Taiwan Yearbook 2006

"I have always believed that there is no such thing as a great president, for only a great people can create a great country," said President Chen Shui-bian in his Second Inaugural Address in May 2004. A people's greatness, in turn, may be judged from its members' individual and collective efforts and accomplishments. Both individually and collectively, the people of Taiwan—the Republic of China (ROC)—can confidently claim to enjoy a definite degree of greatness, especially in light of the rapid progress they have made in creating the sort of free environment essential to encourage people to be the best they can be.

As a general measure of how successful the Taiwanese people have been in that regard, according to the 700-page study entitled Freedom in the World 2006–The Annual Survey of Political Rights and Civil Liberties conducted by Freedom House, Taiwan is the freest country in Asia. Based on the organization's monitoring of developments in 196 countries between December 2004 and November 2005, the report accords Taiwan the highest score of 1—on a scale of 1 to 7, where 1 represents freest and 7 least free—in both of the survey's major categories of political rights and civil liberties.

Freedom House's assessment is especially gratifying in light of the fact that, until 1987, Taiwan had been under the rule of an authoritarian government for several decades, as well as the fact that some people have argued that democracy is not a universal value, but a subjective Western value. Taiwan's experience has refuted that notion decisively.

Pursuit of excellence

A brief sampling of the accomplishments of Taiwan's people in diverse fields in 2005-2006, including those of its young people, gives an indication of the excellence that has resulted from nurturing a free society.

In the arts, in March 2006, Taiwanese filmmaker Ang Lee 李安 became the first Asian to win the Academy Award for Best Director for his movie Brokeback Mountain, while director Tsai Ming-liang 蔡明亮 received the Silver Bear Award at the 2005 Berlin International Film Festival for The Wayward Cloud 天邊一朵雲.

Violinist Lu Kuan-cheng 盧冠呈 completed his first season with the world-renowned New York Philharmonic Orchestra in 2005 and has been joined for its 2006-2007 season by a second Taiwanese violinist, Huang Mei-ching 黃美青. And, despite Taiwan's relatively small population in comparison to its neighbors, 27 musicians in the 100-member Asian Youth Orchestra in 2006 were Taiwanese, while 21 were from Japan, 15 from South Korea, and 7 from China.

In the world of sports, Lin Yi-jie 林義傑 was crowned overall victor in the series of four grueling 250-kilometer marathons collectively dubbed the Four Deserts Race held between 2003 and 2006. New York Yankees pitcher Wang Chien-ming 王建民 was hailed as one of the most outstanding Major League Baseball pitchers in 2006. And athletes had outstanding performances in international events, including the 2005 World University Games in Izmir, Turkey, the 2005 East Asian Games in Macau, and the World Games 2005 in Duisburg, Germany. In Izmir, the Taiwan's team ranked ninth among those from 131 countries. At the closing ceremony in Duisburg, the official World Games banner was passed on to representatives of Taiwan's southern metropolis of Kaohsiung, which will host the next World Games in 2009.

In the realm of academic achievement, all of the 23 Taiwanese high school students taking part in the annual International Science Olympiads in physics, chemistry, mathematics, biology, and informatics in 2005 won distinction, bringing home twelve gold medals, nine silvers, and two bronzes. In March 2006, students of Da Yeh University 大葉大學 in Changhua County 彰化縣 overpowered their competitors in an international micro robot sumo tournament held by the Japan Society for Precision Engineering at the Tokyo University of Science, winning three first prizes, two second prizes, and an award for artistic design in five categories of competition.

In scientific research, a team of researchers at Academia Sinica's Institute of Atomic and Molecular Sciences 中央研究院原子與分子科學研究所 have developed a new type of mass spectrometer able to identify microbes by measuring their mass, as detailed in a report published in the February 2006 edition of the internationally prestigious journal Angewandte Chemie. This has been hailed in medical circles around the world, as it is expected that a portable version of the device will greatly simplify the identification of viruses and bacteria, making it easier to prevent and control epidemics.

Countless more citizens in all walks of life are cooperating in diverse realms of endeavor—including economic development, public health, human rights advocacy, education, humanitarian assistance, political reform, and consolidation of democracy—to build a more beautiful world.

Advancing human welfare at home and abroad

Taiwan has in recent years made great strides in providing for the welfare of its people. During the past year, particular attention has been given to improving its public health insurance system and providing for the elderly, who make up an increasingly large part of its population.

Building on the success of Taiwan's existing, decade-old public health insurance system, which now provides virtually universal coverage, the Department of Health (DOH) is preparing to launch a second-generation system to enhance social equity, public participation in policy-making and oversight, accessibility of information, and quality of medical care. Meanwhile, a brand-new pension system came into effect in July 2005 in accordance with the provisions of the Labor Pension Act 勞工退休金條例. Whereas previously, wage earners became eligible for retirement pensions only after working for the same employer for many years, they now are able to count on a steadily growing individual retirement account no matter how many times they change jobs or how many years they work.

