Global Supply Chain Reallocation and Shift under Triple Crises: A U.S.-China Perspective

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Luo, Wei, Kang, Siyuan, Di, Qian
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Luo, Wei
Kang, Siyuan
Di, Qian
author_facet Luo, Wei
Kang, Siyuan
Di, Qian
contents US-China trade tensions, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the Russia-Ukraine conflict have disrupted and reshaped global supply chains. Existing studies caution that these tensions may not meaningfully reduce U.S. dependence on China-linked supply chains. This study examines the drivers of this unmet reallocation under overlapping geopolitical and public health disruptions. It investigates how these shocks jointly reconfigured bilateral trade and global value chain (GVC) participation and positioning among the U.S., China, and major trading partners during 2016-2023. Using monthly bilateral trade data across all sectors and multi-regional input-output tables for GVC decomposition, we combine a multi-period event-study with structural analysis to evaluate trade-flow disruptions and shifts in participation and functional positioning within GVCs. We find that China's exports remained robust, expanded across global markets, and sustained a rise in GVC participation, becoming more embedded in upstream segments through increased intermediate shipments to Asia and Europe. Meanwhile, U.S. imports increasingly shifted toward "China+1" partners, especially ASEAN, whose trade structures remain closely tied to Chinese upstream supply chains. These strengthening triangular relationships reveal how global reallocation and GVCs have evolved around the U.S. and China across successive shocks. Based on the evidence, we propose a supply chain resilience framework defined by three interacting dimensions: the level of GVC participation, the functional position within the value chain, and a country's capacity to re-couple in the post-shock landscape, conditioned by market diversification, economic complexity, and institutional capability. These findings carry significant implications for trade policy and industrial strategy in an era of geopolitical and geoeconomic fragmentation.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2508_06828
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Global Supply Chain Reallocation and Shift under Triple Crises: A U.S.-China Perspective
Luo, Wei
Kang, Siyuan
Di, Qian
General Economics
Economics
US-China trade tensions, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the Russia-Ukraine conflict have disrupted and reshaped global supply chains. Existing studies caution that these tensions may not meaningfully reduce U.S. dependence on China-linked supply chains. This study examines the drivers of this unmet reallocation under overlapping geopolitical and public health disruptions. It investigates how these shocks jointly reconfigured bilateral trade and global value chain (GVC) participation and positioning among the U.S., China, and major trading partners during 2016-2023. Using monthly bilateral trade data across all sectors and multi-regional input-output tables for GVC decomposition, we combine a multi-period event-study with structural analysis to evaluate trade-flow disruptions and shifts in participation and functional positioning within GVCs. We find that China's exports remained robust, expanded across global markets, and sustained a rise in GVC participation, becoming more embedded in upstream segments through increased intermediate shipments to Asia and Europe. Meanwhile, U.S. imports increasingly shifted toward "China+1" partners, especially ASEAN, whose trade structures remain closely tied to Chinese upstream supply chains. These strengthening triangular relationships reveal how global reallocation and GVCs have evolved around the U.S. and China across successive shocks. Based on the evidence, we propose a supply chain resilience framework defined by three interacting dimensions: the level of GVC participation, the functional position within the value chain, and a country's capacity to re-couple in the post-shock landscape, conditioned by market diversification, economic complexity, and institutional capability. These findings carry significant implications for trade policy and industrial strategy in an era of geopolitical and geoeconomic fragmentation.
title Global Supply Chain Reallocation and Shift under Triple Crises: A U.S.-China Perspective
topic General Economics
Economics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.06828