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Taiwan 2002 |
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History |
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The ROC on TaiwanThe history of Taiwan after 1949 is one of rapid and sweeping change over a short period. Following 50 years of Japanese colonization, an influx of around one and half million soldiers and civilians from the Chinese mainland turned the island into a frontline of the cold war. Over the last five decades, intensive economic development made the island one of the world's largest economies, and rapid industrialization, urbanization, and modernization over a few decades has dramatically transformed the lives of the island's residents. The scale of this transformation has seldom been witnessed anywhere in world history.
Tragic Early DaysFollowing Japan's defeat and surrender in 1945 at the end of World War II, Taiwan was retroceded to the Republic of China on October 25 of the same year. After having been occupied by the Portuguese, Dutch, Spanish, Manchus, and Japanese, Taiwan was under Chinese rule again.The first years after the Japanese surrender were not smooth and resulted in one of Taiwan's greatest tragedies, the February 28 Incident 二二八事件. The first troops sent to take over Taiwan were poorly trained and undisciplined, while the major fighting component of Nationalist troops remained on the Chinese mainland battling the communist rebellion. Most importantly, high inflation, shortages of daily necessities, unequal treatment by the Nationalist troops, unjust appropriation of personal property, and unchecked profiteering angered Taiwanese natives. The tension finally exploded on February 28, 1947, following an incident in Taipei where an elderly woman was beaten while resisting arrest for selling untaxed cigarettes in Taipei, and a bystander was shot in the commotion. Crowds rioted across the island, seizing police stations, arms, and radio stations and killing a number of mainlanders. In the succeeding months, after the arrival of troop reinforcements from the mainland, the governor, Chen Yi 陳儀, proceeded to arrest and kill thousands of people who demanded government reform. Chen Yi was thus discharged from his governor post. Later he was tried and executed in 1950 for conspiring with the communists to overthrow the ROC government while serving as governor of Zhejiang Province 浙江省. The incident was a source of tension between Taiwanese and those who came from the mainland after 1945. Rapid Development after 1950With the outbreak of the Korean War in late June 1950, US President Harry S. Truman ordered the US Seventh Fleet to protect Taiwan against attack by the Chinese communists, and the US began to provide Taiwan with considerable economic and military assistance. The international community sided with Taiwan and the internal situation began to stabilize. Taiwan became the focus of world attention again in August 1958, when the communists, who wished to take over Taiwan, began shelling the island of Kinmen (Quemoy) in the Battle of the Taiwan Strait. The attack eventually subsided, and on October 23, 1958 八二三戰役, the US and ROC governments issued a joint communique reaffirming solidarity between the two countries. This invaluable military support continued through the 1960s and 70s, and prevented Taiwan from becoming communist.
Miraculous Economic TransformationWhen the ROC government moved to Taipei in 1949, the economy of Taiwan was still trying to recover from the heavy Allied bombing that had occurred during the war. Only a few industries remained, including sugar refining and some textile manufacturing. In the initial years, two factors stabilized the situation and laid the foundations for a future economic takeoff: aid from the US and the land reform program. From 1951 to 1965, large amounts of economic and military aid came from the US as part of its cold war efforts to preserve this valuable ally in Asia. Much of the aid was used in infrastructure and the agricultural sector. Advisors stationed in Taiwan and Taiwanese sent abroad for education were all directed at rebuilding the economy. The highly successful land reform program, which was completed in 1953, reduced land rents, distributed public land, and purchased and resold land from large landlords. Farmers were supplied with fertilizer, seeds, pesticides, expert advice, and credit. By 1959, 90 percent of exports were agriculture or food related. Increased production and higher income resulted in low inflation and capital accumulation, as importing food was unnecessary.After land reform policies and economic assistance had laid a solid foundation for the economy, two policies of the 1950s and 60s led to the remarkable takeoff of the 1970s. The first was an "import substitution policy" aimed at making Taiwan self-sufficient by producing inexpensive consumer goods, processing imported raw materials, and restricting other imports. When far-sighted government planners realized the economic bottleneck poised by the narrow base of Taiwan's domestic economy, a second policy of "export promotion" was adopted in the late 1950s and continued throughout the 1960s. Using Japan as a model and employing US advice, the resource-poor, labor-abundant island began to expand light industries. Export processing zones, free of bureaucratic red-tape and with special tax incentives, were set up to attract overseas investment. Soon, Taiwan secured an international reputation as an exporter to the world. Between 1962 and 1985, Taiwan's economy witnessed the most rapid growth in its history: an average