Taiwan has been studied by economists for its continuous double-digit economic growth over two decades and for its ability to become a high-technology export-oriented economy. Political scientists have studied the island's smooth transition from authoritarian regime to democracy. More recently, scholars (such as those Suzanne Berger and R. Lester's edited volume Global Taiwan [M.E. Sharpe, 2005]) have examined how Taiwan firms have responded to the opportunities and threats brought about by globalization and notably by the proximity of mainland China. Though highly integrated with the mainland economy, Taiwan remains an industrial powerhouse. In her book, Françoise Mengin, a political scientist, focuses on the growing interactions between the two Chinas looking at how Taiwanese entrepreneurs, Taishang, have moved across the Strait.
Mengin starts with a paradox: though the authorization of Taiwanese investments on the mainland and the establishment of direct relationships came very late, respectively in 2001 and 2008, this did not prevent a massive flow of capital, goods and individuals from the island to the continent. Taishang could then be considered as good examples of the non-state actors of a “post-nations” world order, able to circumvent national regulations and state borders. They could be viewed as transnational actors contributing to the erosion of states sovereignty. Mengin's intention is to refute that perspective.
As a political scientist interested in the international political economy, Mengin conducts an empirical analysis of the Taishang phenomenon. Using the economic connections between Taiwan and China, she draws conclusions for a sociology of the Taiwan state and for a macro-theory of the international system. She underlines the importance of the historical context in the building of the Taiwanese state: an unfinished civil war (on the island) and an unfinished revolution (on the mainland). She shows that Taishang have not challenged the nation-states system, but have, on the contrary, instrumentalized or made use of national regulations and state borders to maximize their profits.
Mengin focuses on the social dynamics behind the sovereignty dispute and looks at the practical arrangements of Taiwanese entrepreneurs on both sides of the Strait. Her perspective pays great attention to history and the book chapters follow a chronological order. Taiwanese entrepreneurs’ strategies on the mainland are explained by the specific conditions of economic development: the division of the business sectors between large enterprises protected by the state and relying mainly on the national market on one side, and small- and medium-sized enterprises exposed to a high degree of competition and connected to the global economy on the other. Mengin puts also entrepreneurs into the larger context of the political history of the Republic of China in Taiwan, for instance underlining that the KMT functioned on the island as a colonial regime in the 1950s and 1960s, and later analysing the shift to more liberal economic policies in the 1980s. In the last chapters, Mengin analyses how cross-Strait relationships have been de-politicized, being regarded as only technical issues whereas they are in fact highly political since they are related to state sovereignty. Here, she looks at the views expressed by the various actors involved, such as entrepreneurs, associations of businessmen, politicians or experts.
The book synthesizes a large academic literature that has been published on related issues and notably on Taiwan entrepreneurs by historians, sociologists and political scientists (Thomas Gold, Lang Tse-Kang, Ngo Tak-Wing and myself, to name a few). Mengin also relies heavily, mostly in the later chapters, on the Taiwan press. She has also conducted a large number of interviews (whose methodology should have been more clearly introduced) in Taiwan and in China with economic and political actors.
Some arguments can be challenged. Mengin, for instance, considers that Taiwanese businessmen relocating their factories to the mainland have, in so doing, reproduced a mode of production that had been forged on the island such as a paternalistic control of the labour force, and a clientelist type of relationship with local administrations and politicians. We assume that in the Chinese environment, it was more an adaptation – that included innovations – than a mere reproduction of a mode of production that was outdated on the island. Another issue that should have been addressed more thoroughly is the diversity of the Taishang; this diversity – depending on the scale of their enterprises, the different types of their activities (industries or service), or their location on the mainland – challenges the possibility of considering them as a whole.
Despite these criticisms, this well-documented and lengthy book will be useful not only to Taiwan specialists but also to all political scientists reflecting on non-state actors in international relations.