Taiwan is also an energetic promoter of human welfare internationally. In terms of emergency relief—above and beyond expenditures in support of a wide range of ongoing, long-term foreign aid programs—Taiwan has contributed more than US$450 million in funds and materiel over the past decade, in addition to volunteer services of incalculable value. In 2005, Taiwan's public and private sectors donated over US$200 million in funds and supplies for relief efforts in countries stricken by the Indian Ocean tsunami of December 2004, and the government donated 600,000 capsules of Tamiflu to Vietnam to help that country prepare for a possible outbreak of avian flu among humans. Taiwanese medical and disaster-relief teams rushed to Pakistan in the wake of the devastating earthquake there in October 2005. And that same month, a medical team was dispatched to Saõ Tomé and Príncipe to assist in quelling an outbreak of cholera.

Demonstrating Taiwan's commitment to play an increasingly vigorous, effective role in international health projects, the DOH and Ministry of Foreign Affairs collaborated in thoroughly revamping the Taiwan International Health Operations Center (TIHOC) 台灣國際醫療營運中心 with the aim of augmenting its ability to consolidate public- and private-sector resources. Since its rebirth as Taiwan International Health Action (TaiwanIHA) 台灣國際醫衛行動團隊 in early 2006, the inter-agency task force has already taken action on several fronts in close cooperation with hospitals and humanitarian organizations.

In April, TaiwanIHA hosted the 2006 International Hospital Federation Asia-Pacific Regional Conference in Taipei and took part in the Dubai International Humanitarian Aid and Development Conference and Exhibition. It dispatched medical missions to provide relief to victims of the May earthquake and tsunami in southern Java, delivering nearly US$200,000 worth of drugs and equipment. In April and June, it sent teams of specialists to Burkina Faso and Chad to assist in controlling outbreaks of avian flu among poultry. And, in cooperation with the International Centre for Migration and Health, a World Health Organization collaborating center, TaiwanIHA has produced avian flu prevention-and-control educational materials—including booklets, optical discs, and posters—in ten languages for distribution throughout the world.

Regrettably, however, Taiwan's ability to advance the cause of human health continues to be constrained by its exclusion from the World Health Organization (WHO). Despite the strong support of enlightened nations and renowned international organizations such as the World Medical Association and Doctors Without Borders for Taiwan's full participation in the WHO and all international health activities, the right of its people to do so has been obstructed by Beijing, which persists in subordinating human welfare to politics. China's continuous efforts to block Taiwan's participation in the global disease prevention-and-control network attest to its disregard not only for the health of Taiwan's 23 million people but for that of people around the world.

Economy in transition

In spite of inflationary pressure caused by rising oil prices, Taiwan's economy posted a respectable performance in 2005, with good prospects for 2006. In real terms, its GDP grew in 2005 by 4.03 percent to US$346 billion, with a GDP per capita of US$15,291. In that year, it was the world's 16th-largest trading nation.

As in preceding years, high-tech manufacturing was the economy's best-performing sector in 2005-2006, accounting for 54.2 percent of production value in the manufacturing sector in 2005. The lion's share of high-tech revenues was generated by companies located in the Hsinchu Science Park 新竹科學工業園區, Southern Taiwan Science Park 南部科學工業園區, and Central Taiwan Science Park 中部科學工業園區. The National Science Council 行政院國家科學委員會 predicted that the three parks' combined sales in 2006 would hit the NT$2 trillion (US$61 billion) mark, representing a growth of more than 40 percent over the previous year. The highest-flying performer during the first half of 2006, boasting a 54-percent growth, was the optoelectronics segment, which includes makers of flat-panel monitors as well as solar energy cells and related equipment. In second place was precision machinery, with a 40-percent jump in revenues.

As of the end of the second quarter of 2006, Taiwan led in production of large-sized LCD panels, with global share of unit shipments exceeding 45 percent. Although the production value of Taiwan's semiconductor industry as a whole grew by a modest 1.7 percent in 2005, it nevertheless retained about 70 percent of global market share in contract manufacturing of integrated-circuit (IC) chips—an industry pioneered in Taiwan—as well as 45 percent of the IC packaging market and 60 percent of the IC testing market. With ten 12-inch IC wafer foundries currently in production and eight more under construction, Taiwan's chip makers are solidly positioned to keep the lead in contract manufacturing for years to come.

