ABSTRACT
Technology transfer from the US to China has been going on to one degree or another at least since the Opium Wars and the subsequent opening of the treaty ports. Although much of the Western technology acquired by China in the nineteenth century had military applications, by the late nineteenth century the emergent industrial sector had also become a locus of technology transfer. As the KMT came to power in 1927, it rapidly became apparent that this modern Chinese state would need to develop strategies to foster and manage technology transfer that could assist with national development. To this end, both in China, between 1927 and 1949, and in Taiwan, after 1945, the KMT constructed a series of institutions that were designed, at least in part, to develop and manage relationships with foreign states and firms that might lead to the transfer of technologies that China needed. As this chapter shows, there was considerable continuity in the approach to technology transfer taken by the KMT over the long period between 1927 and 1980. However, throughout this period the KMT also demonstrated a high degree of flexibility, and in particular an ability to adapt to changing international and domestic circumstances by adjusting their approach to interacting with foreign states and businesses and creating new institutions when needed. This chapter examines the efforts of the KMT to foster technology transfer both in China, from 1927–1949, and in Taiwan, from 1949–1980. It describes the institutions the KMT constructed as well as the ways these institutions served to build and manage relationships with foreign states and businesses that had technologies the KMT needed.
