Is China Competing with Korea? Technology Content and Sophistication of the China-Korea Trade

Based on the classification of technology content, and the method of calculating the sophistication of export initiated by Kwan, Chi Hung(2002) and Lall, etc(2005), this paper investigates the structural change of the trade relationship between China and Korea. We will show that the industrial competition between China and Korea is not as severe as it looks, the technology content of Korea’s product is higher than China’s, and Korea has much higher sophistication of export than China.