CHINESE TAIPEI
GENERAL
- Area:
- 36,000 km2.
- Population:
- 20,995,000 (Dec. 1993).
- Main cities:
- Taipei, Kaohsiung.
- Major languages:
- Mandarin Chinese, Fujian dialect, Hakka dialect.
- Major religions:
- Buddhism, Taoism, Christianity.
- History:
- In December 1949 the Chinese Nationalist government
retreated to Taiwan. When mainland China was admitted to
the United Nations in October 1971, Chinese Taipei
withdrew from the organization. After the death on April
5, 1975, of President Chiang Kai-shek, the leader of the
ruling Nationalist Party, or Kuomintang (KMT), power
passed to his son, Chiang Ching-kuo, who became president
in May 1978. When Chiang Ching-kuo died on January 13,
1988, Vice-President Lee Teng-hui succeeded to the
presidency.
POLITICAL SYSTEM
- Leader:
- Lee Teng-hui.
- Legislature:
- The unicameral Legislative Yuan consists of 760 elected
members. Liu Sung-fan is its president. There is also a
National Assembly.
- Executive:
- The cabinet is known as the Executive Yuan. The premier
is Lien Chan. The vice-premier is Hsu Li-teh. Frederick
Chien (Chien Fu) is the foreign minister.
- Military:
- Defense budget, NT$298.3 billion (1994). Regular armed
forces consist of about 289,000 members of the army
(which has 500 tanks); 38,000 members of the navy (which
has 26 destroyers, 10 frigates, and 4 submarines); 30,000
members of the marine corps; and 68,000 members of the
air force (which has 490 fighters). Men are conscripted
at the age of 20 and serve two years.
ECONOMY
- Major industries:
- Electronics, textiles.
- Nominal GNP:
- NT$6,458.6 billion (1994).
- Per capita GNP:
- $11,604 (1994).
- Real growth rate:
- 6.5% (1994).
- Inflation:
- 4.1% (1994).
- Unemployment:
- 1.6% (1994).
- Foreign-currency reserves:
- $92.5 billion (1994).
- Trade:
- Exports:$93.1 billion; imports:$85.4 billion (1994).
- Principal items traded:
- Exports:electronics, machinery, apparel;
imports:electronics, machinery, chemical products, oil
(1994).
- Principal trading partners:
- Exports:United States (26%), Hong Kong (23%), Japan
(11%); imports:Japan (29%), United States (21%), Germany
(6%) (1994).
- Currency:
- New Taiwan dollar. US$1=NT$26.24 (1994).
- External investment:
- $1,617 million (1994).
BILATERAL RELATIONS
- Subsequent to the establishment of diplomatic relations between Japan and China in 1972, Japan and Chinese Taipei have been maintaining relations only on the unofficial level.
- Trade:
- Exports to Japan:$8,976 million, featuring foods,
machinery, miscellaneous goods, textiles; imports from
Japan:$23,196 million, featuring machinery, chemical
products, metal products (1994).
- Investment:
- Japanese direct investment in Chinese Taipei amounted to
$391 million in 1994.
- Visitors:
- During 1994 some 819,000 Japanese visited Chinese Taipei,
and some 681,000 Chinese Taipei residents visited Japan.
Bilateral relations are managed on the Japanese side by
the Interchange Association, which is headquartered in
Tokyo and has offices in Taipei and Kaohsiung, and on the
Chinese Taipei side by the Taipei Economic and Cultural
Representative Office, which is headquartered in Taipei
(The Association of East Asian Relations) and has offices
in Tokyo and Osaka and branch offices in Yokohama and
Fukuoka.
(July 1995)
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