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Trials of an Economic Democracy
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10423 |
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CURRENT ISSUES
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| Issue
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2 / 1993 |
1,974 Words |
| Author
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Mark Holton
Mark Holton, a staff member of the governor of Montana,
recently visited Taiwan on a briefing tour coordinated by the
Government Information Office of the Republic of China. |
A $13 billion positive annual trade balance speaks for Taiwan's success in making up through commerce what it lost in the arena of formal relations in the past decade. Taipei's recent international trade fair, a biennial extravaganza that debuted in 1988, greatly benefited from the presence of 49 nations that do not maintain formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan.
"As the people of the Republic of China on Taiwan are enjoying the fruits of economic prosperity," ROC Premier Hau Pei-tsun said at the fair's opening ceremony, "we wish to share with friends our experience in economic development so as to open up more trade channels among all friendly nations."
It was exactly the promise of shared expertise that drew every one from Greek marble merchants to Peruvian jewelry marketers to the fair, whose slogan, "Together We Make Progress," suggested that some of the Taiwanese entrepreneurial magic would rub off on the participants as well.
With or without formal diplomatic recognition, foreign states are queuing up for the trade and aid benefits that derive from dealing with ROC. "No relations, no problem" is how the Free China Journal summed up the country's ongoing relations with the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC). Founded in 1989 to increase cooperation between countries that include the United States, Canada, the People's Republic of China, Australia, Singapore, and Brunei, APEC looked the other way when the ROC joined in 1991 as Chinese Taipei.
At the same time, countries whose previous communist orientation would have proscribed any contact with the island state are today benefiting from doing business with Taiwan. New national entities of the former Soviet Union, once fundamental adversaries, are now in the fore of new, semiofficial relationships. While Taiwan has gained access to much-needed raw materials like iron, coal, and aluminum, the ROC has seen its trade to the former Soviet Union increase over threefold in just three years to $225 million today. A recent visit to Russia, Latvia, the Ukraine, and Belarus by Vice Economics Minister Chiang Pin-kung and a high-level delegation of 60 Taiwanese officials and business leaders cemented the increasingly friendly relations with the former East bloc nations.
Even Vietnam has been brought into Taiwan's expanding orbit of influence, establishing direct air links and seeking economic ties. Meanwhile, Western nations like Sweden and the Netherlands are increasing the "in
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