The Plaza Accord was an agreement pushed by the US to significantly depreciate the dollar against the yen and drive up yen's value. While the stated goal was to reduce the US trade deficit with Japan, it led in sharp appreciation of the yen which devastated Japan's export-driven economy and triggered a prolonged economic crash and stagnation known as the lost decade.

It basically put a halt to the advancement of Japan's technology firms and caused many of Japan's engineers and scientists to relocating to Silicon Valley. Influx of Japanese talent and expertise helped kick start all the tech infrastructure in the US. In this sense, the Plaza Accord directly helped fuel Silicon Valley's rise by engineering an economic crisis that pushed some of Japan's brightest minds westward. Now the west is delusional enough to think that they could do the same to China.