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The island of Taiwan is located in the western pacific, southeast of China. Small islands and islets, all under Taiwan’s jurisdiction, surround Taiwan. This also includes the sixty-four Pescadore Islands and some islands in the South China Sea, including the Pratas Islands and the Spratly Islands. Taiwan is about “250 miles long and 85 miles wide at the center” (Copper 2). When comparing Taiwan to the western hemisphere, it would be situated slightly north of Cuba. To the east, Taiwan is bordered by the Pacific Ocean, and the west it is bordered by the Taiwan (Formosa) Strait. To the northwest of Taiwan there is the East China Sea and to the Southwest is the South China Sea. Many geologists believe that Taiwan was once part of Asia. These geologists have recognized that similar plant, and animal life coexists in Taiwan and Asia, however it differs between Taiwan and “the Ryukyu Islands to the north or the Philippines to the south” (Copper 4). However, many other geologists disagree, claiming that Taiwan is similar to Japan, the Philippines, and other eastern Asian coast islands. These all share volcanic soil, making these geologists believe that these lands exist as a result of volcanic activity in the Pacific Ocean. All of these islands also have frequent earthquakes (about 160 per year), providing more evidence that they may have been connected in prehistoric times. About two-thirds of Taiwan’s landscape is mountainous (located on the eastern portion of the island). The western coast is therefore where most of Taiwan’s ports exist (including Kaohsiung, Tainan, and Taichung) as a result of its flat land. The Central Mountain Range is surrounded by foothills, which are very suitable for rice cultivation. Below these foothills are the plains (which are good for farming) and then basins.
The population of Taiwan is nearly 23 million. The high population to small area of land ratio makes Taiwan a very crowded island, “being nearly double Japan and almost five times that of China” (Copper 9). Taiwan is actually the second most crowded nation in the world (Bangladesh being number 1). This overcrowding is due to people who fled from China’s communist ideologies when they took over in 1949. In 1940, Taiwan’s population “was only 5.8 million”, in 1960, “the population was more than 10 million” (Copper 9). The population continued to escalate until recently, as a result of the Taiwanese governments’ birth control program. The death rate, although, has had a major drop since the 1940’s. “From1951 to 1991, the life span of Taiwan’s population rose from just over 55 [years old] to almost 75 [years old]” (Copper 9).
The Fujian and Guangdong immigrants brought Taiwan’s religious culture, in addition to Japanese influence. Some religious activities of Taiwan include ancestral rituals and community temple festivals. According to a 1994 study, “11.2 million out of the 21 million people of Taiwan identify themselves as religious. Of these religious Taiwanese, 43 percent are Buddhist, 34 percent Taoist, 8 percent Yiguando, 6 percent Christian, and 9 percent followers of other religions” (Davison and Reed 31).
Taiwan has adopted China’s thoughts of humanity on time, nature, and space. The Taiwanese believe humans should live in harmony and natural order. Humans may do so by changing themselves according to the season or the landscape. They also believe (similar to the Chinese) that all things of heaven and earth are connected by the life force, qi. “Qi is the breath of the universe, and in humans, the breath of life” (Davison and Reed 32). The flow of qi and how it changes is determined by yin and yang (polar opposites). They determine the relationship of all things. For example, yin and yang would create the relationships of hot and cold, or male and female.
Moral philosophy has a large role in Taiwan; this is emphasized in Confucian tradition. The students of Confucius wrote the Analects, which place “great value on the moral virtues of benevolence (ren) and propriety or ritual (li)” (Davison and Reed 34). Confucian tradition also emphasizes respecting ones parents and how members of a family should treat one another.
Many deities worshipped in Taiwan have Chinese roots, for example Guanyin Bodhisattva. The Chinese Buddhist Guanyin Bodhisattva is not only worshipped by Taiwanese Buddhists, but also by Taiwanese who recognize her as a god of mercy. She is believed to save people from sea wrecks, fires, and illnesses. Most Taiwanese deities are religious art and literature with images of powerful gods, goddesses, emperors, or empresses. Military officials may also be recognized and worshipped (for example Lord Guandi). Deities are also used for their healing powers and for protections from illness and natural disaster. In order to receive continued protection from the deities, the Taiwanese give offerings and promises. A popular deity is of the goddess Mazu, considered the patron goddess of the island. Aside from gods and goddesses, Taiwan’s religions also recognize their ancestors’ spirits and ghosts. “One of the highest moral values in Taiwanese society, filial respect (xiao), is ritually expressed through offerings to the ancestors and the maintenance of a family shrine for the ancestor’s tablets (Davison and Reed 40).”
