When, in 1989, the Chinese Communists committed the horrendous atrocity of the Tienanmen massacre in full view of the world's media, Western governments were finally roused from their dreaming. The last threads of the illusion they had built up concerning the movement of China's communist authorities towards democracy were broken. In stark contrast, the liberalization and process of political normalization on this side of the Taiwan Strait led the West to begin to accept the ROC as a member of the democratic camp.

"Do not think that the Western advocation of democracy and human rights is just sloganeering," insists J.C. Jang, deputy director of the Department of Operations at the Euro-Asia Trade Organization. "A country's international image is one of the levels of consideration taken into account when Western countries are fixing the direction of their foreign relations."

Warming actions have their reasons:

Starting in 1990, with the great changes in Eastern Europe and the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the Communist camp collapsed in what seemed to be the twinkling of an eye.

"During the Cold War, what the West feared most of all was that the Soviet Union would use the idea of international communism to take over the world. This made them develop good relations with the Chinese Communists so as to contain the Soviet Union," points out Hsin Ying of the Chung-HuaInstitution for Economic Research. Today, the Chinese Communists have largely lost their strategic value, leading Western countries, and especially the Europeans, to strengthen their relations with Taiwan without regret and busily begin to engage in activities to thaw the ice.

Following the end of the Cold War and the fall of the Berlin Wall, the defense industries of Europe (both east and west) and America, along with their satellite industries, are suddenly facing a drastic decline in orders while unemployment is soaring. Issues such as how to find new contracts and gradually convert the armaments industries (for example adapting the aeronautics industry for the information technology business) and finding investors to soak up the unemployed, have become paramount in the minds of Western governments. It is in respects such as these that Taiwan has taken on the value of being a helping hand which Western governments are naturally unwilling to let slip by.

The objective international situation has changed and the Western economies have long been stuck in a period of economic malaise. The Asia-Pacific area, however--especially the Southeast Asian region, including Indochina, Taiwan, Hongkong and coastal mainland China--has produced a rich economic stimulus. People have money and their purchasing power has increased dramatically.

"In the past, Asian goods were all distributed to Europe and America. But today the internal trade of the Asia-Pacific region already accounts for around 40 percent of the region's total volume," analyzes C.P.Chang, secretary general of the EuroAsia Trade Organization. "That is to say, the AsiaPacific region is already the largest customer for its own products."

Looking towards the future, not only can the Asia-Pacific region be a production base for Western companies, it can also become the main market for selling Western products. Little wonder, then, that the Western countries are moving east on the track for business.

High added value for Taiwan's trade and economy:

As for the subjective situation in the Republic of China on Taiwan, it can no longer be spoken of as in the past. In the face of the changing international situation, Taiwan has grasped the moment and successfully stepped onto the field to grab the attention of the countries of the world.

"We are the fourteenth largest trading nation in the world. This degree of strength cannot be overlooked by international society," points out C.P. Chang. Now that the ROC is a great trading nation, coming problems related to international trade will naturally have to be negotiated within the international society.

Some people think that the ROC should not use its Six-Year National Development Plan as a kind of cake to demand other countries to support our entry into GATT or to sign various bilateral trade agreements. Yet the opinion of one trade official is that, "Whether or not we can join various trade organizations is definitely not just Taiwan's own concern." What we must do is depend on getting into organizations by studying how to uphold international regulations and give feedback to the international society. On this point, the urgency with which Western countries want us to join them is no less than our own.

The ROC does not only rank first in foreign exchange reserves in the world, but with the massive flow of funds from western Germany into eastern Germany following German reunification, it has leapt to become the world's second largest (after Japan) bulk exporter of funds. It was thus that the German deputy chancellor and economics minister, Juergen Moellemann, vigorously invited Taiwanese businesses to invest in establishing factories in eastern Germany during his recent visit to Taiwan.

At the same time, such capital outflows mean that the strength of our economy and trade is rapidly expanding outwards. Take the countries of Southeast Asia, such as Malaysia and Thailand, where investments by Taiwanese businesses rank an even first with those of Japan. When Taiwan's close relationship with the overseas Chinese, who have always held sway over the economic lifeblood of Southeast Asia, is added to this equation, it is difficult for the Western businesses that are gradually extending their feelers in the region to overlook us.

In much the same way, the reforms of the Chinese Communists are no more than a decade old, and they have already taken big steps towards making the mainland an outwardly orientated economy. This year, mainland China's export surplus with the United States has reached US$15 billion, second only to Japan's. The Communists obviously never had the strength to create their " economic miracle" on their own. Standing behind them, the businesses of Hongkong and Taiwan have come to occupy positions of varying importance. This has further enabled us to be viewed in a favorable light.

Friends come with profit:

Even more importantly, while Western and Japanese enterprises have long been voracious in the mainland China market, they have been held back by a fear that the Communists might change face. Following Deng Xiaoping's southern tour, and the energy unleashed by the emphasis on "opening up and reform" and "not changing course for a hundred years," combined with more recent decisions to liberalize the internal distribution market and service industries, there has been a great rise in confidence on the part of the West and Japan.

"The mainland market has opened up and Taiwan is rising like a ship with the tide," points out C.P. Chang. Yet while the particular Chinese way of doing business is not easy for foreigners to understand, Taiwan has the advantages of sharing the same language and customs as mainland China and having put down firm roots in the southeastern mainland coastal areas of Fukien and Canton earlier on. Of course, this makes Taiwan a great partner for when the Western countries and Japan want to advance into the mainland. The scale of the internationalization of Western and Japanese enterprises and their high level of technology, added to Taiwan's capital and management personnel, with mainland China's cheap labor, land and massive market, makes an extremely attractive triangular combination.

Of course, only when you have economic and trading strength can you use economics and trade for foreign relations. Nevertheless, we must also realize that for the countries of America and Europe, the economic and trading strength of mainland China will be even more of an unrestricted power in future. With the present situation across the Taiwan strait, in which the Communists apply pressure on Taiwan wherever they can, no matter how hard we work to further our "economic and trade foreign policy," we cannot make the Western countries and Japan "run the risk of breaking relations with the Communists" and establishing diplomatic relations with us.

"Talk business when doing business." High-flown foreign relations and politics need not be discussed. "International society is very pragmatic," says Political Vice-Minister of Economic Affairs P.K. Chiang, while stressing, "Only if we continue to uphold our economic strength, can we hold on to these new friends."

[Picture Caption]

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After many years of preparation, Taiwanese investment is already extending itself into Europe. The photo is of the Tatung Company's plant in Britain. (photo by Cheng Yuan-ching)