Taiwanese investment in China vis-a-vis the Chinese investment in Taiwan

Thursday, April 12, 2018
4:00 PM - 5:30 PM
(Pacific)

Reuben Hills Conference Room
2nd Floor East Wing E207
Encina Hall
616 Serra Street
Stanford, California 94305

Speaker: 
  • Chun-Yi Lee

Cross-Strait economic activities are no longer one-dimensional. Since the Republic of China (ROC) government opened up Taiwan’s doors to Chinese investment in 2009, no systematic research has been carried out to examine the positive and negative consequences of Chinese investment in Taiwan.

The aim, therefore, of this talk is to address the crucial, yet unexplored, comparison: What are the similarities and differences between Taiwanese investment in China and Chinese investment in Taiwan. Taiwanese businesses started to invest in China since late 80s, most of Taiwanese businesses went to China at the time were SMEs, they depended on mainly the rapport (guanxi) with local officials to obtain their economic interests. Nevertheless, since 2009 the Chinese investment in Taiwan seems to adopt a different route. They are not as many as the Taiwanese business in China, and most of Chinese investors in Taiwan are highly monitored by the Taiwanese government.

This talk will start by introducing briefly the historical background of cross-Strait bilateral investment, during the process it will tease out thematic discussion including identity, more specifically Taiwanese businessmen’s identity in China; state and society relationship, more specifically on government and business relationship; and how political dynamics changes affected the economic activities and vice versa, more specifically on the case of ECFA and Sun Flower movement.


[[{"fid":"230230","view_mode":"crop_870xauto","fields":{"format":"crop_870xauto","field_file_image_description[und][0][value]":"","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":false,"field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":false,"field_credit[und][0][value]":"","field_caption[und][0][value]":"","thumbnails":"crop_870xauto","alt":"","title":""},"type":"media","field_deltas":{"2":{"format":"crop_870xauto","field_file_image_description[und][0][value]":"","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":false,"field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":false,"field_credit[und][0][value]":"","field_caption[und][0][value]":"","thumbnails":"crop_870xauto","alt":"","title":""}},"link_text":null,"attributes":{"style":"margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 15px; padding: 0px; float: left; height: 150px; width: 120px;","class":"media-element file-crop-870xauto","data-delta":"2"}}]]Chun-Yi Lee is an Assistant Professor at the school of Politics and International Relations (SPIR) at University of Nottingham. Her last research project is: 'Chinese Investment in Taiwan: Opportunities or Challenges to Taiwan's Industrial Development?' She is also the director of Taiwan Studies Program at University of Nottingham.