Rearticulation of Spatial Scales and Temporal Horizons of a Cross-Border Mode of Growth: the (Re-) Making of ‘Greater China’

Abstract

This chapter examines the (re)making of ‘Greater China’ (Hong Kong, Southern China, Taiwan) as a cross-border mode of growth as part of the global-regionalization processes (see Chapter 3). It first explores the emergence of this mode of growth in the context of the end of the cold war and deterritorializing processes related to economic globalization and the opening of China. In response to these changes and drawing upon their linguistic affinities and kinship ties, actors in Hong Kong, Taiwan and southern China formed translocal strategic networks that serve to coordinate compressed time production and fast time finance across borders. Between the early 1980s and 1997, these networks formed, the social bases of support for a cross-border division of labour/knowledge grounded in cheap labour and land from southern China, financial and management skills from Hong Kong, and capital and applied technology from Taiwan (see section 7.2). This cross-border mode of growth faced various crisis tendencies and coordination difficulties. In 1997, these were actualized by various regional developments that sparked off the Asian Crisis. During the early phase of the crisis, the economies in ‘Greater China’ escaped the worst and most direct impact of the crisis. As the crisis continued, however, they began to experience secondary effects.