It then offered a "Southward policy" to encourage business investment in Southeastern Asian countries as if they had finally found a panacea, only to find out that quite a few businesses had already made their presence there on their own. Too late again, plus no substantive plans or programs were ever promulgated.

     Aside from the undesirable high concentration of risks that could result from political and other causes, which are utterly unsafe and untenable, Taiwanese investments in China are also at the mercy of very crude and unsound legal, judicial, and governmental systems and regulations, which could all spell trouble and disaster. Where system and regulation are in place, then enforcement is often ineffective in a society where political considerations and human intervention take precedence over the rule of law.

     Why then, given such a bleak circumstance, did Taiwan's business still willingly swarm to China like no tomorrow? As pointed out earlier, tomorrow would be bleak if they did not make the move, but an interesting twist was they tried to justify and rationalize their decision by thinking that if they could handle and succeed in Taiwan's corruptive and "rule of man" environment, then they should be experienced enough to go one level up and manage another similar situation.

POLITICAL STALEMATE

     The big question I posed at the beginning" can the two sides reconcile and co-exist peacefully? Given the historical background and the realities of today, barring any miracle, I have to say in the foreseeable future the answer is an unfortunate "no." In spite of the glaring fact that this new economic relationship has afforded China so many benefits and advantages-capital inflow, employment opportunities, trade surplus, management expertise, etc.-why is it that this political stalemate is so diehard and un-resolvable? Three thoughts come to mind:

1)
     "Middle-Kingdom-Ruler's complex"-China, since the inception of its empire the Huang Emperor, has for 5,000 years regarded itself as the "Middle Kingdom" which was passed from dynasty to dynasty until today, and is still standing in the very center of our universe. Its ruler was the sacred Son of Heaven. All other nations and peoples are considered skewed to the sides outside the civilization and are barbarians.