◎ Su Xunbi
When we are young, our world seems to have a clear map. At that time, I worked hard to learn English, thinking about how to save money, how to take the TOEFL, and get a scholarship to study in the United States to pursue the distant American dream. Later, I worked hard to learn Japanese because I was convinced that as long as I joined a large Japanese company, I would be able to receive a generous salary and enjoy the security of lifetime employment. This is a stable and noble ambition in the hearts of this generation.
At that time, Taiwan was a latecomer eager to catch up, Japan was a huge economic mountain, and Europe and the United States were the coveted advanced shores. We never thought, or even dared to dream, that Taiwan would one day catch up.
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However, history has written legends inadvertently.
Just in the past year of 2025, Taiwan's national income (per capita GDP) officially surpassed Japan and South Korea!
In 2025, Taiwan's national income will officially surpass Japan and South Korea; diagram. (Bloomberg file photo)
This achievement, confirmed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and major institutions, is simply an incredible dream for us who have experienced the era of Taiwan overcoming difficulties and taking off, processing and exporting. But, the dream came true. This is not an accidental luck, but the culmination of decades of hard work and hard work day and night by all Taiwanese people in semiconductors, high-tech manufacturing and countless supply chains. The pursuers back then are now standing proudly at the forefront of the times.
By broadening our horizons and examining the economic and liberal changes in major countries around the world over the past decade, we can more clearly see the preciousness of this path: The United States is still the innovation core of global technology and capital, but it has also experienced serious social divisions and polarized politics; although Japan and South Korea each have their own industrial advantages, they have also long faced the pressure of structural rigidity or high involution.
Looking back at China, looking back, how many of those industries and Taiwanese businessmen who had a gold rush dream and thought they could just go west with capital and technology to make "easy money" ended up falling short in the end? In the absence of legal guarantees, political power overriding everything, rapid economic decline, and high surveillance, most of the gold rush westward in the past turned into bubbles and phantoms.
The great changes of the past ten years have proven one thing to the world: Taiwan has not only stood firm in the cracks, but also proved itself with its world-leading technological strength. More importantly, we have preserved the most valuable values of democracy, freedom and the rule of law. We have not followed the old path of relying on totalitarianism to maintain stability. Instead, we have won the respect of the world through diversity, openness and resilience.
Over the past ten years, the global situation has been turbulent. Taiwan has not only stood firm in the cracks, but also proved itself with its world-leading scientific and technological strength; diagram. (European News Agency file photo)
Freedom is not free, and prosperity is not taken for granted. In the past, we envied other people's round moons, but now, Taiwan's night sky is emitting its own light. This is a land where we live, it is real, free, and full of life. When we witness the moment when the national income surpasses that of Japan, we should firmly believe that the beauty of Taiwan deserves all Taiwanese to stand tall and take extra care. There is still a long way to go. As long as we are connected heart to hand, the story of this island will continue to shine confidently and proudly on the world stage.
(The author is a public health scholar/national resilience researcher)
