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Rebirth

  • To Get Rich is Glorious
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The Tiananmen debacle resulted in a brief spell of conservatism, but within a few years, Deng Xiaoping choreographed the rebirth of reform and openness with his historic “southern tour.” With Deng’s assurance that “to get rich is glorious,” entrepreneurial energy exploded again, concentrated now in the coastal cities. The leadership, guided by economic czar Zhu Rongji, enacted a far-reaching structural transformation of the economic sphere, anchored in privatization of state-owned enterprises. Ironically, China’s lack of full reform—especially in the financial sector and monetary policy—protected the Chinese economy from the vicissitudes of hot money and capital flight that ravaged its neighbors during the East Asian financial crisis.

New Links, New Dilemmas

Period: Rebirth (1990s) | Structural Transformation of the Economic Sphere

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Videosinthisperiod

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  • Zhu Rongji Was an Extraordinary Figure

    Charlene Barshefsky

  • State Owned Enterprise Reform Had to Be Done

    Yao Yang

  • From Enterprises to Companies

    Edward Tse

  • The Corporatization and Privatization of SOEs

    Cui Zhiyuan

  • Hong Kong IPOs

    Francis Leung

  • The Multinational Corporations Were China's Teachers

    Edward Tse

  • New Links, New Dilemmas

    Bi-khim Hsiao

  • The Entrepreneurial Experience

    Emmanuel Ojukwu

  • The People Need Freedom

    Frank Hawke

  • Deng Accepted That There Were Limits to His Expertise

    Barry Naughton

  • Changing China's Market Framework

    Hu Shuli
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Meettheexpert

Bi-khim Hsiao

Congresswoman, Taiwan

Bi-khim Hsiao, a member of Taiwan 's Legislative Yuan, was born in Kobe, Japan and grew up in Tainan, a city in southern Taiwan. She received an MA in Political Science from Columbia University, and a BA in East Asian Studies from Oberlin College before becoming active in Taiwanese politics over a decade ago.

Hsiao, who was involved in President Chen Shui-bian's 2000 and 2004 presidential campaigns as a spokesperson and international affairs director, became an advisor to President Chen in 2000 and was first elected to the legislature in December 2001.

As a member of the Foreign Relations Committee since her tenure in the 5th Legislature, Hsiao has been regarded as a strong and respected diplomat by her colleagues in the Legislative Yuan and by the foreign diplomatic community. Hsiao has placed great emphasis on human and civil rights issues including gender equality, immigrant rights, privacy rights, and gay rights.

In 2006, she was selected by Asia Society to join the Asia 21 Young Leaders Initiative.
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Well Taiwan's opening up to China in the late 80s coincided with a period of also Chinese opening up and a policy of engaging with the rest of the world economically. So the Taiwanese business people who went into China early on were certainly in a position and a competative advantage or a comparative advantage, in a sense that they spoke the language, a common language, and they had a slightly better understanding of the Chinese culture than perhaps other western competitors or businesses wanting to go into China. So in a short just few short of opening up, Taiwanese eventually grew to become one of the largest foreign investors in China.

The economic relationship has certainly enhanced the mutual understanding but at the same time the irony is that the Taiwanese identity has also strengthened during that period. So, economic interaction across the Strait, you know there are more people in Taiwan who are advocating that it is possible to maintain a political position, that it is possible not to compromise politically for the sake of economic engagement with China. And this is something that a policy decision that many countries around the world have to make. When they want to do investments in China and they want to do business with the Chinese. Do they have to concede on certain political positions? Do they have to silence themselves on human rights questions? I don't think that's necessarily the case. And the Taiwanese need to become much more skillful at positioning ourselves as well.

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Cite this Source >>
“New Links, New Dilemmas | Bi-khim Hsiao | Rebirth | The China Boom Project.”
The China Boom Project.
The Asia Society Center on US-China Relations.
1 June 2010.
Web.
09 May 2025.
<https://chinaboom.asiasociety.org/period/rebirth/24/240>.
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