The trade diplomacy of east Asia has become so blindingly complex that even the metaphors are getting muddled. The subtitle of one academic paper on free trade agreements (FTAs) suggests using “spaghetti bowls as building blocs”. Another describes a “a patchwork of bilateral hub-and-spoke FTAs in a noodle bowl.”

These curious attempts to express the new world of Asian trade reflect the confusion surrounding rapidly proliferating regional trade deals and bilateral agreements. Attempts to illustrate this new trade architecture graphically are just as clumsy as the verbal analogies, variously resembling modern art, an electrical circuit board or, yes, a noodle bowl.