Since the establishment of the Kuomintang government in 1949, the economy of Taiwan has been dynamic and achieved the three key economic goals of sustained economic growth, price stability, and low unemployment. The economy has transitioned from agricultural to light industrial to heavy industrial with a focus in high tech manufacturing and development. Taiwan also persevered through the Asian economic crisis of the late nineties because of its strong position for future economic development. Taiwan’s economy must also be viewed in a political lens because of the eminent threat of mainland China. Therefore, all economic decisions must be made keeping this volatile relationship in the forefront. Finally recent performance will be reviewed noting the impact that international forces can have on such a small island economy which is export oriented.
Quickly changing the focus from an agrarian economy based on sugar and rice to manufacturing during the 1950s, the country experienced substantial growth between 1960 & 1980 averaging over 9% GDP increase (Country Profile, 7). The growth even continued throughout the 1990s averaging over six percent despite the Asian economic crisis which devastated other economies such as Thailand and South Korea. In fact Taiwan’s economy contracted for the first time since the takeover over in 2001, shrinking 2.2 percent (Economist, 2). This also caused a massive rise in unemployment from 2.9 percent to slightly over 5.
Before this increase however, Taiwan had maintained nearly full employment for almost twenty-five years, breaking the 2% barrier in 1995 (Country Profile, 12). This recent unemployment may be structural due to the transition from low skill manufacturing which has almost completely shifted to mainland China; therefore the shift to high tech manufacturing causes unemployment since the workforce may not have the required qualifications. The biggest factor for the shift, the wages of manufacturing workers, rose substantially in the 1980s causing wages to be on par, $5 USD per hour, with Hong Kong and South Korea (Country Profile, 12).
One of the main goals of the Taiwanese government is to curtail inflation. The government has been successful keeping the rise, of the CPI, in the mid to late 1990s to less than 2% a year. Wholesale price inflation has been even more limited, increasing only .1% per annum in the 1990s (country profile, 12).
According to Vincent Siew, the Prime Minister, during the East Asian economic crisis the difficulties have shown the resilience of Taiwan. He notes that Taiwan has its fundamentals in order “a current-account surplus, [Taiwan] has a negligible foreign debt of $100m and possesses more than $82 billion in foreign-exchange reserves” (Siew, 1). He also sees the crisis as and opportunity to increase co-operation amongst the region (Siew, 2).
As noted earlier the economy is pushing toward high-tech manufacturing as light manufacturing has decreased by nearly ten percent during the 1990s, while heavy industrial production has increased 75% during the same period (Country Profile, 1). At the beginning of the twenty-first century Taiwan was only behind the United States and Japan in production of computer related products. In order to stay ahead of the curve, since manufacturing always shifts toward economies which can provide lower wages, Taiwan has focused its future on concentration and specialization in high tech industries. Led by the government, Taiwan has created Science Parks to group companies in the industries of semiconductors, LCDs, digital content, and biotechnology, together where they can work competitively and concurrently in a effort to make the nation a leader in R & D in these fields (Economist, 3). This is so important because Taiwan’s export’s of goods and services account for 47% of their GDP, a value which has risen for $20bn USD in 1980 to $121bn at the turn of the millennium (Country Report, 8). The Development of multiple Science Parks is important for many reasons but a main one is equitable economic development. The first Science Park is in Hsinchu, near Taipei which produces almost NT$650bn while additional parks have been placed in Tainan and Luchu in the South. But the expansion has yet to spur regional development as of 1999, their other Science Park production was only 1% of Hsinchu’s (Country Report, 14).
Currently Taiwan’s economy is expected to slow but this lower growth is more the result of international forces than problems within Taiwan itself. Export demand from its two largest markets the US and China is declining clearly affecting a country whose economy is extremely export based. High Oil prices are also a major factor expected to limit Taiwan’s growth. This is more troublesome to Taiwan than some other nations since it imports nearly all of its energy (Asia Monitor, 2). A final blow to Taiwan’s growth will be the rising interest rates throughout the world which will lead to a reduction in consumption and investment (Asia Monitor, 2). Despite these conditions, Taiwan’s economy is still only expected to have lower growth, not contraction.
