It took several decades of consistent development. It is not possible to do that, in US with 4 year election cycle. Next gov will just roll back all reforms, and redirects all money...
exactly is not like a president can override congress powers and be able to dismantle agencies or set tariffs for example. everyone will trust the stability of the policies then.
Presidents can work with Congress to pass laws that last more than 4 years. We used to do that kind of thing around here but now that it's all just a big game open only to the outrageously wealthy, tit for tat and I got mine are the norm. There is no path for progress in that system. We must return to the old way of doing things where the executive and the legislature work together on the critical items that cannot be solved for in 4 or 8 years.
You know that time of stability a few decades ago when tens of millions of Chinese were starving to death and being massacred in the Cultural Revolution.
Imagine if Trump pulled young men's name from a lottery and forced them to go shoot people on the other side of the Earth in defense of "capitalism".
That is literally what my father and his friends dealt with as young men after dealing with the Cuban Missile Crisis as children.
I only dealt with this one time in 1st grade. Air raid drill, get under the desk kids and cover your head to practice in the event the Russians drop a megaton h-bomb on the school.
Or the stability of WW1 or WW2?
1990 to 2020 was a wonderful time, I feel so lucky to have lived my life then but that was a completely abnormally calm time in history.
> It took several decades of consistent development.
Well... and massive investments. Where did those come from?
> It is not possible to do that, in US with 4 year election cycle
The great thing about Trump is he has made everyone forget that Congress exists and has these responsibilities.
> Next gov will just roll back all reforms, and redirects all money...
The other great thing is people forget Trump has donors and investors on his side who benefit from all these changes. The next administration will be just as beholden to these interests as this one is. The current US president is just a branded token of the elites. It's meant to keep the population in check not create a policy free for all.
Congress has made everyone forget that Congress exists by delegating enormous amounts of their power to the executive. They could reassert their power over tariffs at any time, but they won't.
Taiwan is a democracy with 4 year elections. When Taiwan operated in one party rule under the Chiang family they did not make significant economic progress.
> When Taiwan operated in one party rule under the Chiang family they did not make significant economic progress
This is objectively wrong.
Taiwan made tremendous economic progress during the period of one-party rule under Chiang Kai-shek and later his son Chiang Ching-kuo. During the KMT's authoritarian rule from the late 1940s through the 1980s, Taiwan experienced the "Taiwan Miracle". Land reforms in the 1950s boosted agricultural productivity and created a rural middle class. In the 1960s Taiwan shifted from an agriculture-based economy to an export-oriented industrial economy, and by the 1980s Taiwan had one of the fastest-growing economies in the world, with GDP growth rates often exceeding 8-10% annually. Chiang pursued an export-led growth model, encouraging foreign investment and industrial development, supporting industries like semiconductors, which is why you have TSMC today.
The KMT government also made major investments in education, particularly in science and engineering, hugely increasing literacy rates. All these strategic initiatives and policies meant that Taiwan became one of the Four Asian Tigers by the 1980s.
On a slightly related note, on Taiwanese social media today it is not uncommon to come across Taiwanese people lamenting that the KMT built the TSMC, and the DPP is selling it out. Whether this is a fair and accurate assessment of the DPP is another discussion, but this seems to be the sentiment among many Taiwanese these days.
Credit where credit is due, you're right. I'll admit, I was very unimpressed with the Chiang family's rule in general and ascribed the success of Taiwan to them not being charge, which was not correct. Quoting from the end of the wikipedia background article on the Taiwan Miracle:
> After retreating to Taiwan, Chiang learned from his mistakes and failures in the mainland and blamed them for failing to pursue Sun Yat-sen's ideals of Tridemism and welfarism. Chiang's land reform more than doubled the land ownership of Taiwanese farmers. It removed the rent burdens on them, with former land owners using the government compensation to become the new capitalist class. He promoted a mixed economy of state and private ownership with economic planning. Chiang also promoted a 9-years compulsory education and the importance of science in Taiwanese education and values. These measures generated great success with consistent and strong growth and the stabilization of inflation.
if you believe that, i have a bridge to sell you. the us government has a very definite consistent policy trajectory. only culture war issues sort of sometimes wobble. usually republicans shake things up and democrats cement in the changes.
People underestimate the importance of individuals sometimes, like Morris Chang, without whom Taiwan would probably be more comparable to SK or Vietnam.
If you're ever in Shenzhen, I recommend going to the Shenzhen Museum. It's pretty amazing to see how quickly it grew (~40 years), and the level of stuff that they were making early on vs now.
Another big take away for me was that they highlighted who had been the chief customs officer over time. Controlling the flow of goods in and out is matter of pride for Shenzhen and China.
