How Taiwan Became Insanely Rich So Quickly 

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I've been in most of East Asia and the Taiwanese people are some of the most kindest straight forward people I've ever met.

I am a very lucky Taiwanese, borne in the mid of 50's, grew up with the growing prosperity of this country, and had contributed my tiny part for it.

10 years ago we hosted a foreign exchange student from Taiwan. At the time his family had one factory in Taiwan, they own several in China and Taiwan. They are an honest hardworking family I wish him and his family well.

Taiwanese here . ❤❤❤❤ Thank you.

As a Taiwanese, I would like to say that you've made a clear description in our modern history and economy. There's only one obvious mistake need to be corrected, the cash you've shown as NTD is not correct. It's one of the vouchers issued by our government to boost the economy during the pandemic.

Taiwan rich? I wish my Taiwanese friends knew this… You did a great job narrating the story of how Taiwan made astounding progress and achievements over the decades after the war, but many people in Taiwan do not feel rich. Instead they are worried about low wage, high inflation, lack of opportunities, mounting inequality and increasingly polarised political scene.

Taiwan is an amazing country ❤

As a Taiwanese, the history and economy of Taiwan you explained is accurate and intact. How ever I have to say, Taiwan today is facing a big inequality, low wages, and high inflation problems. Lot’s of young Taiwanese graduated from university, but still finding jobs with only 1200 dollars per month or so, and rent for a small “shoebox” in Taipei city can be up to 500 or 600 dollars per month. This led to a low birth rate(even lower than South Korea) .

I'm a Filipino and I am so proud and envious of Taiwan.

몇일전 대만에 다녀왔는데 외국인입장에서 시설은 정말 편하고 사람들은 모두 친절했습니다. 국민들은 자신의 리더가 잘못한다면 당당하게 비판할수 있는 권리가 있습니다. 중국은 멋진 문화를 많이 가지고 있지만 그들의 강압적인 태도는 모든 이웃에게 적대감을 주고 있습니다..

You made a magnificent video. I am always proud of my grandparent's generation that they turned Taiwan into a developed state. One thing you made clear about Taiwan is that the true power of Taiwan's economy is not based on the huge state-supported companies (like Japan, South Korea and China), but thousands of small scale manufacturing companies which were the product of both land reform and industrialization in the 60s. One of the main reason why TSMC/UMC model is hard to replicate in other countries is because you cannot find this eco-system, which those small scale manufacturing companies played a critical role for TSMC/UMC in supporting their FABs. TSMC and UMC can easily build FABs in other countries, but however, without this ecosystem, it will not be successful and efficient as in Taiwan.

An exceptional video! They just keep getting better and better. Keep up the amazing work! 🥰👍🏻

The Taiwanese people accepted and supported a central government that was defeated in mainland China. Under pressure from the international community for half a century, and under the threat of the Chinese Communist regime for more than 70 years, they were actually managed by their own government. They have struggled to achieve freedom and prosperity, becoming a unique democracy in the world. This is the greatest pride of them.

Excellent video. Extremely well-researched and presented. One mistake I noticed fyi: you mention the "aridable" land, when I'm sure you meant "arable". Very small error in otherwise great video!

You forgot Hsinchu Science Park, which is one of the most important constructions for Taiwan to become a semiconductor kingdom

Bharat ( India) supports Taiwan Republic.

China is china Taiwan is taiwan. they are two different countries. China is communist while Taiwan is a democratic country.

Fun fact, Taiwan (Formosa) also was colonized by the Spain empire and the Netherlands

This was an incredibly fascinating and insightful video on Taiwan.

keep up these quality videos. 😎👍

It’s always a good day when Casual Scholar posts.

Very interesting, thanks!

I've seen that wages in Taiwan have been increasing steadily over the past decade, whilst my country, Japan, has barely grown. Taiwan's economy may have its own problems such as ridiculously high housing prices, but the people are likely to be richer than us in the near future.

Another fantastic episode

Last time i checked taiwan has a gdp per capita of 23k, now it’s already 33k just wow! They really going up.

Love Taiwan 💝🇹🇼

You really made a lot of works to preset such details in all aspects of Taiwan! Wonderful!

As a Taiwanese American, what happened on February 28, 1947, does qualify the UN definition of ethnic genocide. This is something that is a very polarizing topic in Taiwan to this day.

Love Taiwan from USA 🇺🇸❤️🇹🇼

Little detail, the money looking thing at 11:39 mark isn't the Taiwanese dollar or the New Taiwanese dollar, it is actually a stimulus voucher issue during the covid 19 pandemic

Thank you for the video.

