
I recently retired as UK senior partner of BDO after 23 years as a partner with the firm. Last year, I took up a position as visiting professor at Xiamen University, China. My wife is Chinese and I decided to spend three months exploring business opportunities in the region and trying to learn some Mandarin.
I’m blogging about my experiences in China for Real Business – catch up on my journey so far (see “related articles” on the right-hand side).Blog 68
Blog 69
Taiwan is home to many mainland Chinese, who fled to the island 60 years ago and built a thriving economy, with Western support, during the closed Communist era in PRC (which still claims Taiwan as part of the country). In Xiamen, which faces the island across a narrow strip of water, huge lettering can be seen on both sides of the Strait, visible through binoculars, with competing political slogans! In recent years, economic trade has opened up and regular flights now occur to and from the mainland. But relations between the governments in Taipei and Beijing are at a tense point, with presidential changes due shortly in both countries and some posturing on both sides of the Strait.Share this story