The recent editorial "Taiwan's Surprising Journey" in the "Liberty Times" profoundly outlines Taiwan's extraordinary achievements in the international geopolitical and economic turmoil. The article reflects the important historical starting point of Taiwan's introduction of semiconductor, electronics and information technology from the United States from the 1970s to the 1980s and laid the foundation for the electronic technology industry, and the "Golden Economic Decade" of Taiwan's rapid economic growth from 2016 to 2026. It accurately analyzes how Taiwan has transformed from an isolated international orphan to today's indispensable core hub for global AI and semiconductors. This amazing journey is not only a technological and economic miracle, but also the "national resilience" forged by all Taiwanese people in the face of adversity.
Looking back on the 1970s, it was the most turbulent moment in Taiwan's diplomatic history. Losing its seat in the United Nations, Taiwan and Japan, and Taiwan and the United States breaking off diplomatic relations followed one after another, and there was a comprehensive diplomatic blockade by the Chinese Communist Party. However, it was precisely in the historical desperate situation of extreme scarcity of resources and political isolation that Taiwan made the most far-sighted decision: to import semiconductor technology from the American RCA Company. This technological seed back then, carefully incubated by the Industrial Research Institute and the subsequently established Hsinchu Science Park, gave birth to TSMC and a complete upstream and downstream semiconductor information and communications supply chain.
During the ten years when Tsai Ing-wen and Lai Ching-te were in power from 2016 to 2026, global geopolitics encountered a major change in the confrontation between the United States and China: Trump, who took office in 2017, began to impose high tariffs on Chinese imports in March 2018, which was the starting point of the U.S.-China trade war. In order to assist Taiwanese businessmen who have been affected by the U.S.-China tariff conflict and want to relocate their production bases, the Tsai Ing-wen administration has successively launched three major plans since January 2019: "Welcome Taiwanese businessmen to return to Taiwan to invest," "Accelerate investment by Taiwanese companies that remain in Taiwan," and "Accelerate investment by small and medium-sized enterprises." They have successfully guided the massive return of more than NT$2 trillion in capital and high-end production capacity. This has allowed Taiwan to successfully structurally "decouple" its economy from China and shift its focus towards deep integration with democratic market economies such as the United States, Japan, and Europe. In the past, Taiwan was often questioned for putting all its economic eggs in the basket of the Chinese market and facing the huge risk of being "forced into government by business." But over the past decade, Taiwan has successfully tied its own strength to the interests of the democratic camp through risk diversification and industrial upgrading.
When AI swept the world at an unprecedented speed, countries around the world were shocked to realize that the complete supply chain from high-end chip foundry, advanced packaging to AI servers was all gathered on the island of Taiwan. This also validates the editorial's thesis: Taiwan has transformed from a labor-intensive processing factory in the past to the core of a "democratic technology supply chain." This "silicon shield" not only guarantees Taiwan's economic prosperity, but also becomes a geopolitical strategic consensus among global democratic camps that Taiwan cannot be violated.
The reason why this amazing journey was successful is that Taiwanese people have condensed a local identity with democracy, freedom, and technology as the core. This spirit of "getting more courageous the more frustrated you become" is Taiwan's strongest psychological defense in the face of the CCP's continued civil and military attacks in the future.
Taiwan's surprising journey is a history of struggle to break through diplomatic difficulties with economic strength. History has proven that the greater the challenge, the more amazing Taiwan’s achievements will be. From the thorny road of RCA to the cusp of today's AI era, Taiwanese people have used their strength to prove to the world that we are not pawns of geopolitics, but a key driver of the future of global science and technology.
