Taiwan's Fight: A small account of the cross straight relations' political and economic history.

Cross-strait relations are one of the most observed international relations in the present world that is torn in war in Eurasia and the North African subcontinent. Amidst the tensions of cross-strait relations lies the economic miracle of Southeast Asia, the Republic of China, more popularly known as Taiwan. It is an island nation (nation to its citizens) in the Western Pacific Ocean located between Japan and the Philippines. Despite continuous political and economic turmoil from a larger power such as China, Taiwan stands as a unique example of dominating the tech world with its cutting-edge manufacturing processes leading in the semiconductor and automobile industries. After a century of imperial rule by Japan, Taiwan was fully equipped as a model colony for impeccable growth in the coming centuries. However attempts to annex Taiwan to the People’s Republic of China (mainland China) still continue. Today, the world turns its eyes to Taiwan as it fights with China for its democracy, economy, and recognition. This article aims to capitulate one policy adopted by the People’s Republic of China to constrain the economic growth of Taiwan and how political differences between two nations with similar human resources (in terms of IQ and general behavior) and technology produce two different outcomes in HDI. 

The contrast between Taiwan and China demonstrates how political leadership and the philosophies of democracy & socialism widely change economic equality.  In 2024, China’s GDP per capita stands at 13.14 thousand while Taiwan’s at 34.43 thousand (World Economic Outlook, IMF, April 2024). This substantiates the argument that the citizens of China earn significantly less income in comparison to those of Taiwan. Conclusively, China’s dominance in the world may not be a true reflector of a standard of living or earnings that is on par with its nominal GDP. Rich staying richer and poor staying poorer becomes a common phenomenon here. (Chen, 2003) 

Taiwan’s emergence in East Asia is owed to the generous foreign aid contributed by imperialists and sympathizers from the West. The predecessors of present-day Taiwanese were able to foresee the utilities of investing in education, technology, and innovation while China’s communist party went ahead with its ambitious Great Leap Forward. With Japan’s support, Taiwan was equipped with dams, banks, and modern industries. Aids from the US enabled further growth (Chen, 2003). The aristocrats and elitists who fled from China to Taiwan during the Communist takeover leveraged its emergence as the world’s largest semiconductor manufacturing country with their sharp business and technological acumen. Interestingly, this particular success of Taiwan caught Beijing’s attention and led to a chain of policy alterations on the latter’s part. With Beijing’s dominance in world trade, it was able to bend policies to retard the growth of Taiwan and subsequently annex it to the PRC. 

As the political tensions between Taipei and Beijing grew further, Beijing forced companies that were in trade with it to enlist Taiwan as not a sovereign, secular nation but as an annexure of the People’s Republic of China. Political instability led to slowdown of its growth as countries that were on good terms with China refused to establish trade with Taiwan, an example of a classic power play. (WBPR, 2002) 

China’s authoritarian rule has so far proved that it is the growth in masses and quantities, mergers and acquisitions that matter more than the quality of life and satisfaction of its citizens as reflected by the HDI. China’s latest reported HDI is 0.788 while Taiwan stands at 0.925 (WPR, 2022). Despite being the world’s manufacturing hub, China has thus proved to be less hospitable to the very essential human resources of its economy. Taiwan’s higher HDI makes it a better nation to live in, in terms of standard of living, life expectancy, and equity.

The cross-strait tensions are sure to grow further in the coming years and all eyes turn to Taiwan as it stands as a potential Ukraine or Palestine for a world power to mull over. Taiwan’s efforts to protect its democracy and its status as a nation continue but what can efficiency in production or export quality mass produce do for the nation’s sovereignty, if it is not recognized even by the United Nations as a sovereign country? When the answer to that question lies in the leniency of Beijing, Taiwan continues to be Asia’s economic miracle nation that is not yet a nation. 

References

• https://www.imf.org/external/datamapper/NGDPDPC@WEO/ADVEC/WEOWORLD/TWN/CH N 

• https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-taiwan-richest-place-asia-2023-noam-n-g-gordon Chen, E. (2003).

• The Economic Integration of Taiwan and China. Harvard University. DongTao. (n.d.).

• Implications of Taiwan Mainland Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement. 

World Bank. (1993). The East Asian Miracle.