The outgoing Taiwan President Lee Teng-hui waves to the crowd as he leaves office in 2000.
So fragile are the political affairs between China and Taiwan that even referring to the issue can lead to trouble. Terminology is important, and whatever term one side prefers, the other finds offensive. Certain descriptors, such as “China-Taiwan,” “PRC-ROC,” and “Mainland-Taiwan,” are already tainted with political implications favoring one side or the other. The People’s Republic of China, for example, refuses to acknowledge the name Republic of China because it insists that such a nation does not exist.
The neutral term “Cross-Strait relations” has emerged as an acceptable way to discuss the topic. The term refers to the Taiwan Strait in the west Pacific Ocean, which separates mainland China from the island of Taiwan.
For the past five decades, Taiwan and mainland China have fought a diplomatic battle on the international stage, each not recognizing the status of the other. This division between the “two Chinas” has been a sensitive issue. Nevertheless, there has been no large-scale military conflict between the two, although there were incidents in the 1950s and 1960s when the Chinese bombed the Taiwanese islands of Matsu and Kinmen, and the Taiwanese shelled the mainland from these two islands. However, since 1968 the only instances of military antagonism between mainland China and Taiwan have come in the form of missile tests and military exercises. Nevertheless, the issue has been kept alive in propaganda campaigns in both mainland China and Taiwan.
With each side claiming to be “the real China,” Taiwan's political status has often taken a beating. In 1971 the UN recognized the PRC as the government of China, costing Taiwan its seat in the UN. Since then, and especially as the United States and other nations are on increasingly cordial terms with mainland China, Taiwan has had to work hard to uphold its status in the international arena.
The outgoing Taiwan President Lee Teng-hui waves to the crowd as he leaves office in 2000.
In 1991 Taiwan's president, Lee Teng-hui, declared that the Republic of China on Taiwan would no longer claim to be the government of mainland China. He conceded that the People's Republic of China exercised the powers of government in the mainland areas and announced that the Taiwanese government would no longer try to use force to restore its power over the mainland.
In 2008, China and Taiwan initiated a program for normalizing—somewhat—transportation, postal, and trade communications between them. Prior to the “Three Links” agreements, all such interactions had to go through an intermediary. Gradually, direct commercial flights, shipping, and mail were instituted. However, as of 2016, China limits Taiwan-bound visitors with a quota system, and Taiwan visitors to the mainland are not permitted complete freedom. Some Taiwanese worry that opening these directs routes with mainland China will encourage more Chinese interference in the island's business.
Some Taiwanese think their nation should give up on the idea of unifying with the mainland. Instead, they believe Taiwan should become completely independent from China. Many advocates of Taiwanese independence believe a declaration of independence is necessary or think that changing the country's name from “Republic of China” to “Republic of Taiwan” is a better idea.
An independent Taiwan is unacceptable to the People's Republic of China, which has promised to use force, if necessary, to prevent Taiwan from cutting its ties to China. Even though the two sides do not share a government today, supporters of unification believe they should do so in the future. A declaration of independence would make the establishment of a single ruling government much more difficult. The PRC government says Taiwan is a part of China, and that it should be ruled by the central government in Beijing. However, China's leaders say Taiwan could keep its own political and economic system. This formula is called “one country, two systems.”
Protesters hold Taiwan-shaped signs demanding change in the country’s referendum laws. A 50 percent turnout of eligible voters is also required for a referendum to be declared legitimate; a threshold which critics say is almost unattainable.
Most Taiwanese citizens are not eager for unification, and support for independence is growing, particularly among young people. These people tend to think of themselves as Taiwanese, not Chinese. A 2015 poll found that nearly 90 percent of the population in Taiwan would identify themselves as “Taiwanese” rather than “Chinese” if they had to choose between the two. Just 6 percent said they consider themselves Chinese.
That same poll found that a majority of people in Taiwan—65 percent— prefer to maintain the current political status, but that most—69 percent— would support independence if that or unification with China were the only two options.
President-elect Tsai Ing-wen cheers with her supporters at the Democratic Progressive Party headquarters in Tapei after her election victory on January 16, 2016.
In 2016, Tsai Ing-wen became the first woman president of Taiwan, winning 56 percent of the vote. While she has pledged to maintain peace with China, and says she supports the status quo, Chinese officials on the mainland were wary. After Tsai's victory, the PRC's official Xinhua news agency quickly warned that Taiwan should abandon its “hallucination” of independence and that any move in that direction would be a “poison” that would cause Taiwan to perish.
“The Republic of China, founded on the Three Principles of the People, shall be a democratic republic of the people, to be governed by the people, and for the people.”
—Article 1 of the Constitution of the Republic of China, 1947
WHEN THE CONSTITUTION OF THE Republic of China was adopted in 1946, it was intended for the whole of China. The Nationalist Party, the KMT, still had official control of the mainland at that time. Taiwan has only just been returned to China from Japan a year earlier after the Japanese defeat in World War II. Civil war broke out almost immediately. When Mao Zedong’s Communist forces defeated Chiang Kai-shek on the mainland in 1949, Chiang and the Nationalist ROC government fled to Taiwan. They brought the constitution with them.
Nevertheless, implementation of the constitution was put on hold as martial law was imposed. Elections for the legislature, presidency, and other political offices were suspended. Although critics argued that went against the democratic principles of the constitution, the KMT justified its policy on the grounds that it was necessary in the face of emergency conditions and the threat of invasion from the mainland.
