Tiger Leading the Dragon: How Taiwan Propelled China's Economic Rise

Taiwan's influence on China's manufacturing industry began in the late 1970s, when Deng Xiaoping lifted Mao's prohibitions on business, allowing investors from Taiwan to collaborate with local officials in the PRC to transform mainland China into a manufacturing powerhouse. Taiwanese firms seized the opportunity to lower production costs by moving to the PRC in the late 1980s, opening space for a wave of new business creation in information technology.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 236 pages
Publication date: 01 June 2021
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

The once-secretive, isolated Peoples Republic of China has become the factory to the world, thanks to Taiwan's influence. Shelley Rigger convincingly demonstrates that Taiwan's influence has evolved from the period when Deng Xiaoping lifted Mao's prohibitions on business in the late 1970s, allowing investors from Taiwan to collaborate with local officials in the PRC to transform mainland China into a manufacturing powerhouse. After World War II, Taiwan's fleet-footed export-oriented manufacturing firms became essential links in global supply chains. In the late 1980s, Taiwanese firms seized the opportunity to lower production costs by moving to the PRC, which was seeking foreign investment to fuel its industrial rise. Within a few years, Taiwan's traditional manufacturing had largely relocated to the PRC, opening space for a wave of new business creation in information technology.

The Tiger Leading the Dragon traces the development of the cross-Taiwan Strait economic relationship and explores how Taiwanese firms and individuals transformed Chinese business practices. It also reveals their contributions to Chinese consumer behavior, philanthropy, religion, popular culture, and law.

Weight: 364g
Dimension: 152 x 227 x 18 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781442219595