Global supply chains are ever evolving, but the current juncture appears to be potentially seismic. China has been, for over a decade, pushing out low value-added manufacturing to the economies of South and South-East Asia, although many components of those processes still reside in mainland China. US and a few allies have been pushing, largely in the name of national security, for removing some of their reliance on the Chinese supply chain, especially at the top end of the value-added spectrum. Meanwhile, robotics and automation are changing the need for cheap labour to produce many goods. Finally, the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic has revealed both the complexity and the fragility of global supply chains. NUS Professor Alexander Capri, with decades of experience both in academia and the private sector on global value chains and international trade, provides us with an engaging narrative of the economics, business reality, and geopolitics of this compelling topic.

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