The Taiwan-China Connection: Democracy and Development Across the Taiwan Straits
This illuminating study of the Taiwan-China relationship advances a number of intriguing and closely related propositions. First, there has been rapid growth since 1987 in Taiwanese trade and investment in the PRC. Second, although the Taiwanese state, led by the Kuomintang, has tried hard to cool down the "mainland fever" in the Taiwanese business community, the fact is that Taiwan's economic development is more and more dependent on the China market. Third, because of the shifting balance of power between state and society -- including an increasingly powerful business community and middle class -- the Taiwanese state has been only partially successful in curbing and regulating this trade and investment. Finally, all this combines to give the PRC better leverage to manipulate Taiwan's economy for political ends.
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