Relocation from China (with Chinese Characteristics)

Abstract

The share of Chinese goods in US imports has fallen sharply since 2018, as production for the US market has shifted from China to other countries. Does this trend represent US-China ‘decoupling’, or are other US trade partners playing growing roles as intermediaries in ongoing US-China economic relations? Using firm-level and product-level data, we find that Chinese manufacturing investment and Chinese-produced parts have increasingly flowed to third-country ‘winners’ who have simultaneously increased their US market share. We present evidence that our findings capture expanding indirect relationships linking China and the US rather than broader economic trends within the ‘winners’ themselves.