Facilitating the Market with a Gift

The Politics of the Ecfa between China and Taiwan (2008–2016)

Bibliographic Data

ID12349681
AuthorsLi-Chia Lo (0000-0001-5731-7971, The University of Melbourne, corresponding author)
Year2022
Volume47
Issue3
Pages536-553
Publication date2022-07-20
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueAsian Studies Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1035-7823 • E-ISSN: 1467-8403
PublisherRoutledge (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/10357823.2022.2095981
OpenAlexW4286009723
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited29

Guanxi is the Chinese manifestation of a universal phenomenon – the relationship between gift-givers and gift-takers – extended to include its antagonistic but symbiotic relationship with the state. As China’s market has been increasingly integrated into the global economic system, guanxi has been adapted, so that similar practices can now be seen in areas such as international business and trade, and industrial relations. In this article, I investigate how guanxi has played a part in the 2010 Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) between China and Taiwan. Even though the ECFA has served more as an ongoing framework for negotiations than a final agreement, it was highly controversial in Taiwan right from the opening of negotiations in 2008. Taiwan’s reactions to the ECFA reflect how the Chinese government leveraged a guanxi strategy to facilitate the talks. This guanxi strategy shows that the ECFA not only represents economic cooperation, but also works to promote political integration. News reports and official documents in Taiwan highlighted two different reactions to the ECFA there. While one strand approved of the framework and accepted the implied obligations, the other, especially within civil society, saw guanxi as an external threat that needed to be counterbalanced

Business · China · Economics · Framework agreement · Government (linguistics · Guanxi · International trade · Negotiation · Political science · Politics · China's Socioeconomic Reforms and Governance · Global trade and economics · Hong Kong and Taiwan Politics · Law

Tools

Open DOI