Wu has written a superb book that deserves the attention of historians, sociologists, political scientists, and scholars from other disciplines interested in the nuances and paradoxes of China’s post-Mao opening, its global effects, and cross-strait relations.

Anyone wishing to go beyond simplistic formulae summarizing the narrative of China’s so-called economic miracle will have to read this detailed, nuanced, yet overarching research.

Wu Jieh-min opens a new door by studying the experience of Taiwanese businesspeople (‘Taishang’) who played a critical role in the early stages of China’s reforms.

Rival Partners is a major contribution to the study of Chinese development and global capitalism. Weaving together rich materials on Taiwanese manufacturers, local Chinese officials, and migrant labor, Wu details how China’s export manufacturing model thrived and unraveled, leading to today’s crisis and transformation. It is a meticulous study of the rent-seeking and developmental dual characters of the Chinese state.

Based on decades of theoretically informed and expertly crafted empirical research, this book is an intellectual feast connecting shop-floor realities and local citizenship regimes to cross-strait relations and global political economy. A rare and singularly insightful Taiwan perspective on China’s rise.

Wu has written a magnificent monograph on the collaborative construction of development between two seemingly rivaling actors: Guangdong officials and Taiwanese entrepreneurs. It points to the significance of invisible coalitions in developmental theory.

Rival Partners explores export-oriented industrialization in China as a chapter of the post-war capitalist development of Taiwan. With its sharp research question and original argument combined with solid fieldwork, meticulous analysis, and comprehensive theoretical dialogue, Rival Partners is a milestone in our understanding of China as the world factory since the 1980s.