新闻 | News Why ‘China plus one’ is paying off less than Southeast Asia hoped
https://fortune.com/2026/10/05/southeast-asia-china-plus-one-manufacturing/?utm_source=reddit/“China plus one” has been a winning strategy for Southeast Asia. The proposition was simple: Draw in global manufacturers pivoting away from China owing to rising costs and geopolitical tensions, and win stronger growth, higher wages, and more jobs for local economies.
Yet despite winning billions of dollars of investment in new factories, the region is reaping fewer benefits than its leaders may have hoped.
“China plus one has been a net gain for Southeast Asia, but a conditional and uneven one,” says Meng-Chun Liu, the director of the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER), a Taiwan-based think tank. “It brought factories, exports, and jobs to the region, but not the design, core components, and process know-how that captures most of the value.”
Vietnam, the star economy of Southeast Asia, focuses primarily on final assembly before export to developed markets, rather than manufacturing intermediate components. To make matters worse, companies like Target—frustrated by an underdeveloped Southeast Asian factory ecosystem—are moving supply chains back to China.
And now Southeast Asia faces a bigger challenge: As Chinese firms increasingly view Southeast Asia as a region of consumers, not workers, a flood of cheap exports could end up undercutting the region’s manufacturing gains.
Read more [paywall removed for Redditors]: https://fortune.com/2026/10/05/southeast-asia-china-plus-one-manufacturing/?utm_source=reddit/
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u/HerroCorumbia 9h ago
China plus one has been a net gain for Southeast Asia, but a conditional and uneven one
So... it's good, BUT AT WHAT COST????
director of the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER), a Taiwan-based think tank
Ah there it is.
To make matters worse, companies like Target—frustrated by an underdeveloped Southeast Asian factory ecosystem—are moving supply chains back to China.
Sounds like this isn't China's fault, though the article really wants it to be.
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u/Dear_Chasey_La1n 7h ago
Might as well just be target and why they truly move, who knows. Is it the lack of supply chain or does China suddenly offer more (tax breaks).
Reality is, as someone in China all I hear everyone talk around me is how production is offshoring. That doesn't mean per se not Chinese, Chinese factories are doing the same. Labour intensive production in China only gets more and more expensive. On top as we have seen being reliable on a single country is high risk if anything happens. That it takes time, does that surprise anyone? China's ecosphere wasn't build in a couple years, it took decades to get where they are today.
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u/AutoModerator 12h ago
NOTICE: See below for a copy of the original post by fortune in case it is edited or deleted.
“China plus one” has been a winning strategy for Southeast Asia. The proposition was simple: Draw in global manufacturers pivoting away from China owing to rising costs and geopolitical tensions, and win stronger growth, higher wages, and more jobs for local economies.
Yet despite winning billions of dollars of investment in new factories, the region is reaping fewer benefits than its leaders may have hoped.
“China plus one has been a net gain for Southeast Asia, but a conditional and uneven one,” says Meng-Chun Liu, the director of the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER), a Taiwan-based think tank. “It brought factories, exports, and jobs to the region, but not the design, core components, and process know-how that captures most of the value.”
Vietnam, the star economy of Southeast Asia, focuses primarily on final assembly before export to developed markets, rather than manufacturing intermediate components. To make matters worse, companies like Target—frustrated by an underdeveloped Southeast Asian factory ecosystem—are moving supply chains back to China.
And now Southeast Asia faces a bigger challenge: As Chinese firms increasingly view Southeast Asia as a region of consumers, not workers, a flood of cheap exports could end up undercutting the region’s manufacturing gains.
Read more [paywall removed for Redditors]: https://fortune.com/2026/10/05/southeast-asia-china-plus-one-manufacturing/?utm_source=reddit/
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u/DJ_Beardsquirt 11h ago
Vietnam is the "star economy of Southeast Asia"? Not Singapore?
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u/CreativeFig2645 5h ago
the article is talking about manufacturing and singapore is purely a financial/service economy
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u/nachtviolen819 8h ago
Better than none... Taiwanese think tank talks about China, yeah, what about Taiwan's own investment there, do they do the same, no? Same pollution and whatnots, yeah, looks at Vietnam and Indonesia.
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u/RecognitionOld2763 10h ago
Years ago they said China plus one would never work. Now they say that China plus one doesn't work as well as people want it to.
I guess progresses have been made.