Short Essay on Taiwan

“Despite its relatively small size and limited resources, Taiwan has ex­perienced one of the most spectacular economic developments of any developing country during the 20th century”.

The small, thriving island of Taiwan lies 100 miles (161 km) off the southeast coast of China mainland. In the north the East China Sea separates it from the Ryukyu Is­lands, and Japan. To its east lies the Pacific Ocean, and to the south the South China Sea and the Philippine Seas that separate it from the Philippines.

Though linked by geography, culture, and history to China mainland, it is politically under the juris­diction of the Nationalist government since 1940 and controls over 22 islands (in­cluding the Quemoy, Matsu, and Pescadore groups) west of the main island of Taiwan, which collectively contain a to­tal area of nearly 14,000 sq. miles (36,260 sq. km).

Located strategically close to the southern half of China’s coast at a distance of only 400 miles from Shanghai, China’s largest city, and 360 miles from Hong Kong it lies within the easy air reach of China’s military establishment.

The air and naval forces on the island give Taiwan potential control of the west-Pacific sea laws, whereas the Taiwan Straits have pro­vided an obstacle to Communist conquest that enabled Nationalist China to establish here an independent state. In sum, accessi­ble location on the major sea routes in East Asia, and contemporary international poli­tics have given Taiwan highly distinctive position in the world.

Taiwan belongs to the great island sys­tem that rims the western Pacific Ocean. The island is largely mountainous with mostly north-south trending ridges in the interior that slope gently westward to a small basin and plains bordering the shal­low Taiwan Strait.

Broadly speaking, the island can be di­vided into two sections: in the east are the folded and faulted mountain ranges sloping steeply to the Pacific; and a low and gently sloping foothill coastal plain on the west. The coastline on the west is straight and bordered by sand dunes and lagoons. Sev­eral of the ridges in the interior rise to over 10,000 feet in elevation. The drainage of the island is mostly radial.

The island has a humid, subtropical cli­mate. The lowlands have a warm, year-long growing season. In general, sum­mers are long (April to November), and warm on the plains, while the high moun­tains in the interior receive snow during winter.

The island lies on the northeast margin of the tropics in the path of prevail­ing winds. The weather is influenced by the northeasterly winds during the winter and southwesterly winds during the sum­mer, which bring abundant rainfall in both seasons averaging 100 inches (2,500 mm). Rainfall is heavier in the north than in the south. During late summer, typhoons bring destruction and in their wake disas­trous floods in parts of the fertile plains.

Taiwan has abundant timber and for­estry resources in the mountains. Nearly 70 percent of the lands are covered with forest. Commercially productive trees are those of camphor, bamboo, and cypress. Taiwan has in the past provided three- fourths of world’s natural camphor, but its importance has diminished with the devel­opment of synthetic camphor.

Inaccessibility, low quality of timber, and costs of cutting trees have been responsible for the declining importance of forestry. With a population of close to 22 million in the mid-1990s Taiwan is a very crowded land. The density of population is over 1,560 people to a square km. Population per sq. km tripled after Japan occupied the island in 1895.

At that time it contained only 2 million inhabitants. By 1956 popu­lation swelled to over 9 million, registering an unprecedented rate of growth of 4 per­cent a year during the mid-1950s resulting primarily from the inflow of 2 million refugees from the mainland. The rate steadily declined, dropping to less than 1 percent a year level. During the late 1960s the government introduced a seri­ous family program.

Meanwhile, urban development had intensified and in re­sponse to growing urban opportunities during the Japanese and later the National­ist governments, the traditionally extended and large families began concentrating more resources on a few children. Cur­rently three-fourths of the population lives m urban areas.

Official records identify two major groups living in the island: Taiwanese and Mainlanders, forming 84 and 14 percent re­spectively of the population. Two percent of the population is listed as that of the aborigines who live in isolated mountain areas. Most of the Mainlanders and their parents were involved with the Nationalist army and were refugees from the Communist-led takeover of the mainland.

They occupy key positions in the administra­tion, and speak Mandarin Chinese. The Taiwanese are the descendants of the Chi­nese immigrants largely from Fujian and Guangdong provinces in southeast China and speak Hakka and other southeast China dialects. Because of the prominence of the Mainlanders in the administration, Mandarin has become the official language of Taiwan.

