Vietnam. Taiwan was not alone in receiving these benefits: Japan, Hong Kong and South Korea were also beneficiaries, with Japan and Hong Kong taking the best advantage of the situation during those early years. Taiwan, still crowded with mainland refugees, concentrated its efforts during the 1950s and '60s on developing its Manufacturing sector re: labor-intensive, low-quality export goods - particularly toys and other non-essentials.
The sudden diplomatic disenfranchisement of 1971 caused a major shift in Taiwan's economic thinking. Although U.S. aid continued to come into the island, American recognition of Red China combined with the end of the Vietnam War to cut Taiwan's foreign aid supports dramatically during the 1970s and early '80s. Cyclical world recessions that did not break until roughly 1984 also contributed to a change in Taiwan's economic development. A third factor was an aging leadership: the mainland autocracy of the Kuomintang Party had literally swallowed Taiwan's government whole in 1949 - but its conservative, politically-m
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