Finally, Taiwan’s economy cannot be fully reviewed without reviewing its relationship with the Mainland. The government’s policies have started to shift toward more integration with China partly reflecting the fact that their restrictions limiting investment in the Mainland where being circumvented or ignored. In the early 1990s Taiwan allowed investment but it was to be limited and routed through a third country. This has only caused further unofficial investment as only $14bn of $21bn was approved for investment during the 1990s (Country Report, 7). According to the Economist in order for Taiwan to be successful it must open itself more to China (Economist, 3). This issue has recently had political ramifications as President Chen Shui, a supporter of Independence and resistor of closer ties to the Mainland, had his Prime Minister resign after a poor showing in local elections where the KMT took many seats (Coonan, 1). The Kuomingtang have supported further integration with Mainland China.
With the international world growing more expansive and the miles between nations growing smaller it is not surprise that the Asian Pacific region is pushing to advance as much as they are. The governments started to realize that economic success would put them on the playing field with other prominent countries. Through steps of media control, consolidation, labor law advancements and an all over education push, the Taiwanese and other sibling countries have produced an “Asian Miracle.”
In theory the Asian miracle sounds easy enough, but there are set backs and problems that will effect the nation, along with the rest of the world. While no two democracies have technically gone to war, we must realize that East Asia is not a community of democracies or even a community of “transitioning” democracies. Eventually these new regimes will cause conflict with the older non-democratic nations. (Haggard. 2004 p3) China will inevitably challenge the legitimacy of treaties, territorial settlements and hierarchies of prestige and any defense that is newly weak. (Haggard. 2004. p4) If not Russia or Korea. These new regimes change the shape and image of East Asia and are pushing the region in an entirely different direction then some of the older powers in the region would like. We must also remember the conflicts in that area of the world and how these changes effect the situations. The Taiwan Strait Crisis leaves a great tension between China, Taiwan and the United States. While Taiwan is rapidly modernizing and standing on its own feet it will hardly be close to being able to defend itself from China. Not to mention if the United States pulls out that will leave Japan open for attack as well, and would force arms proliferation in a “peace keeping” nation. They have faced numerous natural and unnatural setbacks. “These include the onset of Avian flu (Coming on the heels of SARS) and the looming pandemic threat, the persistence of terrorist-related incidents, and the devastating earthquake and tsunami that caused massive loss of lives, property and livelihood. (Caballero-Anthony. 2005 p24.)” Not to mention another economic crisis in 1997. While no one expected the transition to happen over night or even be stable, no one expected this much success.
While there are a lot of problems and situation that need to be addressed, the point is they can be addressed and successfully. The capacity of civil societies and political parties to force autocratic regimes toward democratization or to pressure a democratically elected government to adhere to principles of democracy and the rule of law depends significantly on the society’s political culture and its legacies of political history. All East Asia nations are capable of success in democratization. Using the other countries, as blue prints and keeping Confucius values will slowly evolve future generations to a liberal democratic state. They must remember what they were, to end where they need. Meaning you can take the nation out of a state of autocracy but you can’t take the autocracy out of the nation. You have to accept autocracy and use what you didn’t like and what you did like in the new regime. Democracy can fall into many different categories. Singapore hold an Authoritarian Democracy, where as Taiwan holds a much more liberal one. The countries are unique and need to use what works for their particular economy and society to form a strong democracy. Not every step in the ‘Asian Miracle’ was correct for every nation, and mistakes were definitely made. Asian countries are definitely on the rise and should definitely be considered in the near future as competition. America is increasing out-sourcing all of our business and employment and the threat of over expanding ourselves to be too dependent on other countries is definitely possible. These tight knit nations are working increasingly well among each other to create a definite threat. They have the motivation and the resources and have proved themselves through disaster and progress.
1. Caballero-Anthony, Mely. 2005. “Political Transitions in Southeast Asia. Southeast Asian Affairs 2005. p24-44f
2. Coonan, Clifford. Jan 19, 2006. “Taiwan president under pressure as PM quits.” Irish
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3. Copper, John F. Taiwan Nation-State or Province? Fourth Edition. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 2003.
4. Davidson, Gary Marvin and Reed, Barbara. Culture and Customs of Taiwan. Westport, Connecticut and London: Greenwood Press,1998
5. “Economy To Slow in 2005.” Jan 2005. Asia Monitor 12: 8
6. Haggard, Stephan. 2004. “The Balance of Power, Globalization, and Democracy: International Relations Theory in Northeast Asia.” Journal of East Asian Studies 4. 1-38
7. Holzer, Boris. 2000. “Miracles with a System”. International Sociology. 15: 455-478
8. “Moving on.” Jan 2005. Economist 374: 9-11.
9.Siew, Vincent. Jan 1998. “Taiwan and the Asian crisis.” Economist 364: 36.
“The Economy” 2000. Country Profile 26-37