The principal religions, in addi­tion to the forms of worship of the aborigines are Daoism (the Chinese folk- religion) and Buddhism, which account for over 43 and 43 percent of the population respectively. Confucianism has greatly in­fluenced these two religions and colored the people’s ethics, morality and academic thinking. But religion, in general, remains a passive factor and the people tend to be eclectic regarding their religious beliefs, many practicing a little of several faiths. Christians constitute a small, but signifi­cant minority; and most of them are Protestants. Muslims number about a mil­lion, most of whom live in larger cities.

Starting off initially with a large agri­cultural base, and specializing in producing rice and sugar during the Japanese occupa­tion, Taiwan has in the mid 1990s only 12 percent of its labor force engaged in agri­cultural production. Its two dominant crops are still rice and sugarcane, but has since established a more balanced economy and has become a model of high agricul­tural and industrial productivity.

Despite its large population growth it is not only self-sufficient in foodstuffs but can export a modest surplus of rice, sugar, tea, and tropical fruits. A number of crops, such as sweet potatoes, corn and a variety of fruits including pineapples, bananas, soybeans, and various types of vegetables are raised.

Nearly a quarter of Taiwan’s total area is arable and all available land is cultivated to the maximum, including sloping areas, dry river beds, and reclaimed marshland. The Japanese introduced improved strains of rice, chemical fertilizers, modern irriga­tion methods, and the Nationalists continued modernization plans, particu­larly in rice planting. Now Taiwanese agriculture is an intensive semi-mechanized gardening system with a highly integrated cropping system that provides two crops a year. And crop yields compare with the highest in Asia. Fishing, particu­larly pond fishing, prevalent in China mainland is also important. Commercial fishing fleet since has greatly expanded.

Taiwan’s mineral production is mod­est, although a number of minerals have been found. Coal, copper, gold and silver, sulphur and manganese are produced in small quantities. Coal is mined in the north, but is rapidly becoming exhausted, and petroleum has replaced it as a major energy source.

Petroleum and natural gas are obtained in small quantities on shore, but the continental shelf may contain larger reserves. A petroleum refinery at Gaoxiang imports crude oil; and the alumi­num refinery also at Gaoxiang depends on the imports from Southeast Asia. But the rising oil costs and national defense needs during the 1980s were responsible for the development of nuclear power plants which now account for one-third of Tai­wan’s installed capacity and nearly one-half of actual energy production. Manufacturing emerged as the largest sector of economy during the 1970s and utilizes 30 percent of all labor force and produces over a third of Taiwan’s gross do­mestic product.

The island’s economic advantages lie in its abundant cheap labor supply, genera­tion of capital formation essentially from foreign sources (particularly from the United States), and willingness to adopt technological innovations. During the 1950s and 1960s labor-intensive light indus­try predominated producing such consumer goods as foodstuffs and textiles aimed at both domestic and foreign markets.

In the 1960s and 1970s investment shifted to more capital-intensive heavy industry items such as appliances, vehicles, steel, petrochemicals, machinery, and ships. During that time labor supply became scarce and wages increased and greater ef­fort was directed to skill-intensive, high technology industries (chemicals, pharma­ceuticals, precision instruments, and electronics, etc.).

Over three-fourths of Taiwan’s population resides in the cities. Taibeh (Taipeh) in the north is the seat of administration and has a population close to 2.6 million. Gaoxiang (population 1.5 million) in the south on the western coast is the major port, and is an industrial cen­ter.

Prospects:

Despite its relatively small size and limited resources, Taiwan has ex­perienced one of the most spectacular economic developments of any developing country during the 20th century. The per capita product and personal income quin­tupled since 1949. The economy has been transformed from agricultural to indus­trial. But it faces a troubling political future as the shadow of Mainland China lengthens across the Taiwan Strait.

Like Japan, Taiwan has achieved its modernization and recent economic growth based on foreign trade. Its success has derived primarily from the discipline, industry and skills of its labor force, cou­pled with the advantage of a central location, and limited resources, and inter­mediate technology, its manufacturing has depended heavily on imported materials, equipment, and technology that, was ob­tained mostly from Japan and the United States, which are also its largest trading partners.

Because its domestic market is limited and manufactures, it depends heavily on exports directed mostly at the United States. Its main exports are sophisticated electronic equipment, textiles, garments, synthetic fibers, and plastic goods. Besides the United States, Hong Kong, Japan, Ger­many, and Singapore are other importers. The island imports electronic machinery, chemicals, iron and steel and crude petro­leum. The major import sources are Japan, the U.S., Germany, Hong Kong, and Aus­tralia.