Authoritative annual surveys of the world's economies—including those conducted by the World Economic Forum, Business Environment Risk Intelligence, International Institute for Management Development, and Economist Intelligence Unit—have consistently ranked Taiwan among the world's top nations with respect to potential for long-term economic growth and technological development. Survey results for 2005-2006 were no exception.

Nevertheless, there has been growing concern about the impact on Taiwan's economy of large-scale net outflows of capital and talent, mainly to China, and about Taiwan's increasing dependence on trade with China. In 2005, approximately 70 percent of all out-bound investment went to China, and 38 percent of exports went to China. In terms of risk management, it is patently unwise for any economy to depend so heavily on another. The dictum not to put all of one's eggs in a single basket is particularly true in Taiwan's case, given China's threats to take over the island nation by force and its mounting pressure on the people of Taiwan, especially businesspeople, to bow to its demands.

This and other factors have prompted society-wide calls for a comprehensive long-term vision for invigorating Taiwan's economy, with special emphasis on improving the country's investment environment while helping businesses plan and carry out global deployment strategies. To that end, the government convened the Conference on Sustaining Taiwan's Economic Development in July 2006, and vowed to take concrete action to facilitate implementation of the more than 500 consensuses produced by the conferees, drawn from a broad cross-section of society.

Peace and security in the Taiwan Strait

Two major factors underlie tensions across the Taiwan Strait. On the one hand, China persistently attempts to coerce Taiwan to accept its "one China principle"—the proposition that Taiwan is a part of the People's Republic of China—despite the fact that Taiwan is a sovereign, independent country that has never been under the jurisdiction of the PRC government. On the other hand, the two societies are starkly different, Taiwan being one of the world's freest, China one of the world's least free.

Nevertheless, the government of Taiwan is open to discussions about the future relationship with China, possibly including a peaceful, gradual evolution of some form of integration. President Chen has frequently reiterated this and expressed the desire to engage in government-to-government discussions with Beijing authorities on any and all issues of mutual concern.

Despite Beijing's continual rebuffs of such overtures, the Chen administration has backed up its words by promoting cultural and economic cross-strait interaction. As in the case of other free peoples, it has been the hope of Taiwan's people that through positive engagement with China on the economic plane, the latter's rise from poverty would bring with it gradual transformation toward a more democratic polity that renounces violence and the threat of violence as a means of maintaining domestic order and promoting its national interests on the international stage.

Toward that end, in 2001, the Chen administration removed most restrictions on China-bound investments. As of the end of 2005, the Investment Commission of Taiwan's Ministry of Economic Affairs had approved over US$47 billion dollars in large-scale, multi-million-dollar China-bound investments. That figure alone would make Taiwan the fourth-largest source of foreign direct investment in China and a major contributor to its prosperity, whereas a still greater volume of smaller-scale Taiwanese investments is known to have made its way to China.

Without such an enormous infusion of capital, technological know-how, and managerial expertise from Taiwan—more than one million Taiwanese currently live and work in China—China would not be the economic powerhouse it is today. Far from thanking Taiwan for its contribution to China's prosperity, however, Beijing has intensified its efforts to constrict Taiwan's international space, and has escalated its threats to stage a hostile takeover of Taiwan. It has deployed some 800 ballistic missiles against Taiwan on the opposite side of the strait and is building a powerful war machine. In March 2005, it enacted an "anti-separation law" (so-called anti-secession law) which calls for "non-peaceful" action against Taiwan if it does not submit to China's unification ultimatums.

In spite of such intimidation, Taiwan continues to press for the improvement of cross-strait relations. Emphasizing that government policies being formulated to encourage investment in Taiwan do not betoken an end to efforts to promote mutually beneficial economic interaction with China, but rather a pragmatic shift in emphasis, the government has been exploring ways of expanding direct cross-strait passenger and cargo flights, and opening Taiwan to Chinese tourists.

The 2005 Lunar New Year holidays witnessed the first-ever direct passenger charter flights between Taiwan and China. Between January 29 and February 20, a dozen air carriers from both Taiwan and China provided 48 flights connecting Taipei and Kaohsiung with Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou. And the first direct cargo charter flights from Taiwan took off in July 2006. Notwithstanding concerns about national security, most Taiwanese are confident that permitting Chinese to come to Taiwan will not only boost the local economy but enable visitors to gain a firsthand appreciation of the virtues of a free way of life.

Hopes for the future

Will Taiwan be able to sustain its progressive momentum? If the performance of its people in 2005-2006 is taken as the basis for judgment, then there is ample reason to answer in the affirmative. The nation's flourishing young civil society, as well as its central and local governments, are all too aware that there is much room for improvement in their approaches to dealing with a wide range of local, national, regional, and global problems. As long as the people of Taiwan do not rest on their laurels, but strive to consolidate their democracy and maintain their reformist spirit, there is every reason to look forward to a shining future.