The Straits Times
April 18, 2018
China had on Feb 28, 2018, unveiled a package of 31 incentives to attract Taiwanese people and businesses to the mainland.PHOTO: REUTERS
TAIPEI (WASHINGTON POST) – After studying fashion management in London, 33-year-old Gaga Liu considered her choices: a move back home to her native Taiwan, or a job in the glitzy city of Shanghai on the Chinese mainland.
“Shanghai is a very fashionable city, a big market. Every brand wants to set up a flagship store there,” she said. “Taiwan is a very small market.”
It was no contest. Three months ago, like many of Taiwan’s young people, she moved to mainland China to work as a visual merchandiser for Hermès.
She is one of hundreds of thousands of Taiwanese flooding to their booming neighbour to find work, fuelling fears of a brain drain from their island home.
And it is a brain drain that China appears to be gleefully exploiting. [FULL STORY]