In the 1970s, some Taiwanese citizens began agitating for the relaxation of these restrictions and for permission for more democratic practices. Democracy activists wrote books and magazines to publicize their ideas, took part in local elections and even won a few seats in the ROC legislature. In what is now known as the Kaohsiung Incident of 1979, a group of activists clashed with the police during a demonstration, leading to the arrest and imprisonment of a number of democracy activists.
Taiwan election commission staff read out ballots as they count votes at a polling station in Taipei on January 16, 2016.
Forty years of martial law ended in 1987 when the KMT began to liberalize under the leadership of President Chiang Ching-kuo. Political parties were formed, and the democratic process envisioned by Sun Yat-sen came into being. In May 1991 President Lee Teng-hui announced the end of the Period of National Mobilization for Suppression of the Communist Rebellion. The first general elections to the Legislative Yuan (YOO-ahn), meaning council, and the National Assembly were held in December of that same year.
Taiwan's government is sectioned into central, municipal, and country-city levels. The yuan together with the office of the president make up the central government. The National Assembly, on the other hand, was a body whose functions were to ratify constitutional amendments and territorial changes to the public through referendums. It was abolished in 2005. Taiwan today has a national government with a president, five yuan, and twenty-five country and city governments. The most important government officials are the president, the premier, who heads the cabinet, and the legislators, who make the laws.
Voting age in Taiwan, as of 2016, is twenty, though many younger Taiwanese want to see it lowered to eighteen.
Taiwan operates under the law of the Constitution of the Republic of China, which has been in effect since 1947. The constitution ensures the equality of all citizens before the law; freedom of speech, religion, residence, privacy of correspondence, and of assembly; the rights of existence, work, property, petition, election, and holding public office; the duties of paying taxes and performing military service; and the right and the duty of becoming educated, among other things.
THE THREE PRINCIPLES OF THE PEOPLE The three principles of the people form the basis of the constitution. They were formulated by Sun Yat-sen, who was influenced by democratic philosophies in Western countries, especially the United States, where he lived for some time. The principles are
• nationalism—independence for China, equality for all ethnic groups, and a sense of national identity in a common culture;
• democracy—political and civil liberties for each individual, and governing power to the organs of government; and
• social well-being—building a prosperous and just society where wealth is equitably distributed.
The president is the head of state and is directly elected by the people every four years. The first president of Taiwan was Chiang Kai-shek. During the years of martial law, when a state of emergency existed in Taiwan, the president was elected by the now-defunct National Assembly. After President Chiang Kai-shek's death in 1975, he was succeeded by his vice president, Yen Chia Kan. In 1978 Chiang Ching-kuo, son of Chiang Kai-shek, became president. In 1988 he was succeeded by Lee Teng-hui, the first native Taiwanese to become president.
In 1996 Taiwan held its first direct presidential election. At that time, the term was shortened from six years to four years. Lee Teng-hui was elected again, this time by the people of Taiwan. In 2016, Tsai Ing-wen became the first woman president of Taiwan.
Most democratic countries have three branches of national government; Taiwan has five. The yuan are the executive, legislative, judicial, examination, and control.
EXECUTIVE The Executive Yuan functions as the national policy-making body, equivalent to a cabinet. It has a number of ministries, commissions, and councils, and is headed by a premier. The premier is appointed by the president and sanctioned by the Legislative Yuan.
LEGISLATIVE The Legislative Yuan is a single-chamber parliament and the highest lawmaking body. It is made up of 113 seats—seventy-three are elected in single member districts; thirty-four are elected based on the proportion of nationwide votes received by participating political parties, and six seats are reserved for aboriginal groups. Members serve four-year terms. After the National Assembly was abolished in 2005, most of its power and responsibilities, such as initiating constitutional amendments, were transferred to the Legislative Yuan.
JUDICIAL The Judicial Yuan is responsible for the legal system, which is composed of the Supreme Court, high courts, district courts, and administrative courts. The yuan's fifteen Justices of the Constitutional Court, or Council of Grand Justices, interpret the constitution and ensure that government action is carried out accordingly. Eight of the grand justices serve four-year terms, and the others serve eight-year terms. The Judicial Yuan also supervises the lower courts.
EXAMINATION The Examination Yuan is responsible for the examination, employment, and management of the civil service.
CONTROL The control yuan is a watchdog that audits or checks on the activities of the other branches of government and has the power to censure and impeach government officials.
From 1949 to 1987, when all political parties except the Kuomintang (KMT) were banned, Taiwan's government was effectively a one-party system. The first sign of political liberalization came in 1986 when the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) was formed. Since then, the political system has been increasingly democratized and liberalized into a competitive party system. With the ban on opposition parties lifted, over sixty political parties sprouted up in Taiwan. By 2014, there were 254 legally registered political parties in the ROC, but of course, most are minor parties.
There are two ideological blocs in Taiwan, commonly called the Pan-Blue Coalition and the Pan-Green Coalition. The Pan-Blues, led by the Kuomintang, favor the eventual unification with mainland China under the government of the ROC. Meanwhile, the Pan-Greens, led by the Democratic Progressive Party, tend to support eventual independence for Taiwan. Most members of both sides, however, say they prefer to maintain the status quo for now. Many minor parties in Taiwan are unaligned with either coalition.
Until 2000, the KMT had controlled the government for fifty-one years. In 2001 the DPP became the largest party in the Legislative Yuan, followed by the KMT. Other prominent political parties in Taiwan include the New Power Party and the People First Party.
