EU, India, and/or Vietnam.