Increasing numbers of Taiwanese businesspeople have migrated to mainland China for nearly a quarter of a century. For these Taiwanese migrants, working and living in mainland China presents many intricate challenges rooted in the complex geopolitical history and cross-strait relations between the PRC and Taiwan. One major challenge is securing a quality education for their children in mainland China and one answer to this challenge is the unprecedented establishment and operation of "Schools for Children of Taiwanese Businesspeople."

Using established qualitative methods, historical and interpretive approaches, as well as a conflict management and resolution theoretical framework, this multi-site case study specifically investigates how the governance, curriculum, and textbooks of these schools have historically been conceived, contested, negotiated, resolved, and implemented by stakeholders both in the PRC and the ROC. Close analysis of the governance, curriculum and textbooks used in these schools is also examined to identify what Chinese conflict management and resolution strategies are evident in the negotiation processes and outcomes.

The analysis of the dataset in this multi-site case study confirms that the concepts identified by other scholars in the review of literature about Chinese conflict management strategies were all very much in evidence. Another important implication that can be drawn from the analysis is how Chinese conflict management and resolution strategies exist along a highly fungible and holistic spectrum; this contrasts sharply with many Western theoretical models which tend to chart conflict management and resolution strategies in a decidedly atomized manner with hierarchical values ascribed to well-defined and compartmentalized strategies. Related to this observation is how Chinese conflict management and resolution strategies are employed as ways to prevent conflicts before they arise as much as (if not more) than to resolve conflicts after they have occurred (which Western theories of conflict management tend to focus on). In addition, conflict management and strategies such as avoidance and ambiguity, usually perceived negatively in individualistic societies, are considered as a pragmatic, mature, and sophisticated way to prevent and resolve conflicts in collectivist societies (such as mainland China and Taiwan).