“One thing we’re concerned about is that as China grows, they want to recruit more people from key industries in Taiwan. To develop flat screens, LEDs, LCDs and solar power, they came and lured away people from Taiwan. Now we’re worried that they want to develop integrated circuits, and to develop those they will take away a lot of people.”
-Kao Shien-quey, deputy minister of Taiwan’s National Development Council, January 2016
TAIWAN HAS A DYNAMIC CAPITALIST economy, the fifth-largest economy in Asia. From being a relatively poor country dependent on agriculture as its main source of income, Taiwan grew into one of the four “Asian Tigers”—the others were Singapore, South Korea, and Hong Kong—industrially developed, free-market Asian economies that maintained exceptionally high growth rates in the later part of the twentieth century. Taiwan was a newly industrialized economy that made the leap from manufacturing low-technology goods such as toys and clothes to manufacturing high-technology computers and aerospace systems.
Much of Taiwan's spectacular economic growth was due to an export-oriented strategy and the development of its infrastructure. In 1991, the government launched the Six-Year National Development Plan. A large-scale investment of over $300 billion in more than six hundred projects was planned for a number of sectors, including mass transit, the transportation industry, telecommunications, power generation, and environmental protection. Besides raising national income and upgrading the quality of life, the development plan aimed to raise Taiwan's status to that of a developed economy—a goal that was realized in 2002 when the country was admitted into the World Trade Organization (WTO).
In recent years, however, Taiwan's economy has stalled due to a number of factors. In 2015, economic growth was a mere 1 percent. Like so much else in Taiwan, the economy is affected by the island's complicated relationship with China. In addition, with its low birth rate of just over one child per woman—among the lowest in the world—Taiwan's population is aging quickly. The number of people over sixty-five are expected to account for nearly 20 percent of its total population by 2025. This will mean a smaller work force, declining tax revenues, and a growing segment of retired workers dependent on the government.
Trade is Taiwan's lifeblood. Due to the political dispute between mainland China and Taiwan, direct trade between the two was banned until 1987. Taiwanese businesses got around this by indirectly trading with the mainland through Hong Kong.
Today, China is Taiwan's number one trade partner, accounting for more than 27 percent of all its exports. In 2006, China overtook the United States to become Taiwan's second-largest source of imports, now close on the heels of Japan. China is also the island's number one destination for foreign direct investment.
During his administration (2008—2016), President Ma Ying-jeou, of the KMT, pursued closer economic ties with China, which brought greater opportunities for Taiwan's economy. To be sure, Taiwan benefitted from China's rising economy, as Taiwanese high tech industries fulfilled large contracts with China. However, the island's increasing economic dependence on China worries many people, who see it as an entanglement that may prove impossible to unknot, leading inevitably to reunification with the Mainland under conditions that will be dictated by the People's Republic. At the same time, China's development of its own high tech industries has begun to replace its need for Taiwanese goods and services.
A container ship heads out of the port of Kaohsiung.
In 2016, Taiwan elected Tsai Ing-wen of the Democratic Progressive Party—which also won a majority in the Legislative Yuan—to be the next president. Her victory was seen as partly due to the Taiwanese people's dissatisfaction with the slowing economy. The public has demonstrated its frustration with stagnant wages, skyrocketing housing prices, and the difficulty of finding decent entry-level jobs. Because of these problems, Taiwan has suffered a “brain drain” as workers look overseas, and even to the mainland, for employment. In 2013, some six hundred thousand of Taiwan's twenty-three million people spent more than half of the year abroad. Three-quarters of those were in China. Other estimates put the figures even higher, saying one million or more people from Taiwan work overseas.
Tsai favors trade diversification to moderate Taiwan's growing dependency on China. For its part, the mainland government issued tough warnings to Taiwan immediately after the election. How Taiwan's new administration will influence Cross-Strait relations and how that will affect the economy remains to be seen.
The driving force behind Taiwan's economic miracle has been its dynamic industrial sector. In 2015, industry accounted for almost 35 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP)—that is, the total value of goods produced and services provided in a country in one year. The service industry, meanwhile, was almost two-thirds of GDP, at 63 percent.
TOURISM
Tourism is a major part of Taiwan’s economy. Since easing restrictions on visitors from Mainland China in 2008, Taiwan has seen a large influx of Chinese tourists. In fact, they now make up the largest segment by far of Taiwan’s tourists, with almost four million Mainland visitors traveling to Taiwan in 2014.
That same year, the island welcomed almost ten million international visitors, an increase of almost two million over the previous year. After the Chinese, Japanese tourists are next largest group.
Taipei is naturally a leading destination in itself, and hosts a number of top attractions, including the National Palace Museum, Chiang-Kai-shek Memorial Hall, and Taipei 101, the distinctive skyscraper that was the world’s tallest building from 20042010. The Shilin Night Market and the Mengjia Longshan Temple, both also in Taipei, are popular. Outside of the capital city, Sun Moon Lake is a much-visited scenic region. National Parks and other wilderness areas show off Taiwan’s spectacular natural beauty.
National Theater and Concert Hall in Taipei.
A worker inspects a motherboard at a computer manufacturing company.
Among the heavy industrial goods manufactured are transportation equipment, electrical and electronic machinery, and metal and petrochemical products. Light industrial goods include beverages, tobacco, textiles, and clothing.
