Taiwan Miracle

The Taiwan Miracle () or Taiwan Economic Miracle refers to the rapid economic development to a developed, high-income country during the latter half of the twentieth century. As it developed alongside South Korea, Singapore and Hong Kong, Taiwan became known as one of the "Four Asian Tigers". Taiwan was the first developing country to adopt an export-oriented trade strategy after World War II. After a period of hyperinflation in the late 1940s when the Kuomintang-led government of the Republic of China military regime of Chen Yi overprinted the Taiwanese dollar against the previous Taiwanese yen in the Japanese era, it became clear that a new and stable currency was needed. Along with the $4 billion in financial aid and soft credit provided by the US (as well as the indirect economic stimulus of US food and military aid) over the 1945–1965 period, Taiwan had the necessary capital to restart its economy. Further, the Kuomintang government instituted many laws and land reforms that it had never effectively enacted on mainland China. A land reform law, inspired by the same one that the Americans were enacting in occupied Japan, removed the landlord class (similar to what happened in Japan), and created a higher number of peasants who, with the help of the state, increased the agricultural output dramatically. This was the first excedent accumulation source. It inverted capital creation, and liberated the agricultural workforce to work in the urban sectors. However, the government imposed on the peasants an unequal exchange with the industrial economy, with credit and fertilizer controls and a non monetary exchange to trade agrarian products (machinery) for rice. With the control of the banks (at the time, being the property of the government), and import licenses, the state oriented the Taiwanese economy to import substitutive industrialization, creating initial capitalism in a fully protected market. It also, with the help of USAID, created a massive industrial infrastructure, communications, and developed the educational system.

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HUM-278: Social changes in Hong Kong and Taiwan

Hong Kong and Taiwan have experienced significant social changes in the last decades. This course aims to provide students a broad knowledge foundation to understand the two East Asian societies from

East Asia

East Asia is the easternmost region of Asia, which is defined in both geographical and ethno-cultural terms. The modern states of East Asia include China, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan. Hong Kong and Macau, two small coastal quasi-dependent territories located in the south of China, are officially highly autonomous but are under Chinese sovereignty. Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, Mainland China, Hong Kong, and Macau are some of the world's largest and most prosperous economies.

Taiwan Miracle

Economy of Taiwan

The economy of Taiwan is a highly developed market economy. It is the 5th largest in Asia and 17th-largest in the world by purchasing power parity, allowing Taiwan to be included in the advanced economies group by the International Monetary Fund. Taiwan is notable for its rapid economic development to a developed, high-income country. This economic growth has been described as the Taiwan Miracle. It is gauged in the high-income economies group by the World Bank. Taiwan is one of the most technologically advanced computer microchip makers in the world.