When Yeh Chun-jung decided to build on his high-tech power cable business, the choice appeared obvious: he turned not to his native Taiwan for expansion but to China, the island's great rival.
Now he plans to return home to vote, one of a growing army of investors in China keen to ensure that when Taiwan elects a new president next weekend the choice will be good for business.
Despite the diplomatic insults and the missiles aimed toward each other's shore, Taiwan and China are inextricably, and increasingly, connected by commerce.
Yeh, whose two mainland factories employ some 3,000 workers, urged whoever is elected president on March 22 "to accept reality and set political topics aside to seek peaceful co-operation with China for the good of the island."
Yeh said an estimated 250,000 Taiwanese businessmen and their families were returning to Taiwan to cast their ballots and "get our voice heard."
"We are mobilising 30,000 from Dongguan alone," added Yeh, who is chairman of a Taiwanese business association in the south-eastern Chinese city which is base for some 6,700 factories relying on private investment from Taiwan.
The Dongguan Association is the biggest among 101 such associations all over the mainland, where the number of Taiwanese is estimated at more than one million.
Taiwan has forbidden direct trade and transport exchanges with China since they split in 1949 after a civil war, but started liberalising mainland-bound investments in the early 1990s.
Now China is Taiwan's largest trading partner and biggest export market.
Last year two-way trade reached a record 102 billion US dollars, amounting to 21.9 percent of Taiwan's total foreign commerce. China took 30 percent of the island's exports, while 100,000 Taiwanese businesses have ploughed around 150 billion dollars into projects on the mainland.
"The trend is unavoidable since businessmen are always looking for better opportunities," said another Taiwan investor who asked not to be named.
"We have capital and technology, they (the Chinese) have land and manpower at much lower production costs."
Entrepreneurs such as Yeh want that to continue, saying that cross-strait tensions must not stop efforts to liberalise ties further and open new links.
"We cannot ignore the fact that Taiwan as a whole depends more and more on the mainland economically," Yeh said from his Dongguan office.
"Taiwan will only lose more bargaining power if negotiations drag on."
The favourite in the presidential election, the Kuomintang's Ma Ying-jeou, has vowed closer ties with China, talking of a "common market" to widen still further the exchange of goods.
He also plans to remove most restrictions on mainland-bound investment and encourage Chinese funds to the island, as well as open seven ports for cargo shipments, open seven airports for expanded charter passenger flights, and allow more Chinese tourists to visit.
His rival Frank Hsieh, of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party, is also in favour of closer ties but much more cautiously, warning that given China's rising economic clout, a common market would threaten Taiwan's survival in the long term.
Earlier this month the DPP government agreed to relax controls on corporate investment in China but incumbent President Chen Shui-bian refuses to talk to Beijing on issues such as reopening direct transport links on China's terms.
"We are like orphans here, dealing with the mainland authorities on our own with no rules to follow," said the investor who did not want to be named, who runs a sportswear firm employing 1,000 workers in south-east China.
"Our government must step out to negotiate with Beijing for comprehensive laws to protect our interests, especially about taxation and foreign exchange controls," he added.