Fellow Taiwanese here! Great video and incredible amount of research you’ve put in! Just thought I’d help point out that at 11:43 and 15:04, I think your intention was to show the Taiwanese currency but the stock image you got there are the stimulous vouchers the government issued in 2020. Doesn’t make the video any less though:)

Casual Scholar you are a pro. I’ve watched so many videos about Taiwan, but I still learned so much here that I didn’t know before 😮. And I won’t lie, I was skeptical about clicking on this video, but this was well worth it. You focused so much on Taiwan without bundling it up with China all the time. I didn’t even know that Taiwan was once a Japanese colony, and the fact that so many of its industries were created by the Japanese originally. This country is very resilient, more than it is wealthy. I love this video ❤ Thank you 🙏🏾 once again

I really enjoy all the comments of the taiwanese viewers. Perfect english, rational and with humor. How can one not support taiwan? Who un their right mind would want to be part of china if you have taiwan. Love from the netherlands

Great videos, I am so glad i found this channel

Fairly accurate, from a born-and-raised Taiwanese.

Love your videos

My grandparents were born and raised under Japan's occupation of Taiwan. According to them, it was preferable to the KMT occupation. Also, per the Treaty of San Francisco, Taiwan was not "returned' to any entity, just that Japan had relinquished its ownership.

Support for Taiwan 🇹🇼 from Belize 🇧🇿

As one that buys tools and bicycles, "Made In Taiwan" is sign of a very well made product. I think it's important to note that Taiwan doesn't make junk nowadays.

Excellent video.

The government of this land provided everyone opportinity in education equally when the budget was tough. It is very precious move.

I like your video, it mentioned a lot of history that I learned as a Taiwanese kid. For example, the 2/28 incident 二二八事件, and the ten major construction projects 十大建設

Taiwan may not have the longest or most history, but it certainly has the most confusing.

I have met many people from Taiwan. And I will tell you this. They are much more intelligent and much more open-minded.

Excellent video!

I am Nigerian and Taiwanese technicians worked for my Dad far back in the 1980s. He had a lot of respect for their country, economic development and wealth creation.

I went to China and Taiwan before. The socialize so different. The characteristic of people also different. They have only one thing the same is use Chinese speaking. I pretty like Taiwan

Difference is whether Japan governed or not. 　Infrastructure and education is the key for economic success. Japanese government at that time invested huge money to Taiwan and Korea(more money was invested to these region than money invested in mainland japan).

I looked at the title and I wonder if this is by gdp or gdp per capita

The title should be 'why Taiwan WAS so much richer than China?'

Taiwan is a free and democratic rich country with emphasis on human rights.

Awesome vid!!!as a taiwanese i can say it that your researching for this video is very accurate, keep it going!!!

Thank you for introducing my country.❤

11:42 Lmao those Covid 19 coupons I remember that

I am part Japanese but born in Taiwan. Thank you educating us on the island's long and complicated history.

I like how your maps aren't just always oriented with north on top. Really helps one gain an more accurate perspective of the region. The 3x voucher stock footage is unfortunate, though.

This would be an alright channel if wasn’t for a commercial every 3-5 minutes

It is like a swinging swing, from one side to another. One extreme to another. From parents and grandparents who were raised differently than their kids and grandchildren

Yes I agree, Taiwan, like Singapore as nations, are Rich. HOWEVER, despite the strong economy, the average citizens of both nations have Low spending power due to their LOW wages. I hope this fact is not conveniently overlooked.

Being a Taiwanese I would say how can you figure out this informations most of stuff we learned in our history classes in middle school. 100% true. Shot out casual scholar.

My home appears in this video! It can be seen in the top left corner of the screen at 23:48 , in one of the low houses on a green hill.

China is HUGE. There's little difference if you compare major cities.

That’s amazing research work and explanation of Taiwan. I am positive stunned and surprised! How did you archive such a masterpiece? Thanks a lot for this episode and let me know if I may thank you other than commenting.

"😂 In 1949, the KMT lost the civil war to a poorly equipped communist group. They then fled to Taiwan and took everything they needed to rebuild. With the help of the U.S., they were able to rebuild, and TSM was one of the arrangements in the 80s. 😂"

Love the new thumbnail, It got my attention!

...Thanks for sharing. 謝謝分享，南無阿彌陀佛。.

