The U.S.-China trade war has reignited the debate over which developing countries in Asia could take over the mantle of the world's workshop. The front-runners? India and Indonesia.
A report published Tuesday by Bloomberg Economics shows that no one nation is able to reproduce the kind of success China enjoyed in transforming its economy. Instead, a series of so-called mini-Chinas are set to develop, with each trying to leverage advantages but hampered by structural problems such as inadequate infrastructure or political instability.
China's intricate networks of factories, suppliers, logistics services and transportation infrastructure grew up in a different era, underpinned by money and technology from Japan, Taiwan and Hong Kong at a time of scant regard for the environment, workers' rights or the few government regulations that were enforced. It had a vast, cheap, literate workforce and gained almost unfettered access to global markets for three decades.