Everything I know about Taiwan 🇹🇼

Ten years ago, all the pieces of Taiwan's success were in place. Low-end manufacturing had moved to Shenzhen (under Taiwanese ownership to begin with), while high-end chip production faced formidable competition from the US, the Netherlands, and Korea. The KMT had just taken back power after a turbulent first stint by the DPP.

In 2015, President Ma Ying-jeou (National Taiwan University, NYU, Harvard, mayor of Taipei, President and leader of the KMT) met in person with China's leader Xi Jinping. In 2016, the country elected Tsai Ing-wen (National Taiwan University, Cornell, London School of Economics) from the DPP, and she presided over a period of general popularity and stability, but further divergence from mainland China. The ban on same-sex marriage was ruled illegal in 2017.

A specific Taiwanese culture has emerged, unique across Asia for its: (i) acceptance of women in positions of authority; (ii) enshrined support for LGBTQ lifestyles; (iii) embrace of foodie culture in addition to cafe culture. As in other Asian societies, Taiwan also has (iv) safe and mostly walkable cities; (v) modern high-rise residential buildings; (vi) high-speed rail between major cities; (vii) clean, safe, reliable public transportation; (viii) widespread availability of fresh, affordable, tasty, healthy food. Cost of living remains low by global standards, although many unmarried adults still live with their families.

Taipei metro area has a population of ~7 million, which grows to ~9.5 if you include metro Taoyuan where the international airport is located. Taiwan has 2 scooters for every 3 people. Old people do not ride them, but children do! Cab drivers generally do not speak English; can be booked via app; have multiple cameras recording continuously inside and outside the vehicle. It is rare to encounter a female cab driver; less rare to get a middle-aged male driver watching kung-fu movies on a mobile screen while driving through stop-and-go traffic.

The elderly form a significant presence in daily life, commonly encountered in public spaces including: buses, traditional food markets, municipal parks, in doctors' offices where it is not uncommon for an old man to chat for hours with the captive female staff, until their family calls looking for them.

The government provides, of course, universal medical care and education, but also runs highly efficient public services and garbage collection. It subsidizes electricity costs as well as controls the price of gasoline, insulating the general public from geopolitically-influenced fluctuations.

At the start of the decade, Taiwan had 6 operating nuclear power plants. It is now down to its last one, which is due to be shut down next year after many years of democratic deliberation. Taiwan imports 98% of its energy.

Taiwan today is perhaps the most diverse country in Asia. Public schools have programs for children of Filipino, Indonesian, and Vietnamese workers to learn the language and assimilate into the culture. It is arguably a more free and welcoming place for immigrants than other wealthy, aging economies such as Japan or South Korea. Singapore may be more diverse, but it is also an order of magnitude smaller, and migrant workers appear to be kept separate from natives. Malaysia and Thailand may have longer histories of ethnic assimilation, but they offer fewer economic opportunities than Taiwan.

1a. Successful navigation of Covid-19

Taiwan was one of the only places in the world to stay open for in-person activities without swamping the medical infrastructure or suffering excess casualties amongst the vulnerable portions of the population.

The KMT ruled Taiwan under martial law, starting in 1949 when the defeated Nationalist government retreated from mainland China to Taiwan. Martial law officially ended in 1987. 白色恐怖 the White Terror did not end until 1992. The newly-arrived government supplanted the locals, both aboriginal and ethnic Han Chinese, as well as a Hakka minority with distinct communities and villages.

America and Japan supported the military and industrial base. Agricultural advancement boomed, with a Green Revolution producing increased crop yields and variety.

The 49ers brought a ton of cultural treasure and concentrated human capital to Taiwan. Rich, well-connected Chinese families preserved their wealth from Communists promising to take their stuff. Some of the best chefs, from all different culinary traditions of China, saw a brighter livelihood with the opulent Nationalists rather than the dour Communists.

The generation that grew up during this time was unique in human history. Their parents had 逃難 in various states of continuous warfare from the fall of the Qing Dynasty, imperial conquest by Japan, and civil war. A great geographic mixing had concentrated the survivors and the elite of one of the world's great civilizations, onto an island. The children of those wartime decision-makers competed with each other for scarce local resources, while working together to build a society under existential pressure.

Much like Singapore (on a smaller scale) and the Korean peninsula (which experienced even more violent hot war during this period), Taiwan emerged from this crucible as one of the Asian Tiger miracles.

