Sat, Jan 17, 2026 page3

• Cooperation needed for balance: expert

  ‘WEAPONIZATION’: Japan realized the coercive power of economic dependence when China in 2010 used rare earths as leverage for territorial claims, an academic said

  • By Esme Yeh / Staff reporter
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  Economic security is the ability to counter foreign coercion via economic means, an academic said yesterday, calling for cooperation among like-minded countries within the Asian region to achieve a geo-economic power balance.

  The “Asia Visions and Voices: Geopolitical Implications of Trump 2.0” international conference organized by National Tsing Hua University’s Taipei School of Economics and Political Science and the Taipei School of Economics and Political Science Foundation commenced in Taipei yesterday.

  Many international academics and experts were invited to the two-day conference to share their perspectives of the challenges facing Asian countries as tariff wars continue to reshape the global trade order.

  

  US dollar, Japanese yen and Chinese yuan banknotes are pictured in an undated photograph.

  Photo: REUTERS

  The University of Tokyo’s Graduate School of Public Policy professor Kazuto Suzuki said in his presentation political power is not only about state power, but also about whether a nation has the autonomous capability to manage its supply chains and being indispensable in the global supply chain.

  “Weaponization of interdependence or weaponization of economy is the key concept to understand the geopolitical tensions in the global landscape,” he said.

  Economic security makes sure that a nation has the capabilities to counteract the coercion from other countries via economic means, Suzuki said.

  Japan realized that economic indispensability — which creates heavy dependence on certain goods and markets — has replaced military power as a coercive tactic against other countries when China in 2010 used rare earth minerals as leverage to change Japan’s political decisions on its relationship with China, especially on territorial disputes, he said.

  Economic security avoids such economic coercion by reducing the dependence on other countries and building supply chains within a country or among like-minded countries, Suzuki said.

  China has built up its strategic indispensability in the global supply chain since the 1980s, when it sought to concentrate its production or reprocessing capabilities of critical minerals, he said.

  China is also diversifying its supply chain and export destinations to reduce its dependence on the US market, Suzuki said.

  “The US-China relationship is now the fight between the indispensability of the market and the indispensability of goods,” he said.

  The US relies so heavily on China in industries such as rare earth minerals and shipbuilding that it is conceding by allowing Nvidia Corp’s H200 chip to be exported to China, Suzuki said.

  That is one of the consequences of the fight, he said, adding that the US is more vulnerable to China while China is more autonomous.

  Suzuki called for developing Asian cooperation by building a trusted network of supply chains in the region, and suggested the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership be leveraged in this regard.

  Bigger markets in the region must be created not just to compete with the other mega markets, but also to use these markets to achieve a geopolitical balance of power, he said.
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