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Recent Developments on Formosa*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 February 2009

Melvin Gurtov
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Extract

Ever since the conquest of the mainland by Communist forces, the foreign policy of the Republic of China has revolved about a single goal: recovery of the mainland. Recovery of the mainland is, in fact, the reason d'être of the Chiang Kai-shek régime; should the government ever admit doubts about its ability or desire to return, the entire basis for KMT rule would be irrevocably undercut. It is therefore not surprising that, in the last two years no less than in the more distant past, the theme of an imminent return has dominated the pages of Formosa's newspapers, with new evidence being brought forward regularly to demonstrate that the mainland régime is on the verge of collapse. The cultural revolution has brought about important changes in the “return” theme. It has not reduced its relevance, but seems to have induced recalculations in ROC official circles over the timing and nature of the mainland recovery operation.

Type
Research Article
Information
The China Quarterly , Volume 31 , July 1967 , pp. 59 - 95
Copyright
Copyright © The China Quarterly 1967

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References

1 China Post (Taipei; hereafter CP), 02 22, 1966, p. 6Google Scholar.

2 Ibid., April, 1 1966, p. 6.

3 Central Daily News (Taipei; hereafter CDN), editorial of 02 2, 1966, p. 2Google Scholar.

4 Ibid., January 1, 1967, p. 1.

5 CDN, August 22, 1966, p. 1.

6 CP, June 5, 1966, p. 6.

7 Foreign Trade Quarterly (published by the Foreign Exchange and Trade Commission of the Executive Yuan), No. 13 (04, 1967)Google Scholar. Hereafter, FTQ.

8 CDN, August 22, 1966, p. 1.

9 Ibid., December 9, 1965, p. 5.

10 It is public knowledge, however, that about 30 ROC military instructors are on duty in and around Saigon.

There has been speculation that the United States will use the Kungkuan air base on central Formosa for troop airlifts and emergency cargo hauls. In January 1966, 15–18 Hercules C–130 transport carriers arrived at Kungkuan for a “temporary but indefinite” period, according to an official statement issued by U.S. Air Task Force 13. U.S. officials were not very convincing when they insisted the carriers were sent for duty related to American defence of Formosa and the off-shore islands. See CP, January 18 and 30, 1966, p. 6.

11 UDN, February 19, 1966, p. 1.

12 CP, April 25, 1966, p. 1; April 30, p. 6.

13 Ibid., May 29, 1966, p. 6.

14 Ibid., May 3, 1966, p. 1.

15 Ibid., May 7, 1966, p. 6; CDN, July 3, 1966, p. 3.

16 FTQ.

17 CP, June 12, 1966, p. 1. Total Australia-ROC trade in fiscal 1966 was $23·4 million, compared to Australian exports to mainland China in 1965 of goods (mainly wheat) valued at $168 million.

18 Editorial of August 18, 1966, p. 2.

19 These figures represent drops of 7 and 4 per cent., respectively, in comparison with 1965.

20 After Japan, the United States is Formosa's second best customer and supplier; the U.S. exported 32 per cent, of all ROC imports and imported about 20 per cent, of all ROC exports. (See FTQ.) In 1966, combining the total value of exports and imports to and from Formosa, Japan ranked first with $372·1 million, the U.S second with $303·2 million. Ibid.

21 CP, March 8, 1966, p. 6.

22 See Yen Chia-kan's report to the Legislative Yuan, in ibid., p. 4; and China Yearbook, 1965–66 (Taipei: China Publishing Co., 1966)Google Scholar.

23 CP, May 23, 1966, p. 1.

24 Free China Radio broadcast, December 7, 1965.

25 CDN, December 6, 1965, p. 5.

26 CP, June 7, 1966, p. 6.

27 Also recognising the ROC: Libya, Malawi, Dahomey, Chad, Togo, Niger, Upper Volta, Malagasy Republic, Ivory Coast, Union of South Africa, Liberia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Congo (L.), Gabon and Cameroon. Recognising Communist China are: Egypt, Sudan, Algeria, Morocco, Mali, Tunisia, Zambia, Guinea, Ghana, Congo Republic (Brazzaville Congo), Somalia, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi, and Mauritania. Among the undecided: Gambia, Senegal, Ethiopia, Central African Republic, and Nigeria.