A different analogue might be Israel, population ~10 million, with a sudden concentration of ethnically homogenous but culturally diverse human capital from different regions and political backgrounds, in a new land for many, under constant existential threat. Interestingly, Israel today also has equality of the sexes, support for LGBTQ rights, as well as a deep shared cultural underpinning that draws values from pre-medieval traditions.

Aboriginal tribes of Taiwan are closely related to Polynesian seafarers, and have lived on the island for thousands of years with light contact with the mainland. Before the Dutch arrived, ~1000 Han Chinese traders lived in aboriginal villages, nominally under Ming Dynasty frontier rule.

The Dutch founded their Formosa colony in 1624. Coincidentally and unrelatedly, the Dutch arrived in New Amsterdam (now called New York City) in the same year. From their base in Jakarta, the Dutch had previously tried to attack Portuguese Macau and Amoy (now called Xiamen), as well as set up a temporary trading post at present-day Hong Kong, before colonizing Taiwan for some 44 years.

By the time the Japanese colonized Taiwan in 1895, Han Chinese and Hakka farmers had lived on the island for several generations. The Japanese shared forward-thinking modern governance and technology, including educational systems for the population; railroad tracks and timetables; and orderly city layouts overlaid on original market towns and fishing ports.

The Japanese also performed large-scale logging of 1,000+ year-old Taiwan red cypress (hinoki 檜木) forests, enough to provide pillars for every Shinto temple in Japan.

Today, the oldest living Taiwanese can remember official activities taking place in Nihon-go, while speaking Hokkien, tâigí, or 閩南話 (Minnan Hua) at home. Under the KMT, the government switched over to 國語 (guoyu) and suppressed Taiwanese dialects in schools. Today, schools dedicate time to Taiwanese language studies.

My family has 4 generations of Americans. I am third generation, and the first born in the United States.

My grandparents were born in northeast China, central China, south eastern China, and in Taiwan of Fukienese immigrants. My parents were born in China during wartime upheaval, and in Taiwan, both growing up as citizens of the Republic of China.

By the time my parents completed university, some friends and family had immigrated to the US and Canada. My parents were part of a "brain drain" cohort of highly educated Taiwanese that moved to the US, got stable professional jobs, and bumped against the bamboo ceiling of lower middle management while missing out on massive entrepreneurial opportunities in Asia during their peak career years.

Growing up during the 80s and 90s, our teachers at school were white, black, and Hispanic (never Asian), and they uniformly treated all children as equal human beings deserving of respect and dignity. From other kids though, we all heard a specific phrase when we brought home-cooked lunch to eat at school, with the exact same intonation: "What is that?!" I also remember sharing something I learned at elementary school with my parents, a kid's song with hand gestures: "Chinese, Japanese, dirty knees, look at these!".

I asked (much later in life) if my parents considered the history of anti-Chinese racism in America before they decided to immigrate. They said they didn't really know about it; their lived experience was of people who looked and talked like them being recruited for coveted graduate school spots and engineering jobs.

When a wave of anti-Asian violence spread across the US in the early 1980s, it appeared to be clearly directed towards the same Japanese companies that we boycotted at home, due to not-forgiven atrocities that had defined my grandparents' adult life. My grandparents would not support Toyota or Honda, or Kikkoman soy sauce (Kimlan soy sauce was clearly better). But the kids insisted on Nintendo, and later in the 90s, Lexus overtook Cadillac in the hearts and minds of many Taiwanese households.

The first real fear we experienced in America was during the President Trump-inflamed Asian hate incidents beginning in 2020, particularly towards the elderly. 100% of my peer group shared stories of our parents who experienced disturbing incidents. Perceived allies in other minority communities were quieter than we hoped, especially ones that we expected would be powerful voices against discrimination. Perhaps the only solace we took was hearing Korean-Americans and Japanese-Americans express, "[in America,] as soon as I walk out the door, I'm a Chinaman."

South Korea has ~50 million people, North Korea has ~25 million people. Culturally, there is much less interchange with Taiwan, than with China or Japan.

Taiwan and South Korea have been competitors in the move up the manufacturing value chain, specifically in higher-value electronics, as well as in global shipping. They are not among each other's top trading partners. Neither nation has needed foreign investment from each other, while Taiwanese companies have invested heavily in China and Southeast Asia.

Unlike Japan, which sees a possible takeover of Taiwan by China as an existential threat, South Korea could stomach an irresistible Chinese military conquest of Taiwan, and IMO would give up Taiwanese sovereignty in return for peace and stability.