Earlier this century, the high-tech industry was one of Taiwan's shining stars. Its computer company Acer overtook Dell to become the world's second-largest personal computer maker. HTC, a Taiwanese device maker, had surged ahead of Apple to become the largest smartphone seller in the United States. Then, however, the tide turned—the PC market slumped and HCT went into a nosedive amid corruption charges against some its top executives. Since 2015, Taiwan's electronic exports have been falling. Analysts fault a lack of creativity—a focus on short-term fixes in lieu of longterm innovation—in the high tech industry with preventing it from building on the base it had already established.
Although it remains a significant sector of the Taiwanese economy, agriculture has decreased considerably in importance. Contributing to one-third of the economy in 1952, it only accounted for 1.9 percent of Taiwan's GDP in 2015. This trend is not unusual in an industrializing nation, and farm workers tend to earn low incomes. Still, a country has to feed its people. In 2013, Taiwan was able to meet only 32 percent of its food needs, and had to import the rest.
Only about one-quarter of Taiwan's land is suitable for farming. However, that land is cultivated very intensely. Most farms are small, however, and modernization has been slow. The agricultural sector has many problems and concerns as it tries to upgrade the industry—from free trade competition with lower-priced foreign goods to the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, new plant technologies, ecological conservation and sustainability, and labor shortages.
Pineapples grow on a farm in Taiwan.
Visitors enjoy a day at Cingjing Farm in Nantou County.
In 2013, Taiwan's agriculture was a mixture of crops (48 percent), livestock (31 percent), fishing (21 percent) and forestry (0.1 percent). Rice is the principal food crop, and is grown along the western plain and in the south. Other food crops include sugar cane, sweet potatoes, bananas and other tropical fruits, vegetables, peanuts, soybeans, and wheat. Taiwan also grows tea and flowers.
Some farmers have gone organic to tap into that market, and agritourism is also a growing sector. In 2013, there were more than seventy-five recreation farming zones and 317 recreational farms had been licensed.
Taiwan's coal reserves of about 110 million tons are located mainly in the northern counties, and its oil and natural gas reserves are located mostly in Hsinchu and Miaoli counties. As these mineral resources are insufficient to generate enough energy for total domestic demand, many rivers have been dammed to produce hydroelectric power. Marble, limestone, and asbestos are Taiwan's other mineral resources.
TAIWAN IS HOME TO APPROXIMATELY 150,000 different forms of life—1.5 percent of all life species found on Earth—out of which 30 percent are endemic to the country. This vast variety in flora and fauna is partly due to the country’s location between three climatic zones, and to its varied topography.
To protect its diverse ecosystems, the Taiwan government has set aside part of the country’s land area as part of a multi-tiered conservation system. This includes nine national parks—Taroko, Yushan (Jade Mountain), Kenting, Yangmingshan, Shei-Pa, Kinmen, Dongsha Atoll, an oceanic national park established in 2007, Taijiang, and South Penghu Marine National Park, the most recent, established in 2014—as well as several nature reserves, forest reserves, and wildlife refuges.
The government of Taiwan has actively promoted nature conservation since the 1980s. In 1981 it enacted the Cultural Heritage Preservation Act, which mandates the creation of nature reserves. In 1989 the Wildlife Conservation Act was enacted where 1,955 species of rare fauna were classified into three levels of protection—“endangered,” “rare and valuable,” and “requiring conservation measures.”
About 72 percent of the four million acres (1.6 million hectares) of forestland in Taiwan are natural forests. Forest reserves are national forestlands recognized as possessing unique characteristics and preservation is emphasized over land development.
The Formosan black bear is the largest land animal in Taiwan.
Under a forest conservation program launched in 1965, the Forestry Bureau surveys and identifies different kinds of representative ecosystems, rare plants, and animals. It also drafts plans for longterm study and educational tourism within protected nature areas. The Forestry Bureau operates a network of hostels in forest areas that are more than a day's journey from any city and these hostels are open to the public for a fee, depending on the services available and the length of stay.
The Cultural Heritage Conservation Law prohibits hunting, fishing, collecting, logging, or other forms of destruction of designated rare and valuable animals and plants. Since 1982, twenty-three species of animals and eleven species of plants have been identified by the Council of Agriculture as rare and valuable. Many of these plants and animals are endemic to Taiwan and include the Formosan black bear, the Mikado pheasant, the Taiwan pleione, and the Taiwan amentotaxus.
The Formosan black bear, in fact, is a symbol of the country, and is protected by laws. Yet its existence is gravely threatened by poaching, habitat encroachment, lax law enforcement, and public indifference. The concept of animal rights is still new in Taiwan.
Urbanization and industrialization have taken their toll on the island's wildlife. Habitat destruction due to land development, pollution, excessive hunting, and logging has led to a dramatic reduction in the population of wild animals. Wildlife conservation was neglected during Taiwan's years of industrial development in the 1960s and 1970s. In 2013, Taiwan university researchers determined, after an intensive, four-year-long search, that the Formosan clouded leopard had become extinct on the island. In fact, the animal probably hasn't existed on Taiwan in at least one hundred years, but nevertheless, people held out hope that a small number might still be somewhere deep in the wilderness. The news that the leopard was truly gone caught the public's attention in a way that conservation efforts rarely do. The animal's demise was traced to the usual suspects: urbanization, poaching, and habitat destruction. Activists hope the clouded leopard case will spur the Taiwanese people to help save other species on the island—such as the Formosan black bear.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is the only government agency at the national level that is solely devoted to the environmental conservation movement in Taiwan. The responsibilities of the EPA include setting standards to regulate the amount of pollution and the drafting of environmental conservation laws. As an example to the rest of the country, the EPA issued a mandate in 2002 requiring all central government agencies (including state-owned enterprises and schools) and municipal agencies to initiate “green procurement” efforts—that is, 50 percent of the supplies procured by these agencies have to be environmentally friendly. Those who met the standards received a certification called a Green Mark. In 2002, with the implementation of such “green” purchasing measures, applications for the use of the Green Mark imprint increased nearly fourfold.
