The term of “Taishang” (台商) literally means “Taiwanese businesspeople” or “Taiwanese merchant”. But it is only used to refer to the Taiwanese business (merchant) outside Taiwan. The term has become popular after 2000 when Taiwanese overseas investment in China and Southeast Asia became evidently visible and even politically sensitive, though such transnational capital had already emerged in the early 1990s. In more than two decades, Taiwanese foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows have been rapidly increasing, especially in China and Southeast Asia.
By September 2014, Taishang has already invested more than US$ 2303.4 billion overseas within which China enjoyed the lion’s share of 61.37% with the total of US$ 1413.53 billion investments, just for the period of 1991-2014. Southeast Asia also accounted for as high as 36.31% with US$ 836.32 billion in total, between 1952 and 2014. The remaining 2.32% of Taiwan’s transnational investment or US$ 53.55 billion has gone to the rest of the world market in the whole post-war era (Investment Commission, Ministry of Economic Affairs 2014; Department of Investment Services, Ministry of Economic Affairs 2014).
As for the total number of companies, there is no accurate government statistics, only the cases of approved investment cases are available. From the approved cases, one can estimate how many Taishang companies might be. In China now, it is estimated that about 50,000 Taiwanese companies actually do business there under the supervision of about 400,000 Taishang owners and their company managers (Taigan), while in Southeast Asia, at least another 10,000 Taishang companies managed by more than 250,000 Taishang and Taigan in there.
The sociological uniqueness about Taishang that can differentiate them from other ordinary transnational businesspeople lies in the fact they have to practice and do their business activities pretty much on their own without Taiwanese state’s official and diplomatic protection, due to Taiwan’s very special international position. Taiwan has no formal diplomatic relations in all countries in Southeast Asia, while the political situations between Taiwan and China has always been tense and conflictual. Not like any other country’s direct foreign investment, Taishang has to run its business without direct political and diplomatic protection from the Taiwanese government. Taishang is more or less like Taiwan’s transnational capital expansion without the government’s back up.