Chaiwan

A portmanteau of China and Taiwan, reflecting improved economic relations between the two powers.

During a recent visit to Taiwan, Time’s Michael Schuman was asked by an anchor from a Taiwanese news network – “What do you think of Chaiwan?”:

The term Chaiwan, [Christine Chen] said, was the talk of Taipei. Turns out that the word, meant to connote the growing economic ties between China and Taiwan, was supposedly coined by the South Korean press. The Seoul Economic Daily, a Korean business newspaper, recently ran a series of articles under the banner: “The Chaiwan Storm Is Coming.” One noted that “the combination of China’s capital and Taiwan’s high technology … warns us of a powerful fusion of forces that cannot but present a threat to Korean industries.”

Reporting recently for Reuters, Rhee So-eui and Baker Li noted:

The growing tie-ups between China and Taiwan, dubbed “Chaiwan” by some, look set to alter the balance of power in the technology sweepstakes in north Asia, hurting Korean companies in the business but likely boosting their Japanese rivals.

(Johnny Neihu in The Tapei Times suggested the “unholy portmanteau”Chaiwan was coined in 2007 by a South Korean paper, The Chosun Ilbo.)

See also: 520 Curse.