From the last edition of the ROC (Taiwan) Yearbook that used to be published by the disbanded Government Information Office (GIO).

1. Celebrating a Momentous
1st Century
Creating a Resplendent 2nd Century
T
he year 2011 marks the centen-
nial of Asia’s first republic, the
Special Feature
Republic of China. At 100, the
nation celebrates and takes pride
in having created a prosperous and robust
democracy, founded on a lively civil soci-
ety determined to keep moving forward.
Historical Roots
On the eve of the Republic’s birth,
imperial Qing-dynasty China was plagued
by internal strife and abuse at the hands of
imperialist powers, which carved it into
spheres of influence and extorted unequal
treaties from it. The great mass of China’s
people, meanwhile, led a marginal exis-
tence, with little opportunity for personal
advancement and few political rights or
legally guaranteed civil liberties.
Eager to rectify these injustices, revo-
lutionaries launched a series of insurrections
aimed at toppling the Qing government and
establishing a modern democracy. Finally,
an uprising that broke out on October 10,
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2. 1911 in the city of Wuhan in Hubei Province spread across the country,
resulting in the establishment of the Republic of China in Nanjing on
January 1, 1912 and the abdication of the last Qing emperor in February.
Since then, the nation has honored the courage and ideals of its founders
and martyrs by celebrating its national day on October 10, the date of
the Wuhan Uprising.
Prominent among the founders was Sun Yat-sen, a physician who
had worked tirelessly to garner support for the establishment of the
Republic, and who became its first, provisional president. As conveyed
most forcefully in his political discourse, known as the Three Principles
of the People and later enshrined in the Constitution of the Republic of
China, their common goal was to build a strong and prosperous society
founded on values of social justice and human rights, in which all peo-
ple have the ability—and responsibility—to join in shaping their collec-
tive destiny.
A Century of Stirring Achievements
Thanks to the devotion of so many of its people to the common
well-being, visitors to today’s ROC will discover that Sun’s dream has
come true in Taiwan. The road has been arduous, however. In its early
years the national government had to contend against warlords who at-
tempted to establish their own little kingdoms. And the lively national
development that followed success in that effort was short-circuited by
continuing foreign interference as well as by civil war.
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3. Perseverance under such daunting conditions nevertheless met with
notable successes. In 1945, the ROC, as one of the major Allied Powers,
defeated Japan’s empire-building ambitions, and Taiwan, which Japan had
taken from imperial China as a victory prize at the end of the First Sino-
Japanese War (1894-1895), was restored to the ROC. It abrogated the un-
equal treaties with which it had been saddled, became a founding member
of the United Nations and took a hand in drafting the Universal Declara-
tion of Human Rights.
With the ascendance of communism on the mainland, however, the
ROC government was forced to relocate to Taiwan in 1949, where it re-
established its capital in Taipei.
Prosperity for All
In Taiwan, the ROC government instituted visionary policies that
catalyzed a dazzling economic miracle. Thanks in part to what may be
described as the most successful land reform program in history, Taiwan’s
relatively impoverished agrarian economy was transformed into a highly
prosperous one, based on increasingly sophisticated, knowledge-based
manufacturing and service industries.
As of mid-2010, the ROC ran ked as the world’s 16th-largest
merchandise-exporting nation, 25th-largest economy and fourth-largest
holder of foreign exchange reserves. Its nominal GDP per capita in 2010
stood at about US$18,600 (equivalent to more than US$34,700 in terms
of purchasing power parity as calculated by the International Monetary
Fund). And whereas previously, the ROC was a beneficiary of foreign aid,
it has become one of the world’s major humanitarian benefactors.
Democracy and Human Dignity
Forceful movement toward full democratization and advancement of
human rights began in the late 1970s and swiftly transformed Taiwan into
one of the world’s most progressive societies. The fruits of democratic re-
form are demonstrated by its numerous achievements in creating a more
just, equitable society through the collaborative efforts of all sectors of soci-
ety. These include, for example, amendments to the Constitution instituting
the direct election of the nation’s president and parliamentarians by ROC
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4. citizens with residency in Taiwan, and the enactment and enforcement of
countless laws and regulations to ensure all manner of human rights with
regard to due process of law, gender equality, privacy of personal informa-
tion, etc. Further accomplishments include:
•• measures to promote access to all levels of education regardless of
economic ability;
•• the establishment of a world-class universal health care system;
•• the creation of a nationwide individual retirement account (IRA) sys-
tem, obliging employers to make regular payments into their employ-
ees’ IRAs, regardless of the number of times they change jobs;
•• the provision of universal unemployment compensation; and
•• programs to nurture the distinctive cultural and linguistic heritages of
Taiwan’s kaleidoscope of ethnic groups.