annual rate of nearly 10 percent, over twice the average economic growth rate of industrialized countries during this period. Equitable distribution of income was a major objective in the government's economic planning. In 1953, the average income of the top one-fifth of families was estimated at 20 times that of the lowest one-fifth. In the 1980s this 1:20 ratio was further reduced to a range of between 1:5 and 1:4, indicating a highly equitable distribution of income. The economic structure of the nation shifted from reliance on agricultural exports in the 1950s to light manufacturing in the 1960s and 70s; and on to high technology and chemical product exports in the 1980s and 90s. By 1995, technology-intensive products constituted 46.7 percent of exports. A new and significant economic trend beginning in the 1980s was the rise of investments by the ROC business community on the Chinese mainland. After the Emergency Decree 戒嚴令 was lifted in 1987, non-government civilian contacts between Taiwan and the Chinese mainland were allowed, and, by 2000, Taiwan's business sector had invested over US$17.1 billion on the mainland, according to official ROC statistics. (Beijing's statistics indicated a much higher figure of US$26.4 billion.) The sharp increase of Taiwan exports to the Chinese mainland beginning in 1990 decreased Taiwan's dependence on the US market, but raised new concerns of growing economic reliance on the ROC's long-time foe. Although politically divided, investment and trade by the business community have begun a process of bringing the two sides closer together. EducationMuch of the credit for Taiwan's steady economic growth must go to the spread of universal education throughout the island. After 1949, the government expanded education and raised literacy rates. From 1950 to 2000 the number of university students, including those at private colleges and universities, increased by more than 100 times to 647,920. Although there were only five M.A. candidates in 1950, and Taiwan had its first Ph.D. student in 1956, by 2000 there were 70,039 students in 2,734 master's degree programs, with 13,822 students studying in 873 Ph.D. programs. Thousands of others were enrolled in graduate programs abroad in the US, Japan, Canada, Australia, Britain and European countries. The number of high school students also increased from around 34,000 in the 1950s to more than 350,000 in 2000. Most noticeable has been the change in the rate of illiteracy. In 1951, 34.6 percent of the population six years and older were illiterate. This figure had dropped to 15.3 percent by 1969. At present, less than 6 percent of the population is illiterate, mostly the elderly.Politics and Foreign RelationsDespite restrictions under martial law, the ROC government has long promoted local self-government. Beginning in 1950, all the chief executive and representative bodies under the provincial level were directly elected by the people, and in 1951, 16 county and five city governments and councils were established. In June 1959, the first Taiwan Provincial Assembly was established, extending political participation from the county to the provincial level.Following the death of Chiang Kai-shek in 1975, Yen Chia-kan 嚴家淦 briefly served as president until Chiang's son, Chiang Ching-kuo 蔣經國, was elected in 1978. It was under his rule that full democratization began, starting with the lifting of martial law in 1987 shortly before his death in 1988. In fact, the first major opposition party, the Democratic Progressive Party 民主進步黨 (DPP), was formally established on September 28, 1986, marking the beginning of multiparty democracy in the ROC. Chiang Ching-kuo's successor, President Lee Teng-hui 李登輝, continued to reform the rigid political system that had been developed after decades of civil war and martial law. Under his administration, press freedoms were guaranteed, opposition political parties developed, visits to the mainland continued, and revisions of the constitution encouraged. Representatives of the National Assembly, the Legislative Yuan and the Control Yuan, who had been frozen in office since 1947, were also asked to step down during Lee's administration. Elections for total seats in the National Assembly and the Legislature were first held in 1991 and 1992. The Control Yuan was transformed into a semi-judicial institution following the 1992 constitutional amendment. On March 23, 1996, the democratization process peaked with the election of the ROC president, the first direct election of the head-of-state in the history of China. Provoking considerable debate and controversy, the provincial government was largely dissolved in 1998 in a government-downsizing move. On March 18, 2000, the second direct presidential election was held, with five pairs of candidates contending for the positions of president and vice president of the Republic of China. In a tight, three-way campaign, former Taipei City Mayor Chen Shui-bian of the DPP narrowly defeated his rivals with 39.3 percent of the vote. He was closely followed by former Taiwan Provincial Governor James Soong (independent) with 36.8 percent, and Vice President Lien Chan of the KMT with 23.1 percent. The election not only brought a record 82 percent turnout, but also ended the KMT's five-decade hold on the presidency. President Lee Teng-hui was forced to resign his chairmanship of the KMT, as a result of street protests by KMT grassroots members over his role in the defeat. In April, supporters of James Soong combined with some of the KMT and New Party members to form the People First Party. These domestic political