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This research develops an economic profile of the Republic of China, typically referred to as either Taiwan or Nationalist China or Taiwan in the west. Taiwan is one of the world's most rapidly developing economies.1 The country has pursued economic growth in the 1970s and 1980s primarily through the development of its export trade.2

Taiwan has a market economy. The Taiwanese government, however, acts to protect local producers from foreign competition, and generally exercises a more interventionist role in the country's economy than that which occurs in the United States. In this context, the relationship between the Taiwanese government and the economy's private sector follows much more closely the Japanese model than it does the American model.

Among the nonindustrialized economies within the Pacific Basin, Taiwan is one of the few countries with a very high potential to become a middle industrial power. Among all of

1The World Bank, World Development Report (New York: Oxford University Press, 1989), 203; "Southeast Asia's Boom Belt," WirtschaftswocheDusseldorf (27 January 1984): 3032.

2J. Paxton, (Ed.), The Statesman's YearBook: 19891990, 126th ed. (New York: St, Martin's Press, 1989), 370371; "The 'Four Dragons' Lose Their Fire," Business Week, 28 March 1983,6468.

the Pacific Basin countries, total Taiwanese trade (both exports and imports) with the United States is second only to that of Japan.3

Agriculture accounts for approximately 18 percent of Taiwan's gross national product (GNP).4 While this reliance on agricultural production is higher than that found in the world's industrial market economies, it is much lower than that typical in most developing economies. Industry and services each account for approximately 41 percent of Taiwan's GNP.5 A comparison of Taiwan's structure of production with that of other Pacific Basin countries is presented in...