Abstract: This paper examines mainland China’s policy to attract global human capital and the response made by the Taiwanese government during the Ma Administration. We find that the Chinese government developed a variety of strategies, including loosening its employment regulation, incorporating Taiwanese employees in the bianzhi system, and establishing an experimental zone, to attract talented and skilled individuals from Taiwan. On the contrary, the Taiwanese government was not successful to react effectively, even when the number of Taiwanese workers moving to mainland China proved to be growing. We argue that the demise of developmental state in Taiwan and the non-credible threat of skilled workers’ exit together explained Taiwanese government’s weak response.