Taiwan (Republic of China)

Taiwan Republic of China
Status	Proto Independent State
Social and Moral Index	5th best
Capital	Taipei
Land Area
Location	Asia
Groupings	Small Islands
Population
Life Expectancy
GNI
ISO3166-1 Codes	TW, TWN, 1581
Internet Domain	.tw2
Currency	Dollar (TWD)3
Telephone	+8864

1. Overview
2. Taiwan National and Social Development
3. Taiwan's Human Rights, Equality & Tolerance
4. Taiwan's Modernity and Learning
5. National Culture
6. Peace Versus Instability
7. The Natural Environment
8. Religion and Beliefs
9. Links

1. Overview

#china #japan #taiwan

In all practical respects, Taiwan is an independent nation-state. But China claims that Taiwan is still part of China and has the aim of governing it again in the future.

“In 1895, military defeat forced China's Qing Dynasty to cede Taiwan to Japan. Taiwan came under Chinese Nationalist control after World War II. Following the Communist victory on the mainland in 1949, 2 million Nationalists fled to Taiwan and established a government using the 1947 constitution drawn up for all of China. Beginning in the 1950s, the ruling authorities gradually democratized and incorporated the local population within the governing structure. This process expanded rapidly in the 1980s. In 2000, Taiwan underwent its first peaceful transfer of power from the Nationalist to the Democratic Progressive Party. Throughout this period, the island prospered and became one of East Asia's economic "Tigers." The dominant political issues continue to be the relationship between Taiwan and China - specifically the question of Taiwan's eventual status - as well as domestic political and economic reform.”

CIA's The World Factbook (2013)₅

“With its all-round adventure landscape, heritage-rich capital, diverse folk traditions and feted night market scene, Taiwan offers a continent-sized travel list for one green island. Famed for centuries as Ilha Formosa (Beautiful Isle), in Taiwan you can criss-cross mountains on colonial-era hiking trails, cycle a lone highway with the blue Pacific on one side and green volcanic arcs on the other or climb to the summit of Yushan, Taiwan´s 3952m alpine roof.

To fuel all of this adventure, Taiwan offers the gamut of Chinese cuisines, as well as the best Japanese outside Tokyo, and a full-house of local specialities from Hakka stir-fries and Taipei beef noodles to aboriginal-style barbecued wild boar.

Taiwan will feed your soul, too: the island is heir to the entire Chinese tradition of Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism and that amorphous collection of deities and demons worshipped as folk faith. But over the centuries the people have blended their way to a unique and tolerant religious culture. In doing so, the Taiwanese have created Asia´s most vibrant democracy, and liberal society, with a raucous free press, gender equality and respect for human rights and increasingly animal rights as well.”

"The World" by Lonely Planet (2014)₆

2. Taiwan National and Social Development

#human_development

The Social and Moral Development Index concentrates on moral issues and human rights, violence, public health, equality, tolerance, freedom and effectiveness in climate change mitigation and environmentalism, and on some technological issues. A country scores higher for achieving well in those areas, and for sustaining that achievement in the long term. Those countries towards the top of this index can truly said to be setting good examples and leading humankind onwards into a bright, humane, and free future. See: Which are the Best Countries in the World? The Social and Moral Development Index.

3. Taiwan's Human Rights, Equality & Tolerance

#equality #freedom #homosexuality #human_rights #mass_media #morals #politics #slavery #tolerance

The best countries in the world at ensuring human rights, fostering equality and promoting tolerance, are Denmark, Sweden and The Netherlands₉. These countries are displaying the best traits that humanity has to offer. The worst countries are Somalia, Sudan and Eritrea₉.

The data sets used to calculate points for each country are statistics on its success in fighting anti-semitic prejudice, commentary in Human Rights Watch reports, its nominal commitment to Human Rights, supporting personal, civil & economic freedoms, supporting press freedom, eliminating modern slavery, LGBT equality, opposing gender inequality and the year from which women could participate in democracy. The regions with the best average results per country are Scandinavia, Baltic States and Europe, whereas the worst are Africa, The Middle East and Melanesia.

Human Rights & Tolerance:

4. Taiwan's Modernity and Learning

#education #english #intelligence #it_security #maths #research #science

Modernity and Education:

Technology and Information:

5. National Culture

#charity #corruption #happiness #morals #politics

6. Peace Versus Instability

#extremism #human_development #peace #politics #religious_violence #terrorism

7. The Natural Environment

#climate_change #the_environment

8. Religion and Beliefs

#belief #buddhism #christianity #god #hinduism #islam #judaism #religion

Data from the Pew Forum, a professional polling outfit, states that in 2010 the religious makeup of this country was as follows in the table below₃₀:

The CIA World Factbook has slightly different data, and states: mixture of Buddhist and Taoist 93%, Christian 4.5%, other 2.5%₃₁.

Taiwan has enjoyed an increase in religious liberty since 1989. In that year the Law on Civic Organizations "allowed all religions to exist and removed multiple prohibitions". At the start of this period, in 1990, there were 83 religious groups in Taiwan and this surged to 1062 in the year 2004 "and the total number of temples and churches more than doubled"₃₂.

Links:

• A List of All Religions and Belief Systems
• Secularisation Theory: Will Modern Society Reject Religion? What is Secularism?