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The later 1980s were a period of erratic growth—rapid but unstable. Tigers and sea turtles spurred development throughout the decade: East Asia’s “tiger” economies—Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, and South Korea—paved China’s way in state-led, export-intensive growth. China's “Sea turtles” were the many overseas Chinese who brought capital and knowledge acquired abroad back to their mother country. However, unresolved contradictions lurked in the new political economy of Deng’s China. Frustrations over stalled political reform—enflamed by widespread urban economic grievances over inflation and corruption—erupted in street demonstrations that paralyzed the PRC in the spring of 1989. The Tiananmen crisis would have lasting political repercussions on the cause of democracy—but also unintended economic aftereffects.

Overseas Chinese Invest Back in China

Period: Reckoning (1985-89)

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  • Overseas Chinese Invest Back in China

    David Wei

  • Foreign Educated Chinese Diaspora Returns

    Henry Tang

  • Balancing Politics with Business

    Bi-khim Hsiao

  • East Asian Competition and Taiwanese Know-how

    Yun-han Chu

  • Tiananmen Happened in an Immature Moment in History

    Chen Ping

  • Zhao Ziyang Was Like a Defensive Driver

    Barry Naughton

  • It Was Not at All Clear that the Cities Would Boom

    James Miles

  • 1989 to 1994 Was a Crucial Period for China

    Sheryl WuDunn

  • Tiananmen Was a Turning Point of Reform

    Winston Lord

  • Political Awareness and Birth of Chinese Avant-garde

    Ai Weiwei

  • Hong Kong Provided China with Capital

    Francis Leung

  • Japan Provided Support for Reform

    Akio Takahara

  • Autocracy and Economic Freedom Brought Growth

    Chen Ping

  • Expectations Are the Most Important Growth Factors

    Michael Anti

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Meettheexpert

David Wei

CEO, Alibaba.com

David Wei, born in mainland China in 1970, is the CEO of Alibaba.com, the world's largest online business-to-business trading platform. Wei was president, from 2002 to 2006, and chief financial officer from 2000 to 2002, of B&Q China, a subsidiary of Kingfisher plc, a leading home improvement retailer in Europe and Asia. Under his leadership, B&Q China grew to become China's largest home improvement retailer. From 1998 to 2000, Wei served as corporate finance manager at Coopers & Lybrand, now part of PricewaterhouseCoopers, from 1995 to 1998. Wei held non-executive directorship positions in HSBC Bank (China) Company Limited and the China Advisory Board of IMI plc, a FTSE 250 company. He holds a bachelor's degree in International Business Management from Shanghai International Studies University and is a graduate of the Corporate Finance Program at the London Business School.

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In other countries, when people get rich, they try to transfer their money out of the country as you can see from Russia. But, thousands of years of home-oriented culture is encouraging the overseas Chinese to invest back in China. It’s every Chinese's belief. So, when China started to open up in 1980s, not many westerners believed: "Your policies are really open? You are really encouraging investment? You are really protecting foreign investments?" But overseas Chinese people, they believed first. So, if we look at the initial so-called "foreign investments," they were not really foreign investment. They were overseas Chinese's investments or investment from Hong Kong, or Taiwan. That amount of capital helped China to start. Also, their successful stories proved to other western investors that the Chinese government's opening-up policy was serious and workable. Then, you see the second round of investments, more from multinational companies, true foreign direct investment.

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Cite this Source >>
“Overseas Chinese Invest Back in China | David Wei | Reckoning | 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/reckoning/0/119>.
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  • Capitalism
  • Globalization
  • The Party
  • Crisis Management
  • Inheritance (Pre-1978)
  • Emancipation (1978-1984)
  • Reckoning (1985-1989)
  • Rebirth (1990s)
  • Overdrive (2000s)
  • Prospects
  • Mao's Failure, Deng's Success
  • China Boom: Rural China in the 1980s

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