28 Two African nations, Burundi and Senegal, changed their 1965 positions from abstentions to votes in support of the Albanian-Cambodian resolution. Senegal had been receiving ROC technical assistance.

29 A report of past voting patterns may be found in CDN, September 5, 1966, p. 2. The 1966 vote is given in New York Times, November 30, 1966, pp. 1 and 4, and in Los Angeles Times of the same date, pp. 1, 16.

30 Of 1,425 ballots cast, 1,405 favoured Chiang; the other 20 were declared null and void. See CP, March 22, 1966, p. 1.

31 For an analysis of the vice-presidential vote, see UDN, March 23, 1966, p. 1.

32 Their views were effectively summarised in UDN editorials of May 5 and 6, 1966, p. 2, which appeared prior to Yen's appointment.

33 Aside from election of the president and vice-president, the National Assembly is also empowered to recall both officials, to amend the constitution, and to vote on proposed constitutional amendments. Art. 27 of the constitution.

34 UDN, March 8, 1966, p. 1.

35 See CP, March 3, 1966, p. 6; Bank of China, Economic Review, No. 110 (03–04 1966), p. 17Google Scholar (hereafter, BCER); China Yearbook, p. 287.

36 Tzu-yu Chung-kuo chih kung-yeh (Industry of Free China), XXV, No. 4 (04 1966), pp. 58–59Google Scholar (hereafter, IFC); BCER, p. 17;CP, April 17, 1966, p. 2. The preliminary figure for 1966 is $189; CDN, January 27, 1967, p. 2. While comparisons can be misleading, we might note for the sake of illustration that Japan's per capita income is about $620 and mainland China's in the neighbourhood of $100.

37 JFC, XXVII, No. 5 (05 1967), p. 142Google Scholar. Regardless of fluctuations in consumer prices, the city price of food staples and housing (including rent, fuel, water, electricity, furniture, etc.) has uniformly risen.

38 BCER, p. 19.

39 The monetary system has shown extraordinary stability in recent years. The NT$40-to-U.S.$l exchange rate can only be very slightly bettered on the tiny black market.

40 Directorate-General of Budgets, Accounts and Statistics, Executive Yuan, , Chung-hua min-kuo kuo-min so-te 1958–1966 (National Income of the Republic of China), 01 1967, p. 62Google Scholar.

41 Petroleum, sugar, fertiliser, alkali, aluminum, metal mining, machinery, shipbuilding, textiles, coal, fisheries, electric power and tobacco-liquor.

42 CP, April 24, 1966, p. 6.

43 Ibid., February 25, 1966, p. 2.

44 Ibid.

45 China Yearbook, p. 278.

46 Unwise handling of funds, as much as outright corruption, has been behind the demise of a number of companies in recent years. The Control Yuan revealed during 1966 that eight banks had failed to collect bad debts to corporations totalling NTS1·8 billion. What seems to happen among businesses on Formosa is that enterprises, both private- and government-sponsored, seek to hide their growing insolvency; when the actual situation comes to light, it is usually found that an outfit has been operating in the red for years.

47 In the United States, for example, corporate income taxes are 4·5 per cent, of the national income. In Formosa, business taxes comprise about 11 per cent, of all tax receipts.

48 See CP, February 11, 1966, p. 2.

49 One serious form is the so-called “underground factory,” an unregistered operation of a few individuals who may collaborate either to produce an item that attempts to imitate a foreign commodity (e.g., shampoo, detergent) or to place a new one on the market in competition with existing products. In the latter case, especially Pharmaceuticals, the danger exists that inferior goods will come into the hands of unsuspecting consumers and (as has already happened) seriously impair public health.

