Technology Diffusion And Power Transition: The Case Of The Semiconductor Industry In East Asia

The semiconductor industry is an excellent illustration of the interaction 
between technology diffusion and power transition. Since the 1960s, there have been 
three large waves of technology transfer as well as industry transfer in East Asian 
countries’ semiconductor industry, where the production network acted as an essential 
nexus. International technology diffusion, whose channels consist of international trade 
and foreign direct investment, plays a primary role in the formation of the 
semiconductor production network in East Asia, which has a profound influence on 
shaping the international power structure. However, the reshaping power structure 
always attracts the technology exporter’s attention and provokes power competition 
between the dominant state and the rising power, which in turn casts negative 
influences on international technology diffusion. Nowadays, the third wave of 
technology transfer in this field has been ongoing for decades between first-movers and 
China, while the power competition and the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the 
process, which will greatly influence the power distribution in the field of the 
semiconductor industry and the international power structure