Decoupling Theory

What? Decoupling Theory? Where is this coming from? I've never heard about it before.
So I'm confused when I read the news on Utusan today (Utusan is my primary source of news) that Malaysia is putting its money on this theory.

It's OK to believe on this theory, especially the one that boost the ego of Asian countries. But for what? I don't know much economics, but I know that since David Ricardo's era, we're becoming more and more interdependent. Especially in today's world where we can't ignore what is happening to economic powerhouses (U.S, Japan, Europe, China).

You can convince me that if Cuba or Zimbabwe screwed up their economy, there will be nothing happen in Asia. Or, - Latin America. It won't affect much, and therefore, we're "decoupled" from them.

But if our economic partners are relying heavily on the economic powerhouse i.e US, how can we decouple ourselves from them? Easy example - Singapore. Singapore has been hard hit and have taken measure to prevent recession. Singapore is one of our biggest trading partners. Therefore, can I say I've decoupled myself from the U.S?

The answer is no.

So this "Decoupling Theory" is new, and unproven. In fact, it's an old economics. You can say that China try to "decouple" itself from the world and stay relatively poor until one smart guy called Deng Xiaoping came and open up China.

Our economy are now interdependence. We're relying on specialization to earn comparative advantage.

This is Economics 101.