50 On the Yue Loong case, see UDN, June 9, 1966, p. 2.

51 UDN, April 5, 1966, p. 2.

52 FTQ.

53 Ibid.

54 CP, March 12, 1966, p. 6. Nevertheless, bananas earned about eight times as much foreign exchange in 1966 as in 1963. See FTQ.

55 Overproduction and few markets are dangers with these newer products, however, as evidenced by the case of asparagus (first tested for export potential in 1964 and now popular with West Germans); see Chin-jih ch'i-yeh (Enterprise Today), April 15, 1966, p. 3 and CDN, editorial of September 17, 1966, p. 2.

56 China Yearbook, p. 382.

57 CDN, September 15, 1966, pp. 3–4.

58 Ibid., p. 3. Overseas Chinese investment does not include remittances. While “foreigners” here are mostly Americans, the increasing Japanese investment noted previously should be recalled. In the past year (1966), an Italian firm announced plans to develop Taiwan's petrochemical industry. CP, March 7, 1966, p. 1.

59 Taiwan Trade Monthly (hereafter TTM), IV, No. 4 (04 1966), pp. 9–10Google Scholar; China Yearbook, pp. 364–365.

60 CP, June 3, 1966, p. 6, an interview with AID representative Gerald H. Huffman.

61 Ibid.

62 CP, January 27, 1966, p. 6.

63 The various programmes outlined here are quite apart from the funds potentially available in the form of loans. In the past, the ROC has borrowed three times from the World Bank (total: $42·8 million) and twice from the (U.S.) Export-Import Bank ($33·75 million). With China's credit now firmly established, loans from these or other sources may be increasingly relied upon as substitutes for direct U.S. fimincial help.

64 CP, May 1, 1966, contains comments on M.A.A.G.'s role in the ROC by the commander, General D. B. Johnson.

65 Official American visitors to Formosa invariably extol the economic achievements of the island and the image of Formosa as a model for development. Vice President Humphrey, during a brief stop-over in 1966, spoke of the ROC as an “example” for other free world nations in its economic progress. (CDN, January 2, 1966, p. 1.) And Secretary of State Dean Rusk, who spent July 3, 1966 on the island, referred to Formosa's progress as a “mirror” for other countries. (Ibid., July 4, 1966, p. 1.) While the results of U.S. aid to Formosa are undeniably laudatory, they cannot be interpreted as holding the key to successful experiences in other underdeveloped areas.

66 CP, February 8, 1966, p. 6.

67 “Our Serious Comments on ‘National Laws and Party Control,’” No. 98 (12 1, 1965), pp. 1–6Google Scholar.

68 The story was carried in CP, March 25, 1966, p. 6.

69 In the 1966 cabinet reshuffle, Hsu Ch'ing-chung, a 60-year-old native of Formosa, was named Minister of the Interior. Huang Kuo-shu has headed the Legislative Yuan since 1961. Both men are members of the KMT.

70 CP, April 8, 1966, p. 6.

71 Ibid., May 24, 1966, p. 6.

72 To keep Liao from obscurity, the government appointed him chairman of a committee for the new Tsengwen Dam project.

73 UDN, April 12, 1966, p. 1 and CP, April 13, 1966, p. 6.

74 Koo, Richard, “On the Release of Prof. Peng Ming-min,” Independent Formosa, V, Nos. 1–2 (04 1966), 9–10Google Scholar.

75 The World Health Organisation recently declared malaria to have been wiped out on Formosa. In addition, island-wide checks are made every summer for cholera injections, which are available free of charge. Tuberculosis is perhaps the number one health problem on the island; despite claims by the government that it is stamping out TB, the fact remains that it is as yet uncontained.

From the standpoint of medical attention, Formosa ranks second in Asia (to Japan) in the number of doctors per square mile.

76 China Yearbook, 1966–1967, table p. 110. Members of the Chinese armed forces and foreign nationals are excluded.

77 China Yearbook, 1965–1966, p. 469.

78 Ibid., p. 471.

79 Ibid., p. 468.

80 CP, May 23, 1966, p. 4.

81 CP, March 3, 1966, p. 6.

82 April 5, 1966, p. 2.