Joseph L. Shaefer

Looking to Buy BRIC? The 'ABC's Are Better (Part I)

On May 14 09:52 PM Gyoza Mimi wrote:
Joseph, is Taiwan still not a country, but a self-ruling republic of China?

An excellent question, and one often obfuscated by some for political reasons. The brevity of your question belies a very complex answer, so let me give an equally brief response (1), then, only for those interested, the history that has led to the current sorry state of affairs.(2)

(1) Taiwan is a country. They have a multi-party democratic political system, a modern and well-trained military, free flow of goods and international travelers, and more forex reserves than any country except China, the “Eurozone,” and Russia. (As of 2008; if low oil prices continue, they will supplant Russia; if you take the EU countries separately, that would make Taiwan second only to China in the world.)

(2) However. At the insistence of China, in collusion with the US, which wanted to drive a wedge between the then-Soviet Union and China by opening China to US diplomacy and trade, the UN officially stripped Taiwan of its UN membership in the early 1970s. Just because it doesn’t have a seat at the UN doesn’t make it less a country, however. If the US did not oppose it, the UN would strip Israel of membership, blaming them the next time an Arab child stubbed his toe playing football (soccer.)

In an act of national cowardice (yes, I do have strong feelings on the abandonment of allies…) the US withdrew diplomatic recognition of Taiwan in 1979, saying we didn’t want to “raise tensions” with China.

China claims Taiwan has always been part of China. Horsefeathers. Most scholars agree that Taiwan is not Chinese at all but was the home of people who spread their Austronesian languages throughout Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, New Zealand, and large parts of Micronesia, Melanesia, and Polynesia. It was first colonized by the Dutch, not the Chinese, whose Qing dynasty emperor sniffed Taiwan was “a ball of mud beyond the pale of civilization." In fact, the authorities barred families from traveling to Taiwan! The Dutch East India administered the island and its predominantly aboriginal population. So much for it being “Chinese.”

Taiwan then passed from Dutch to Chinese to Japanese rule. After Japan’s defeat, it first became part of China, but that was only for 4 years and it was the China of Chiang Kai-Shek, whose government fled to the island in 1949 after losing a civil war to the Communists. Pretty slick claiming sovereignty over a place where your sworn enemy has gone to make his last stand against you.

The first ever direct presidential election was held in 1996. Since then, Taiwan has become major international trading power and enjoyed prosperity and economic and social stability. It is considered one of the Four Asian Tigers and a world leader in information technology (South Korea, Singapore, and Hong Kong are the others.) Whatever the brand of the PC you are using to read these words, its innards were probably made in Taiwan.

Looking to Buy BRIC? The 'ABC's Are Better (Part I)

On May 14 11:40 AM Think-About-It wrote:
What is your take on governance, corruption etc. in China and Taiwan - two countries that can benefit from China's growth?

I'm not certain what other country you meant besides Taiwan -- but Taiwan I place among the Emerging Leaders. It is a stable democracy with governance and lower levels of bureaucracy and corruption on a level with ROK (Korea) and within hailing distance of Singapore. I consider that high praise, indeed! See Part II for more...