The Role of China, Japan, and Korea in Machinery Production Networks

China, Japan, and Korea have been the three largest players in East Asian machinery production networks. This paper employs a new method of analyzing finely disaggregated international trade data that applies the concept of zero trade flows, least-traded goods, and intensive/extensive margins of trade growth and scrutinizes changes in the role of China, Japan, and Korea in machinery production networks between 2007 and 2013. We find, first, that China became a dominant player in the global machinery production networks in terms of both export values and the diversity and density of product-destination pairs. Second, the growth of Korea as machinery parts and components suppliers was also salient while Korea's dependency on China was sharply enhanced. Third, Japan kept being stagnated, and the machinery production links between Korea and Japan were substantially weakened.