By William Stanton, Contributing Columnist — Taiwan News, 13 January 2022
As we enter a new year, it is easy to be grim about the future. The continuing COVID-19 plague, ongoing PRC belligerence toward Taiwan, the Russian threat against Ukraine, deep political divisions in The US and other countries, the decline in freedom worldwide and rise of more authoritarian leaders, and seemingly unstoppable climate change are just some of the many challenges we face. But there are reasons for Taiwan to give thanks.
Taiwan has proven itself to be one of the top countries in the world in controlling COVID-19, developing its own vaccine and providing more than 50 million medical masks to other countries. CEOWORLD magazine ranked Taiwan as the 10th Safest Place in the World to travel to in 2021. In the 2021 Freedom House rating of people’s access to political rights and civil liberties in 210 countries and territories, Taiwan scored 94 out of 100 points and tied for seventh place alongside Estonia, Germany, Cyprus and Iceland. In the 2021 Heritage House Index of Economic Freedom, it ranked sixth out of 178 countries. It is no wonder that Taiwan retained its title in 2021 as the “best place in the world for expats” for the third year in a row based on an InterNations Expat Insider survey.
For a New Year’s wish list, the author hopes the PRC will halt its belligerent intrusions into Taiwan’s air defense identification zone; that Taiwan and its friends will do more to enhance their trading relationships, including progress toward a US-Taiwan free trade agreement; and that Taiwan will seriously revisit the issue of military conscription to demonstrate national will to defend itself. The article also highlights Taiwan’s challenges, including the world’s lowest fertility rate, significant “brain drain,” and an energy conundrum given its heavy reliance on fossil fuels. Despite these challenges, the author concludes: “Given Taiwan’s miraculous achievement in overcoming enormous odds to become a prosperous democracy, I am betting it will succeed.”