al. Between 1965 and 1985, Copper (1999) said Taiwan was "the world's fastest growing economy" (p. 39). Average annual growth rates were 8.2 percent in the 1950s, 9.2 percent in the 1960s, 10.2 percent in the 1970s and 8.2 percent in the 1980s (Copper, 1999, p. 150). According to Goldstein (1997), Taiwan's GNP per capita in 1952 was $50 and $12,437 in 1996 (p. 25). He said that in 1952 agriculture accounted for 32 percent of GNP and 95 percent of exports but by 1996 less than 4 percent of GNP and less than 5 percent of exports (p. 25). The difference was made up by industrial products and services. Goldstein said "in the past four decades, Taiwan has changed from an agricultural economy to an industrialized one supported by a vibrant service sector" (pp. 25-26). In 1953 Taiwan's exports and imports were $320 million; by 1998 their value was $230 billion, which made Taiwan the fourteenth largest trading nation in the world (Copper, 1999, p. 146; and Goldstein, 1997, p. 26).
The authoritarian KMT government played a major role in fomenti
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