The EPA's Green Mark Program also encourages manufacturers to produce products that are recyclable and have low environmental impact— and it encourages customers to buy those products. As of 2015, more than 14,500 products had been certified to display the Green Mark logo.
In 2013, the Green Mark Program was extended to the service sector. The EPA now awards gold, silver, or bronze ratings to environmentally-conscious travel agencies, restaurants, cleaning services, car rentals, and car wash companies.
The Taiwanese government has also taken this green living concept to transportation, sustainable energy sources, and building standards.
A protester displays a sign during a demonstration demanding the Taiwan government reduce air pollution in Taipei.
Being a small, densely-occupied island, Taiwan naturally has significant problems with pollution.
AIR POLLUTION Taiwan has some of the worst air pollution in Asia. In fact, the World Health Organization (WHO) ranked Taiwan last of the four East Asian countries known as the Asian Tigers, the other three being Singapore, Hong Kong, and South Korea. Air pollution levels are measured internationally according to the PM2.5 control standard, which Taiwan adopted in 2012. This standard measures the air density of fine particulate matter of 2.5 micrometers or less in diameter. This indicator is useful for predicting health risks from air pollution, as the particulate matter is inhaled and accumulates in the respiratory system.
In Taiwan, the main contributors to the problem are vehicular emissions, thermal power generators, steel plants and large-scale factories. Occasionally, pollution from mainland China, which also has a serious problem, drifts across the strait, blown by seasonal winds.
Taiwan's Air Pollution Control Act (enacted in 1975, revised in 2002) empowers the government to establish air-quality standards for different areas across Taiwan. The combat against air pollution heightened with the issuance of air-quality improvement measures, which include the articulation of tough emission standards for industrial plants and motor vehicles, regular exhaust inspections for motorcycles, the promotion of low-pollution transportation vehicles, as well as imposing strict standards on the composition of petroleum products, among other measures.
The result is that air quality in Taiwan is actually better than it used to be. Still, some people complain that the EPA does little more than issue warnings and advise people to stay indoors on bad air quality days. The EPA for its part, points to a series of Clean Air Action Plans for the period 2015 to 2020. The action plans are fortified with eight additional measures: promoting electric bikes (E-bikes), buses (E-buses), and trucks; fitting diesel cars with soot filters; installing natural gas boilers in hotels; installing riverbed fugitive dust prevention mechanisms; promoting cooperation with mainland China in improving air quality; and conducting research on fine particulate matter (PM2.5) control.
WATER POLLUTION Taiwan has 118 rivers and streams under government supervision, twenty-four of which provide the country with 85 percent of the water used by its citizens. Measures to ensure water quality include setting up water quality sampling stations throughout the country as well as placing thirteen of these rivers on a priority watch list.
The main pollutants of Taiwan's rivers are domestic sewage and industrial discharges. Urban communities are the main polluters, primarily because of the lack of comprehensive sewage systems. In 1991, the extent rate of public underground sewerage systems in Taiwan was merely 3 percent. After years of construction, the amount reached almost 11 percent in 2003. In the same year, the government incorporated the construction of public underground sewerage systems into its national “Water and Green Construction Plan.” The hook-up rate to public underground sewerage systems reached 22.58 percent by 2009, with 47.8 percent of wastewater being properly treated. Much of the untreated water is still being discharged into rivers.
Before 1984, most people in Taiwan dumped their garbage randomly at different places, and the waste disposal facilities were simple and primitive. To manage the disposal of waste, the government built landfills and instituted a plan for recycling.
By 2008, the government claimed that almost 100 percent of waste was correctly disposed of. Incineration replaced landfills as the primary means of waste disposal. The government's goal now is to aim for a policy of Zero Waste, with the emphasis on waste minimization, recycling, and reuse, and says it expects to slash the volume of waste generated in Taiwan by 75 percent by 2020.
In Taipei recycling trucks visit the city's neighborhoods three times a week to collect recyclable materials. Large home appliances and furniture that may be reused are collected by appointment. Nonrecyclable garbage must be disposed of in special blue bags. The purchase price of the bags includes a special fee for disposing of the garbage. These efforts have succeeded in reducing Taipei's daily trash production by a third as well as increasing its recyclable trash collection threefold.
The government says it would like to adopt a sustainable approach to energy by developing renewable energy resources—primarily solar, wind and biomass energy and secondarily hydro and tidal energy. This is a huge challenge. In 2014, fossil fuels—oil, coal and natural gas—constituted 89.9 percent of all Taiwan's energy sources, while nuclear power contributed 8.3 percent, and power from renewable energy accounted for only 1.8 percent.