Not me, a tech nerd just now finding out I can have dual citizenship with Taiwan. Hello Taiwan, I really need to start learning about their culture. I know more about Chinese culture than theirs.

From the history of Taiwan it looks as if they should be their own country. Because otherwise Japanese Chinese and maybe a few others could claim Taiwan as their own sovereign land. No I do see the 1949 invasion of China as the first invasion during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Is a vast difference between those of Chinese Vs. Taiwanese heritage.

This film is really well-made. 👍👍 Your team habe definitly done a lot of research on this topic. The modern history of Taiwan is very complicated. In your film we can learn a clear view from a neutral or third persons' perspective without puting much politic bias, like what our new gerneration in Taiwan, who only know the munipulated history book fom the current Taiwanes government.

I am Taiwanese , and Thanks for your report !

Great video and visuals + editing and footages and superb explanation. I want to learn how to make this types of video. Can you please help me. 🙏🙏🙏

In 2020, among the top 100 export enterprises in Chinese Mainland, there will be 31 Taiwanese enterprises, accounting for almost one-third of the total, mainly the subsidiaries of Foxconn, Asustek, Dafeng, Yingyeda, Compal and other giant contract manufacturers in Taiwan, among which the top ten are 6 Taiwanese enterprises, namely, three subsidiaries of Foxconn in Zhengzhou, Shenzhen and Chengdu, two subsidiaries of Asustek in Shanghai and Suzhou, and a subsidiary of Dafeng in Shanghai, Among them, Zhengzhou Foxconn is the enterprise with the highest export amount in Chinese Mainland. However, it is inaccurate to say that Taiwanese enterprises account for "half of the country" in Chinese Mainland, because China's exports are highly fragmented. Taking the first half of this year as an example, there are 506000 foreign trade enterprises with import and export performance in China. Although it is not said that many of them have exports, it can also be seen that the scale of enterprises with exports in Chinese Mainland should be in the hundreds of thousands. In 2020, the total export value of Chinese Mainland's top 100 export enterprises was about 460 billion US dollars, accounting for less than one fifth (18.6%) of China's export of 2.475 trillion US dollars that year, which was not high in fact. We can compare it with another list, On September 18, 2020, sponsored by the China Society for Foreign Economic and Trade Statistics, Hainan International Economic Development Bureau, and Yangpu Economic Development Zone Management Committee The "2020 China Top 500 Foreign Trade Enterprises Ranking Release and Free Trade Innovation and Development (Yangpu) Forum" released the list of top 500 foreign trade enterprises in the "2020 China Top 500 Foreign Trade Research Report" (based on 2019 data), In 2019, the total trade volume of China's top 500 foreign trade enterprises was 1576.914 billion US dollars, of which the total export volume was 652.387 billion US dollars, accounting for 26.1% of China's exports in 2019. It can be seen that the enterprises ranked in the top few hundred in terms of exports actually do not account for a particularly high proportion of China's total exports of goods, as China's state-owned enterprises with export performance can have a scale of several hundred thousand units. According to the analysis of local state-owned enterprises, local private enterprises and foreign enterprises, who is the main export force in Chinese Mainland at present? It is a local private enterprise. A significant change in China's foreign trade over the past decade has been the absolute mainstay of exports. In 2015, the proportion of exports by private enterprises exceeded that of foreign-funded enterprises for the first time, reaching 45.18%, becoming the largest main force of exports. In the same year, the export proportion of foreign-funded enterprises was 44.16%, In the first three quarters of 2022, the export proportion of local private enterprises in China has increased to 60%, an increase of 19.5% compared to the same period last year, while the export proportion of foreign-invested enterprises is 31.2%, an increase of 5.6%, and the remaining less than 10% of exports are mainly contributed by state-owned enterprises. Simply put, at present, the export of domestic enterprises (private enterprises+state-owned enterprises) and foreign enterprises shows a 7:3 relationship, From the perspective of growth rate, it is evident that the proportion of private enterprises' exports is still increasing, and 60% of the export proportion is not the end point. Not only do exports account for 60%, but China's export surplus is mainly created by local private enterprises, rather than foreign enterprises including Taiwanese enterprises or state-owned enterprises. In the first three quarters of 2022, China's total import and export value was 31.11 trillion yuan, an increase of 9.9% compared to the same period last year. Among them, exports reached 17.67 trillion yuan, an increase of 13.8%; Import reached 13.44 trillion yuan, an increase of 5.2%; The trade surplus reached 4.23 trillion yuan, an increase of 53.7%. In the first three quarters of 2022, China's private enterprises imported and exported 15.62 trillion yuan, an increase of 14.5%, accounting for 50.2% of China's total foreign trade value, an increase of 2 percentage points compared to the same period last year. Among them, exports reached 10.61 trillion yuan, an increase of 19.5%, accounting for 60% of the total export value; Import reached 5.01 trillion yuan, an increase of 5.4%, accounting for 37.3% of the total import value. That is to say, the surplus created by private enterprises is 5.6 trillion yuan, which unexpectedly exceeds the total export surplus of 4.23 trillion yuan in China during the same period.

