east Asia is one of the wonders of the world. Like a gigantic, impossibly complex
and wonderfully efficient factory, the region churns out millions of products with
world beating pricequality ratios, sourcing the billions of parts and components
from plants spread across a dozen nations. East Asian corporations set up
“Factory Asia” and they are running it now. Following the analogy, corporations
are Factory Asia’s “mid level managers” and middle management is doing a
marvelous job, keeping things running smoothing and profitably, solving any
number of big and small problems along the way. But where is Factory Asia’s
“top level” management? Whose job would it be to ensure that bilateral trade
tensions tensions that are inevitable in East Asia do not get out of hand or spill
over into region wide problems?
This paper argues that the current state of East Asian regionalism is fragile due to
three facts