In 2009, the Legislative Yuan passed a renewable energy act aimed at promoting the use of renewable energy, boosting energy diversification, and helping reduce greenhouse gases. It aims for renewable energy to account for 15 percent of the nation's energy by 2025. President-elect Tsai Ing-wen said in January 2015 that her party aimed to phase out nuclear power in Taiwan by 2025 and to increase the share of renewable energy generation to 20 percent by that year.
The Republic of China lost its seat at the United Nations in 1971 when it was replaced by the People's Republic of China. Having both entities be members was and continues to be unacceptable to the PRC. Because of this, Taiwan has been unable to participate in the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the international environmental treaty formed in 1994 to address issues dealing with greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and climate change. Despite this exclusion, Taiwan continues to make its own efforts at combating the problem. In 2010, it approved a master plan, which in 2014 was renamed the Green Energy and Low Carbon Master Plan. The plan calls for “nationally appropriate mitigation actions” that are measurable, reportable, and verifiable in line with the UNFCCC Copenhagen Accord. It aims to reduce GHG emissions to 2005 levels by 2020 and to 2000 levels by 2025. Between 2010 and 2014, the Master Plan helped reduce CO2 emissions by 28.2 million metric tons (31 million tons). Although CO2 emissions fluctuate from year to year, they are steadily declining overall.
In June 2015, the Legislative Yuan passed the Greenhouse Gas Emission Reduction and Management Act, providing the government with a legal basis for taking action against climate change. The law sets a target of reducing Taiwan's GHG emissions volume to less than half its 2005 level by the year 2050. It also stipulates the establishment of a national action plan for climate change.
After the 1949 exodus, Taiwan’s people were isolated from the Chinese mainland as a result of the Taiwanese government’s ban on traveling to the mainland. In 1987 this ban was lifted, and for the first time in thirty-eight years, many people were able to travel to China to visit relatives whom they had not seen since 1949.
THE 23.4 MILLION PEOPLE OF TAIWAN are essentially urban dwellers. In recent years the boundaries of urban areas have extended beyond the official limits of major cities, leading to the formation of large metropolitan areas that are now home to more than three-quarters, or 77 percent, of Taiwan’s total population. Since industrial development took off in the 1960s, the number of rural residents has dwindled as more families leave their farms to work in industry.
The majority of people in Taiwan (about 98 percent) are Han Chinese, the dominant ethnic group of China. Han is the name commonly given to the Chinese people who originated from the central plains of China. Among the Han Chinese in Taiwan, there are substantial differences between native Taiwanese and mainlanders.
NATIVE TAIWANESE The native Taiwanese are those whose families arrived in Taiwan from the Chinese mainland before 1945. Few Chinese immigrants came to Taiwan during the Japanese colonial period. Therefore, there is, in effect, a fifty-year gap between those who arrived before and after 1945, which makes it easy to understand the differences and distinctions between mainlanders and the native Taiwanese who make up 84 percent of the population and are mostly either Hakkas (HAH-kahs), or from the Fujian and Guangdong provinces.
Sankeng Old Street in Taoyuan City is a traditional Hakka community.
The Hakkas originally came from Hunan province in China. For centuries they were a wandering people, and the name Hakka means “guest,” suggesting temporary occupation. Within China many moved to Guangdong and Fujian provinces to escape the northern tribes that had invaded their home provinces; eventually many of them migrated to Taiwan. Hakkas were among the first migrants to arrive from mainland China in the twelfth century. Most of the Hakkas now live in northeastern Taiwan.
MAINLANDERS The mainlanders are so called because they are the immigrants who fled the mainland just before or soon after the Communist victory there in 1949. The term also applies to their descendants. When the 1.5 million mainlanders first arrived in Taiwan, their impact on society was great. Almost overnight the population of Taiwan swelled from 6 million to 7.5 million. The immigrants occupied many of the government and administrative positions in Taiwan and, in effect, controlled the government.
ETHNIC UNREST Relations between the native Taiwanese and the mainlanders have not always been easy. The February 28 incident in 1947 was the worst and most violent expression of antagonism between the two groups. The native Taiwanese resented the fact that mainlanders, while accounting for less than 15 percent of the population, had taken over the government and the island itself. This situation only began changing in the 1970s, when President Chiang Ching-kuo allowed more native Taiwanese to enter the political arena, and chose Lee Teng-hui, a native Taiwanese, to be vice president. When Lee became president in 1988 after Chiang's death, this was regarded as a momentous event in Taiwan's political history.
Aboriginal women are dressed in traditional costumes in Kaohsiung.
There remains some lingering resentment between the native Taiwanese and the mainlanders, who are sometimes thought to be arrogant. However, as many of the original mainlanders who came to Taiwan in 1949 are replaced by a new generation, greater assimilation between the two groups is occurring. Young Taiwanese pay little attention to ethnic differences, while increasing instances of intermarriage between mainlanders and the native Taiwanese have also helped to narrow the remaining gap between them.
Taiwan has approximately half a million aborigines, or yuan zhu min (YOO-an Ju min), meaning original people—the indigenous people of the island. They are of Austronesian stock, having arrived in Taiwan thousands of years ago from regions as far away as Easter Island, Madagascar, and New Zealand. They currently make up about 2 percent of the entire Taiwanese population.
The indigenous tribes represented in that 2 percent are the Amis, Atayal, Bunun, Kavalan, Paiwan, Puyuma, Rukai, Saisiat, Sakizaya, Seediq, Thao, Truku, Tsou, and Yami tribes. In 2014, the Taiwanese government recognized two additional aboriginal tribes, the Hla'alua and the Kanakanavu, bringing the total number to sixteen. The Ami group is the largest of them, accounting for more than one-third of the indigenous population.