Consequently, the superiority of its political system and social institu-
tions has been affirmed worldwide. U.S.-based Freedom House’s annual
Freedom in the World survey, for example, has for many years ranked the
ROC among the world’s freest nations.
Ongoing Developments
Since coming to office in May 2008, the administration of President
Ma Ying-jeou has spearheaded a wide array of initiatives to enable the Re-
public to continue advancing on all fronts.
Demonstrating the ROC’s resolve to maintain momentum in the
work of fostering democracy and protecting human rights, at the Presi-
dent’s urging, on March 31, 2009 the Legislative Yuan ratified the U.N.
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the U.N. Interna-
tional Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. That same day,
it passed legislation requiring that all ROC laws be in conformance with
these conventions.
President Ma signed the instruments of ratification of the covenants in
May 2009. Further, to ensure that steady progress is made in implement-
ing them, on December 10, 2010—International Human Rights Day—he
established the Presidential Office Human Rights Consultative Committee,
with Vice President Vincent C. Siew serving as its convener.
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5. In addition, the government has launched programs and enacted legisla-
tion to foster cutting-edge and emerging industries that can uplift the econ-
omy to a new plateau, boost government effectiveness, fight corruption, and
promote the welfare of disadvantaged groups. These include, for example:
•• the Industrial Innovation Act;
•• amendments to the People with Disabilities Rights Protection Act,
the Children and Youth Welfare Act and the Public Assistance Act;
•• amendments to the Labor Union Act and the Settlement of Labor-
Management Disputes Act;
•• launching of the National Pension system and the Labor Insurance
Annuity system;
•• the Fair and Speedy Criminal Trials Act;
•• the Civil Servant Administrative Neutrality Act, aimed at preventing
political interference in government administration and preventing
public servants from abusing their positions of authority;
•• amendments to the Local Government Act, which serve as a basis for
mergers of local governments aimed at providing better service; and
•• a set of new laws and amendments aimed at streamlining the central
government—reducing the number of Cabinet-level organizations
from 37 to 29 starting in 2012—while increasing its effectiveness.
These and countless other endeavors are reflected in a variety of inter-
national surveys. In its 2011 World Competitiveness Yearbook, for example,
the Switzerland-based International Institute for Management Development
ranked the ROC as the sixth-most competitive economy among the 59 lead-
ing nations surveyed—up 2 notches from the previous year.
Making the Taiwan Strait a Sea of Tranquility
Under the Ma administration, the ROC has also striven to turn a
new page in the previously antagonistic relationship between Taiwan and
mainland China by resuming institutionalized negotiations between the
two sides. As of December 2010, the ROC’s Straits Exchange Foundation
had negotiated 15 groundbreaking accords with its mainland counterpart,
the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits. These have great-
ly improved relations in areas such as transportation and shipping, crime-
fighting, movements of people and economic interchange.
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6. The crowning achievement of such negotiations is the conclusion of
the Cross-Straits Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement in June
2010, which came into force in September of that year. The agreement is
designed to facilitate institutionalization and liberalization of trade rela-
tions across the Taiwan Strait as well as to help expand Taiwan’s access to
international markets.
World leaders have expressed appreciation for the trend toward
enhanced regional stability that has resulted from this new spirit of
cooperation. In February 2009, for example, the European Parliament
passed a resolution affirming that it “welcomes the significant reduc-
tion of tension in the Taiwan Straits area and the ongoing dialogue
between Beijing and Taipei...” And the U.S.-China Joint Statement
released January 19, 2011 noted that “The United States applauded the
Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement … and welcomed the
new lines of communications” developing between Taiwan and main-
land China.
Creating a Resplendent 2nd Century
In his 2011 New Year’s Day message to the nation, President Ma
underlined the imperative to continue working to “forge a just and fair
society where there is equal opportunity for development, the judiciary
is impartial and clean, the gap between rich and poor is reduced, and hu-
man rights are safeguarded.” Additionally, he stressed that in the coming
century the ROC must continue developing as a living embodiment of all
that is excellent in Chinese culture as well as the best of Western culture,
inspired by an expansive oceanic spirit to match Taiwan’s oceanic geog-
raphy. It must strive to be a paragon of democracy, serving in particular
as an inspiration to the hundreds of millions of peoples in the worldwide
Chinese cultural sphere. And it must harness its people’s talents to be-
come a global force for innovation and be a nation admired for its dedica-
tion to the advancement of well-being for all.
Blessed with an open-hearted, cosmopolitan people enjoying strong
social networks bridging cultures and borders, the nation is set to achieve
these goals and create a resplendent second century.
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