This book investigates how the economic integration of Taiwanese entrepreneurs into the People's Republic of China functions as a mechanism for political unification amidst the ongoing cross-strait conflict. Françoise Mengin, a senior research fellow at CERI-Sciences Po, utilizes extensive fieldwork and political analysis to examine the role of 'taishang' (Taiwanese business people) in the geopolitical tension between Taipei and Beijing. The work argues that these entrepreneurs serve as unintended agents of a unification strategy that is actively promoted by the Chinese Communist Party while remaining a point of intense domestic contention within Taiwan.

Scholars in the field of East Asian studies recognize this work as a rigorous examination of the complex relationship between economic dependency and national sovereignty. Readers frequently note the academic density of the prose and the author's nuanced approach to the political agency of the business community.