The aborigines are physically different from the Han Chinese in that they tend to have darker skin, bigger eyes, and sharper noses. Originally they lived in the plains, but with the arrival of the mainland Chinese over the centuries, they gradually retreated into the mountains. Their traditional occupations were farming, hunting, animal husbandry, and fishing. They are still involved in crafts such as weaving and metalwork.
At Sun Moon Lake in the Central Range, the Formosan Aboriginal Culture Village houses a model recreation of aboriginal villages representing the various tribes. Besides carrying on with their traditional lifestyle based on agriculture and hunting, some tribes have turned to making traditional crafts to attract tourist dollars. However, some aborigines are fed up with being treated like tourist attractions and object to having their lives put on display.
AMIS The largest aboriginal tribe in Taiwan is the Amis. They are found mainly in the eastern region of Taiwan from Hualien to Taitung. The Amis have a matriarchal society in which the oldest woman in the family is the head of the household. The family name is carried on through the women, so children inherit their mother's name. When men get married, they traditionally move in with their wives' families.
Traditional Ami homes are thatched huts with wooden beams. Most houses are large communal dwellings because extended families live together. The Amis have a reverence for nature and worship gods of nature. They have many rites and ceremonies, the most important being the harvest festival held in July and August each year.
Farmers from the Amis tribe hold up day lily buds in Cihara’ay, Hualien County.
The 2011 movie, Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale, is unusual for several reasons. The film by Taiwanese director Wei Te-Sheng is a historical drama about Taiwan’s aborigines. It stars a number of aboriginal actors, many with no previous acting experience, and was the most expensive production in Taiwanese cinema history. Originally a two-part film running four-and-a-half hours, the movie was trimmed to a single, two-and-a-half-hour cut for international release.
Wushe Incident Memorial Statue.
The story is based on a true, little-known event in 1930 called the Wushe Incident that occurred when Taiwan was under Japanese control. After years of being mistreated by the Japanese, a coalition of aboriginal Seediq mountain tribes mounted a surprise rebellion in an attempt to drive the Japanese out of aboriginal homelands. The Japanese responded in a particularly brutal way, using mustard gas bombs to flush the rebels out of the forests. Of the 1,200 Seediq directly involved in the uprising, 644 died, and 290 committed suicide to avoid being taken alive. However, a few months later, the tribe’s village was attacked and all the remaining men over fifteen were beheaded.
ATAYAL The Atayal people are distributed mainly over the northern parts of Taiwan. Some members live in the Taroko National Park. Like other aboriginals, the Atayal live by farming and hunting. Unlike the matriarchal Ami, Atayal men take their wives and children to live with their families. The Atayal religion is based on a belief in utux (OOH-tooks), or supernatural spirits and the spirits of the dead.
YAMI AND SAISIYAT They are among the smallest tribal groups in Taiwan. The Yami peoples' homeland is Lanyu, or Orchid Island, but many have left to live in Taiwan because of a lack of job opportunities on Lanyu. They are mainly fishing people who supplement their catch by breeding pigs and growing taro, sweet potato, yam, and millet. Traditionally, men and women have different roles—the men prepare the fields for cultivation, build boats, go fishing, build homes, weave baskets, and make pottery; the women tend to the crops and harvest them, take care of domestic affairs, and weave cloth. Being a fishing community, the Yami are famous for their beautifully carved and painted canoes.
A member of the Saisiyat tribe performs at the Ai Jin Li festival in Wu Fong.
The Yami also have a matriarchal system. Women can have trial marriages for one month; if a husband does not prove his worth by contributing to his wife's family, his wife can divorce him and look for a new husband.
The Saisiyat are mainly agriculturalists and foresters whose culture has been strongly influenced by their neighbors, the Atayal aborigines. Three or four households of the same name usually make up one Saisiyat settlement. A few neighboring settlements may join to form a village with shared farming land and amenities.
For most Taiwanese today, including aborigines, traditional costumes are mostly just for festivals and other special occasions. Western-style clothing is the choice for everyday wear.
On some occasions, Chinese women may wear the traditional cheongsam (also called a chipao), a long, slim-fitting, knee- or ankle-length dress with a slit at each side and a high mandarin collar. The dress is usually made of a rich Chinese silk and has a beautiful floral print. It is often sleeveless or has short sleeves, although long sleeves are also possible. The changshan is the traditional dress for men. It consists of three pieces—a black, waist-length jacket with a Mandarin collar and long, loose sleeves; a dark blue underskirt that extends to the knees and has slits at the sides; and long, black, loose-fitting trousers. Both the male and female versions are modified forms of traditional Ching Dynasty dress.
A young woman wears a cheongsam and holds a paper parasol.
More women than men wear traditional clothes. At weddings, for instance, the bride usually changes from a Western-style dress into a cheongsam at the wedding reception, but the groom continues to wear his Western-style suit. Among the wedding guests, it is usually the older people who wear traditional clothes.
The color white symbolizes death and is used at funerals instead of the black common in the West. At weddings, red is a popular color because it represents good luck.
