ABSTRACT
The success of Taiwan’s post-war economic development policy can be
better interpreted when its long-run economic performance, measured on a per capita basis, is compared with that of mainland China,2 with which
Taiwan shares the same language, culture and history. The calculations
presented below are striking. When post-war development started in Taiwan
in 1945 – and in 1952 in China – China’s per capita GDP was about 30 per
cent below that of Taiwan. However, following three decades of develop-
ment, by the early 1980s China’s GDP per head was still about 18 per cent
of Taiwan’s level. Following their defeat in the Civil War against the forces
of the Chinese Communists and their flight to Taiwan in 1949, the Nationalists (Kuomintang [KMT]) could hardly have dreamt that they would suc-
ceed so triumphantly in peaceful competition with their political rival in
China.
