J.P. Morgan Private Bank Global Market Strategist: China Has Reached or Is Close to the Cutting Edge of the Value Chain

　　Chen Weiheng stated that overall, Asian supply chains are becoming more diversified and refined. Particularly as China continues to climb the value chain, the proportion of high-end manufactured goods it produces has increased significantly.

　　The negotiations for version 3.0 of the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area have been fully completed. This marks the first time a comprehensive cooperation framework covering both the "hard connectivity" of digital infrastructure and the "soft connectivity" of rules and standards has been systematically established, achieving an upgrade in rules.

　　At the recently held 16th FutureChina Global Forum 2025 (FCGF), participants unanimously agreed that the world will not return to a multilateral world order in the traditional sense, but will instead evolve into a new order driven by mutual respect and the diversification of trade relations.

　　In an exclusive interview with a Yicai reporter, Chen Weiheng, Global Market Strategist at J.P. Morgan Private Bank, stated that overall, Asian supply chains are becoming more diversified and refined. Particularly as China continues to climb the value chain, the proportion of high-end manufactured goods it produces has increased significantly. China is also actively expanding its presence in cutting-edge fields such as semiconductors, biomedicine, and renewable energy.

　　"In fact, China has reached or is close to the cutting edge of the value chain. However, the situation within Southeast Asia is more complex," he explained. ASEAN countries differ in their industrial expertise and development levels: some economies are more mature, such as Malaysia's semiconductor and data center industries, while others still rely primarily on primary industries, such as Indonesia's nickel mining and processing. Clearly, within Asia, there are significant differences in the stages of value chain development among countries.