"Most of the business leaders in Taiwan don't feel this (pressure from China) is going very far," said William Pierskalla, dean of the UCLA graduate management school.
Pierskalla was in Taipei earier this month as part of a Far East tour before coming to Hawaii last week.
China is using war games off Taiwan's coast as part of a campaign to scare voters away from the top Taiwanese presidential candidate, incumbent President Lee Teng-hui, whom it accuses of dropping their shared goal of reunification.
But, Pierskalla said, China's effort has yet to scare Taiwan's business community. "They are still investing and will continue to expand and put money into the mainland (China), mainly through Hong Kong," he said.
Investments in chemicals, consumer products, insurance and electronics will continue because the Taiwan business community sees "much of their future market in China," he added.
Taiwan businessmen typically have family and corporate ties to China and investments will continue primarily in southern and eastern China, he predicted.
Reports of Taiwanese citizens cashing in their currency for U.S. dollars are not indicative of the business feelings about the China-Taiwan situation, Pierskalla added. "Some people are scared but these are not the top business leaders," he added. "People who have savings in banks are pulling them out and putting them into (U.S.) dollars."
On his way home after visiting Taiwan, South Korea and Japan, Pierskalla came to Hawaii to confer with Gov. Ben Cayetano about starting an "advanced executive program" between UCLA and the University of Hawaii.
"This is a two-week certificate course where we bring in top executives from Asia to meet with our top executives," Pierskalla said. UCLA has been involved in the program for more than 10 years.
"It wouldn't cost the state any money," he said. "We just need a place to meet."
UCLA has many of its graduates now in top business positions in the Far East and they could be drawn to Hawaii to network with local business leaders, he said.
Cayetano, a UCLA graduate in political science, first met Pierskalla last September when the governor was the keynote speaker at the UCLA executive MBA graduating class.
Pierskalla pitched the idea for the UH-UCLA link at a meeting with the governor on Friday.