THE TAIWANESE PEOPLE ENJOY A comfortable lifestyle, influenced by Western culture but guided by deeply traditional Chinese values. They, especially young people, tend to love all things Western—the food, the clothes, the music, the shopping, and so forth. Indeed, Taiwan’s prosperous material culture, with its commercial aspects, can seem quite Western, at least superficially. Taiwan also mirrors the West in its democracy, free press, and free elections. Technologically, Taiwan is very modern and industrialized. However, it would be a mistake to assume that Taiwan is just like the United States or Canada or a European country. Its culture is inherently Chinese, and this is reflected in everyday life.
Confucian ethics are the single most important element in Taiwanese people's values and beliefs. Confucianism is based on the teachings of China's greatest teacher and philosopher, Confucius (551—479 bce). Although many of the practices associated with Confucianism have been mistakenly called a religion, in reality it is a code of conduct. Confucianism focuses on maintaining harmony in the world. Everyone has a particular place in their society and in the world, and if people respect preset rules of social behavior, the result will be social harmony.
Confucius prescribed a code of behavior for five specific categories of relationships—loyalty of a subject to a ruler, of a son to his father, of a younger brother to an elder brother, of a wife to a husband, and of one friend to another. This code was a set of rules that taught people about the sort of behavior required in each relationship. The respect and loyalty that are integral parts of each relationship are fundamental Confucian values aimed at strengthening social harmony. Confucianism is therefore often called “a code of conduct, a guide to morality and good government.” All aspects of Taiwanese and Chinese life are, to some extent, influenced by the teachings of Confucius.
Filial piety, called xiao (see-ow), or respect and obedience to one's family elders, is one of the most important Confucian virtues. It operates as a strong force binding families together in Taiwan. Increasing Westernization has not eroded this force.
The Confucian focus on group solidarity and harmony is best seen in the family model. The family is not only the most important unit of society in Taiwan, but it is also the strongest and most cohesive social unit. Children are brought up to respect the family structure and to understand that their primary duty is to the family. This ensures that filial piety is perpetuated and that families remain close-knit. Families also feature strongly in Taiwanese and Chinese society as a source of comfort and support in times of illness or trouble for individual members.
In the traditional family structure, extended families often live together, so that a single household may have as many as ten to fifty members. It used to be very common for at least three generations to live together, with the grandparents, adult children, and grandchildren all residing under the same roof. At one time, having many children was considered to be a way of honoring the family ancestors. Before family planning became commonly practiced, couples sometimes had as many as eight to ten children; as each of those children grew up and had their own large families, a single extended family could have up to one hundred members.
Large extended families are no longer the norm in urban Taiwan, where living constraints have led to the increasing prevalence of nuclear families. In crowded and expensive cities, especially in Taipei, the cost of maintaining large households is just too much for the average family to bear. It is now common for sons and daughters to get their own apartments when they marry and start their own families. As such, aging parents sometimes live alone, although they often move in with their children once there are grandchildren. Family size is also shrinking, and most married couples nowadays tend to have only one or two children.
A mother and her young son play at the seashore.
China’s most famous teacher and philosopher, Kong fuzi (called Confucius), was born in mainland China in 551 bce during what is known as the Warring States period. This was a time of great anarchy and confusion in China as different warlords struggled for power.
Confucius’s father died when he was very young, so he was brought up by his mother and was largely self-educated. He was very disturbed by the political and social chaos of those times and believed they were caused by corrupt officials who had abandoned the correct codes of conduct. Although Confucius tried to get a job in the civil service that would allow him to implement his ideas, he was not very successful. So he decided instead to travel around the country to spread his beliefs on the value of humanitarian behavior, loyalty to the family, and respect for authority.
Three of his most important teachings focused on the concepts of li (lee), meaning ritual or etiquette; yi, or righteousness; and ren (jehn), meaning kindness and benevolence to all human beings. He believed that if everyone practiced ren, the world would be a better place. According to Confucius, the ideal man should be a junzi (JUHN-zee), a perfect man who lives according to his principles.
In those days education was available only to rich noblemen. Confucius defied tradition by opening a school that accepted all pupils regardless of wealth or status. Over a period of forty years, he taught some three thousand pupils from all backgrounds on the subjects of ritual, music, archery, driving chariots, history, and mathematics. Many of his teachings survive today in a collection called The Analects of Confucius.
Confucius died in 479 bce, but his influence has not diminished. He is remembered and venerated in China and Taiwan as the Great Sage who established a code of conduct that forms the core of Chinese culture and lifestyle. His teachings have survived the test of time for 2,500 years. Every child in present-day Taiwan learns about Confucius’s teachings. Every year on September 28 the entire island of Taiwan celebrates the birthday of this great teacher.
Until recently, Taiwan was a predominantly agricultural society. Women, as well as men, were workers, particularly in family farming. However, men were more likely to engage in trade and other forms of nonagricultural, waged labor. As more women now work outside of family farming and are financially independent, their role in the family is rapidly changing. More women are resisting the traditional thinking that their place is confined to the home. The role of the head of the household has also been redefined in modern Taiwanese society. Fathers once had absolute authority in the family and made all the decisions, but today their sons and daughters also expect to have a say in family matters, mainly because they may be better educated than the father.
The role of grandparents has also changed. Previously, they were considered the guardians of wisdom in extended families, and their opinions were sought after and respected. As many of the elder generation now live apart from their children and grandchildren, they have less influence in guiding family members. The traditional Chinese concept of family harmony has, to some extent, been eroded by an urban lifestyle. Nonetheless, grandparents continue to play a big role in rearing children. Daycare, nannies, and babysitters are rare in Taiwan because in most families grandparents are happy to take care of the youngsters when the parents are busy.
