Guanie Lim
Associate Professor, National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies, JapanArticles by Guanie Lim
Economy
The West’s industrial policy double standard
For decades, industrial policy was discouraged in developing economies, even as China’s state-led model reshaped global supply chains. Now, with the US and Europe embracing massive interventions, the old orthodoxy looks less like principle than self-interest. Academic Guanie Lim examines how the discourse on industrial policy has shifted.
Guanie Lim
27 Apr 2026
Economy
China’s investment surge is forcing Southeast Asia to rethink industrial policy
Looking at Chinese investment in Southeast Asia, Soon Cheong Poon and Guanie Lim find that the impact of investment depends on how it is governed. Southeast Asian governments can and have pushed back against negative spillovers. But it remains to be seen if they can band together regionally to handle the next waves of investment.
Soon Cheong Poon, Guanie Lim
24 Feb 2026
Economy
The China model with different outcomes: Lessons from Kazakhstan and Thailand
Despite ambitious plans, deep pockets and expanding ties with China, neither Kazakhstan nor Thailand has achieved sustained structural transformation. Academic Guanie Lim analyses what went wrong.
Guanie Lim
29 Dec 2025
Economy
South Korea rewrites the rules of economic security — with new alliances
Speaking with policymakers and analysts in Seoul, academic Guanie Lim assesses that concerns once treated as discrete — national security and economic resilience — are now being considered jointly in South Korea. A greater effort is also being made to engage new and smaller friends.
Guanie Lim
18 Sep 2025
Economy
Vietnam amid great power rivalry: Is it playing the economic game well enough?
Vietnam’s uneven industrialisation experience reveals the limits of a pro-international trade and pro-FDI strategy, says academic Guanie Lim. To move beyond the role of assembler and connector, it could adopt some of China’s approaches.
Guanie Lim
12 Jun 2025
Economy
US tariffs: Punishing the least developed economies in Southeast Asia?
US tariffs target Southeast Asian supply chains, hitting Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam the hardest. While Chinese FDI is prominent in Cambodia and Myanmar, traditional investors still dominate more developed SEA economies. Academic Guanie Lim says ASEAN must prioritise multilateralism amid trade tensions and respond with strategic coherence.
Guanie Lim
14 Apr 2025
Economy
Chinese investment in Southeast Asia: Threat to Japan, South Korea and Taiwan?
Academics Guanie Lim and Chengwei Xu compare Chinese foreign direct investment (FDI) in Southeast Asia with that from Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. They find that China’s FDI, concentrated in tertiary industries along with construction and real estate, may complement rather than challenge the economic positions of its Northeast Asian neighbours.
Guanie Lim, Chengwei Xu
10 Sep 2024
Economy
Chinese investment and diversion of investment from China: Opportunities abound for Vietnam
While some Vietnamese are wary of Chinese investments, others see it as a good opportunity for their companies, especially SMEs to upgrade and upskill. With new opportunities afforded by investments from countries looking to diversify their supply chains from China, SMEs should be given a boost by the Vietnamese government in order for Vietnam to make the most out of the influx of capital.
Guanie Lim
08 Mar 2023
Economy
Japan and China: Growing economic interdependence amid decoupling talks
Academics Guanie Lim and Chengwei Xu examine the close interdependence of Japanese and Chinese firms through the case study of Toyota. Amid the talk of geopolitical tensions accelerating the risk of decoupling, some hard facts may put things into perspective.
Guanie Lim, Chengwei Xu
22 Dec 2022
Economy
Can Chinese capital and technologies jumpstart economic development in Borneo?
Malaysian academics Goh Chun Sheng and Guanie Lim observe China's strong presence in the upstream and downstream sectors of developing Nusantara, the envisaged new capital of Indonesia in East Kalimantan on the island of Borneo, allowing for potential cooperation between China, Indonesia and Malaysia. Could this be the start of greater China-led cross-border collaborations in the region?
Goh Chun Sheng, Guanie Lim
04 Aug 2022
Economy
In Indonesia, Chinese financing for coal-fired power plants grows faster than that for renewables
On the one hand, China's potential in helping Indonesia make the clean energy transition has been spoken about, but on the other, China continues to be a big player in perpetuating non-renewable energy use such as in coal-fired power plants. Looking ahead, can they be a larger contributor in Indonesia's efforts to derive 23% of Indonesia's primary energy needs from renewable sources by 2025? Malaysian academics Guanie Lim and Goh Chun Seng tell us more.
Guanie Lim, Goh Chun Sheng
04 Jul 2022