ผู้ประกอบการจีนรุ่นใหม่กับการเปลี่ยนวัฒนธรรมการค้าชายแดนภาคเหนือไทย

Abstract

New flows of Chinese migrants have appeared in northern
Thailand since the 2000s when open-border and economic
regionalization policies between China and Mekong countries began to
be implemented. This article explores this new phenomenon by focusing
on case studies of “new” Chinese entrepreneurs in Chiang Saen, a border
town in Chiang Rai Province, which connects southern China via Laos and
Myanmar. This article contends that the new Chinese entrepreneurs have
diversified their businesses in this border region. They have intensively
utilized “flexible guanxi” connections as strategies to achieve their
economic goals. In this respect, the multiple layers of “flexible guanxi”
and flexible regulations have helped them to enlarge their transnational
economic transactions and regional flows. As a result, the Thai traders in
locality have faced high competition in new border trade situation. The
new context in changing border trade patterns become an emerging
challenge for Thai traders.