changes were closely intertwined with Taiwan's experience in the international arena. The ROC was a founding member of the UN in 1945. However, after the withdrawal of the government to Taiwan and the establishment of the PRC, diplomatic competition emerged between the two rivals. In 1971, supported by most of the newly independent states, the PRC succeeded in gaining admission to the UN General Assembly, and the ROC walked out. Since then, most of the remaining UN members have switched their ties from Taipei to Beijing. A low point was reached at the end of the 1970s, when the United States was the last major power to sever diplomatic ties, including the 1954 Mutual Defense Treaty. The US has continued economic ties and sold defensive military equipment to Taiwan in accordance with the Taiwan Relations Act 臺灣關係法 of 1979. With the beginning of democratization, the people's dissatisfaction with this state of affairs led to a new effort to increase Taiwan's participation in the international arena. Collectively known as pragmatic diplomacy, this policy included a revived effort to expand and consolidate formal diplomatic ties, a new campaign to re-enter international organizations, and increased emphasis on substantive ties with the US, Japan, and Europe. During the 1990s, these efforts resulted in some progress, although the ultimate goal of UN membership still faced many obstacles. Until 1987, the ROC remained under "martial law." During that forty-year period, opposition political parties were banned, publishing and the media were restricted, and relations with the mainland were forbidden. However, religious and business activities were essentially free, and citizens regularly traveled around the island and the world. This policy was adopted because of the continued military threat from the Chinese mainland. As Taiwan prospered economically and the mainland undertook radical reforms and began to open up to the outside world, reasons for martial law were no longer seen as valid. On November 2, 1987, the ROC officially permitted its citizens to visit relatives on the Chinese mainland. Since then, cross-strait ties have grown, and, by the late 1990s, Taiwan residents made millions of trips, involving visits to relatives, tourism, and scholarly, cultural, and sports exchanges. The number of trips made by mainland Chinese to Taiwan for cultural and educational activities has totaled more than 34,000. In February 1991, the semi-private Straits Exchange Foundation 海峽交流基金會 (SEF) was set up to deal with matters arising from contact between people from both sides of the Strait. Its mainland counterpart, the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits 海峽兩岸關係協會 (ARATS), was established ten months later. These organizations have met intermittently to discuss matters of a technical or business nature across the Strait, such as the repatriation of hijackers and illegal entrants and solutions for fishing disputes. Two recent developments that will strongly affect Taiwan's future is its entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO) and its increasing economic involvement with the Chinese mainland. After more than 12 years of negotiations and waiting, Taiwan signed its WTO accession accord in November 2001, with official entry on January 1, 2002. Membership in the WTO will enable Taiwan's industrial and business sector to fully participate in the world economy on a more equal footing. However, opening the domestic economy to the world will also expose the island to increased competition which could have a negative impact on some industries, most notably agriculture. A second major development has been the substantial increase of Taiwan investment and business activity on the Chinese mainland. Many businesses have sought cheap labor and potential markets on the mainland, and are acting in preparation for full integration into the WTO. What impact this new development will have on Taiwan's economy in the long-term, as well as on political relations with Beijing, is still uncertain. To meet this new reality and prepare for entry in to the WTO, the Cabinet announced in October 2001 that the "patience over haste" policy restricting investment on the Chinese mainland would be replaced with a managed liberalization policy of "active opening, efficient management." Most limits on individual investment projects on the mainland will be scrapped, and offshore banking units of Taiwanese banks will be permitted to engage in direct business exchanges with mainland financial institutions. Limited transportation links have been allowed between the outlying islands of the ROC (Kinmen and Matsu) and the Chinese mainland, and establishing direct transportation links between Taiwan and the mainland remain under discussion. Present and FutureAlthough the greatest change in post-1949 Taiwan has been the island's economic revolution and spectacular rise in income and living standards, the social transformation brought about following the lifting of martial law in 1987 cannot be overlooked. The legalization of labor strikes, demonstrations, and the formation of new political parties all gave greater power to the people. The lifting of restrictions on newspapers and publishing has produced an explosion inmedia growth and broadened the perspectives of an increasingly sophisticated audience. As the nation enters the 21st century, the forces of global capitalism, democracy, and the information age are carrying Taiwan further into a new era, one in which its future and the rest of the world's is undivided.
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