Amazing what decentralizing commerce can do. If only America remembered that.

I like how you avoided calling China poor in the thumbnail

Taiwan today may also be proud of its medical care system which is among the top of the world in terms of affordability, accessibility and medical quality.

Cant Taiwan just be itself? Like seriously China you rule. Just let Taiwan exist like Japan!!!

I strongly recommend you to make another video: how Isreal become so rich than non-Gulf Arabian states. The main reason is that you will find a lot of similarities between Taiwan and Israel, including industrialization after WW2, economical miracle，complicated geopolitics, and most importantly, the role of "new arrivevals" ( mainlander/KMT in Taiwan and European Jews in Isreal). Also the controversial relationship between the not so new arrivals and the "locals"(the Arabian Israelis/local Formosan). In the end, the stories of economical achievements of Taiwan, Israel, Singapore, South Korea and even South Africa in the 90s shared similar stories, which are really interesting stories and still relevant as of today.

Thank you.. what a amazing Video. I live near sun moon lake.

l skipped this video several times, but l kept on coming back to it. Hardly did l know that l was going to learn a lot of things. Taiwan is a former Japanese colony ? .... Wow l did not know that. Thanx a lot. Please do more of these videos, very informative.

i heard the reason why gdp per capital is high is because foreigners make gdp per captal high

Smaller nations only rely a few conglomerates to support the whole nation. Larger nations demand much more resources than the smaller island nations. When the wealth are distributed among people, the more people will be distributed, the lesser you will get.

I can notice the pattern of countries in Asia getting rich, and Taiwan is no exception just like it’s communist counterpart, it opened up to the world and basically turned into a factory for the world

The real Taiwanese are the indigenous Taiwanese like the Ami, Atayal, Bunun, Paiwan, Yami, Sediq. The rest are Han Chinese settlers

Grast comprehensive video. Thank you.❤

I'm a fan here in the Philippines 🌴..

Are you sure Taiwan is richer😂

4:48 I like to add that Taiwan under Qing dynasty rule didn’t rule the island outright in its geographical entirety. They only had administration over the few Western coastal towns but had no jurisdiction over the central Mountain areas nor the entire Eastern Coastal Ranges. The reason for this is because of the original inhabitants of Formosa, the indigenous aboriginals. They'd preferred to be left alone and will ruthlessly slaughter anyone encroaching on their territories (as they should IMO 😂). It's not until the 1930s the occupying Japanese empire finally "pacified" Taiwan with their brutal military campaigns to subjugate these fierce warrior tribes. FWIW

Probably should add “in the 90’s” in the title, cuz the situation is no more…

One quick response after listening to your opening: we did all that you said whilst under the constant military threat from a neighboring Goliath, and almost completely excluded from the international community. It was even worse than what Israel had to deal with.

China GDP 17.73 Trillion USD, Taiwan GDP 790.7 Billion USD. I don't know where you got your numbers from, did you learn math from your PE teacher or something? Get your facts right fam.

Democracy is never power or rich, the missile is. Wait for it from your mainland, the Taiwanese.😅

Taiwan were rich in last century .

Winnie: I need to invade Taiwan and turn the people into my slaves! Taiwan: Here's a ticket to the Disneyland! Maybe you'll be happier if you see a better version of yourself?!

I like to visit Taiwan ❤

Despite having gone through numerous conflicts and periods of colonization, the people on the island of Taiwan remain optimistic and friendly today. Despite not having obtained international recognition, Taiwan is still my country.

What is the CONTEXT?

Good job,man.But not enough to give Taiwan more credit in the progress of democracy.

It’s amazing when you find out that there’s no such thing as a speech censorship in Taiwan. You can say anything you want, even if you badmouth about the country when you just wanna complain. And if you are a mixed, you will find yourself in a paradise here. No ethnic or race issues in Taiwan. Not even just a bit 😊