Dependence and competition: trade relationship between Asian countries and China

Figures & data

Table 1. Degree of trade dependence between China and Japan, China and the Soviet Union

Year	Dcs	Wcs	Dsc	Dcj	Wcj	Djc	Wjc
1950	29.8%	1.7%	17.7%	5.2%	0.3%	3.3%	0.4%
1952	54.8%	3.9%	18.3%	0.8%	0.1%	0.5%	0.1%
1955	56.9%	4.8%	21.5%	3.5%	0.3%	2.4%	0.4%
1960	43.7%	2.7%	14.9%	0.6%	0.0%	0.3%	0.1%
1965	9.6%	0.6%	2.6%	11.1%	0.7%	2.8%	0.5%
1970	1.0%	0.1%	0.2%	17.9%	0.9%	2.2%	0.4%
1975	2.0%	0.2%	0.4%	25.7%	2.4%	3.3%	0.8%
1980	1.3%	0.3%	0.3%	23.9%	4.8%	3.3%	0.9%
1985	2.7%	0.6%	1.1%	31.0%	7.0%	7.0%	1.6%
1990	3.8%	1.2%	2.3%	17.0%	5.5%	3.8%	0.6%
1995				23.2%	8.9%	8.3%	1.2%
2000				20.4%	8.1%	11.2%	2.1%
2005				14.7%	9.3%	18.8%	4.6%
2010				11.1%	5.6%	22.5%	6.0%
2015				7.7%	2.7%	24.3%	6.9%
2018				7.7%	2.6%	23.8%	7.1%

Source: China’s Trade with the USSR: Lu, “A Brief Analysis”.

Slavic Research Center, Soviet Economic Statistical Series.

China’s trade: SSB, A Collection, China’s GDP: SSB, Historical Statistics; World Bank

Japan’s trade: Okamoto, On Sino-Japanese; MITI, Whitebook on Trade.

Japan’s GDP: Cabinet Office, World Bank.

Table 2. China’s trade intensity indices

Region	Export intensity			Import intensity
	1999*	1999	2017	1999*	1999	2017
EU	0.44	0.41	0.46	0.42	0.38	0.35
US	1.19	1.15	1.27	0.96	0.96	0.84
Japan	3.10	3.04	1.45	2.74	2.75	1.99
Hong Kong	6.10	5.92	3.36	1.35	1.34	0.11
Africa	0.90			0.75
Sub-Saharan Africa		0.62	1.63		0.55	1.99
Latin America and the Caribbean		0.46	0.92		0.34	1.07
Oceania		1.04	1.29		1.96	3.20
South Korea		1.89	1.52		4.07	2.59
Taiwan		1.03	1.20		5.55	4.11
Viet Nam		2.38	2.38		1.04	1.96
Malaysia		0.75	1.52		1.45	2.09
Singapore		1.18	0.97		1.20	0.77
Thailand		0.83	1.23		1.62	1.48
Philippines		1.23	2.23		0.88	2.34
Indonesia		1.55	1.57		2.13	1.42

Source: Figures in the 1999* column are from Zhang and van Witteloostuijn.

“Economic Openness.”

The others are the author’s calculation based on the data from UNCTAD.

Table 3. The impact of geographical distance on China’s trade intensity

	exTI		imTI
Year	Coefficient	t-value	Coefficient	t-value
1999	−0.45	−5.37	−0.80	−5.41
2010	−0.28	−3.54	−0.45	−3.64
2017	−0.28	−3.99	−0.46	−3.85

Source: The author’s calculation

Table 4. Asian countries and region’s trade and economic dependence on China

	South Korea		Taiwan		Philippines		Indonesia		Vietnam		Thailand		Malaysia		Singapore
Year	Dic	Wic	Dic	Wic	Dic	Wic	Dic	Wic	Dic	Wic	Dic	Wic	Dic	Wic	Dic	Wic
1995	6%	3%	2%	1%	2%	1%	4%	2%	4%	3%	3%	2%	2%	4%	3%	8%
2000	9%	5%	4%	3%	2%	2%	6%	4%	10%	9%	5%	5%	3%	7%	5%	13%
2005	18%	11%	16%	16%	8%	7%	9%	5%	13%	16%	9%	11%	9%	16%	10%	33%
2010	21%	16%	21%	25%	10%	5%	12%	5%	18%	24%	12%	13%	13%	18%	11%	30%
2015	24%	16%	23%	22%	14%	6%	16%	5%	20%	34%	16%	16%	16%	20%	14%	31%
2018	24%	16%	24%	24%	17%	9%	20%	7%	23%	45%	16%	16%	17%	22%	13%	28%
China has been the country’s largest trade partner since:
	2004		2005		2016		2012		2004		2013		2009		2009

Source: The author’s calculation based on the data from UNCTAD.

Table 5. The shares of Asian countries and region in China’s total trade value

Year	South Korea	Taiwan	Philippines	Indonesia	Vietnam	Thailand	Malaysia	Singapore
1995	6.2%	6.5%	0.5%	1.3%	0.4%	1.2%	1.2%	2.5%
2000	7.3%	6.4%	0.7%	1.6%	0.5%	1.4%	1.7%	2.3%
2005	7.9%	6.4%	1.2%	1.2%	0.6%	1.5%	2.2%	2.3%
2010	7.0%	4.9%	0.9%	1.4%	1.0%	1.8%	2.5%	1.9%
2015	7.0%	4.8%	1.2%	1.4%	2.4%	1.9%	2.5%	2.0%
2018	7.1%	5.3%	1.2%	1.7%	3.3%	2.0%	2.5%	1.9%

Source: The author’s calculation based on the data from UNCTAD.

Table 6. The share of primary goods (SITC 0–4) in China’s total imports

Year	Japan	South Korea	Taiwan	Philippines	Indonesia	Vietnam	Thailand	Malaysia	Singapore
1995	3%	9%	4%	72%	55%	96%	65%	56%	39%
2000	3%	12%	3%	11%	55%	93%	29%	24%	18%
2005	4%	6%	2%	3%	53%	80%	20%	14%	14%
2010	4%	7%	1%	11%	75%	47%	20%	23%	20%
2015	4%	5%	1%	19%	68%	14%	24%	20%	13%
2018	4%	5%	1%	16%	64%	7%	22%	24%	13%

Source: The author’s calculation based on the data from UN Comtrade.

Table 7. Ratio of overlaps with China in the trade structure

	Japan	South Korea	Taiwan*	Philippines	Indonesia	Vietnam	Thailand	Malaysia	Singapore
Overlaps in Export Shares
2000	25%	27%	31%	25%	33%	25%	35%	27%	25%
HS85	11%	10%	10%	7%	9%	3%	12%	13%	12%
2018	29%	32%	31%	31%	20%	41%	35%	28%	24%
HS85	11%	12%	11%	12%	4%	20%	12%	13%	11%
Overlaps in Export Value
2000	17%	37%	46%	56%	52%	68%	64%	50%	39%
2018	54%	69%	79%	83%	41%	79%	68%	67%	65%

* Data on “other Asia, nes” in UN Comtrade is regarded as Taiwan’s trade data. Trade values reported in the Republic of China’s National Statistics website are almost the same with “other Asia, nes” in UN Comtrade. The difference is in the range of 1 to 3%.

Source: Calculated by the author based on the data from UN Comtrade.