Taiwan: Switzerland of Asia of the 21st century?

Taiwan:  Switzerland
of Asia of the 21^st century?

Dear Colleagues:

Yesterday, I represent NCKU to make a presentation at
"高等教育論壇" in中興大學, an exciting
forum organized by中興大學 and 長庚大學. Because of time constraint, I skipped the last few
slides.

I was surprised that afterwards several people came to
ask for the details. When I got home, I received several more emails asking me
to elaborate.  There is obviously palpable interest in those slides.

So, allow me to elaborate them here.

This part of my talk could be defined by
the title我們要了解台灣在亞洲的地位

Let me take you through my thought process about the
position of Taiwan,
now that I have some personal experience here.

As you can see, as a theoretical physicist, I was
taught to always find a suitable model to guide my thought process. 
Throughout this speech, you must have noticed that that was my modus
operandi.

In placing Taiwan
in the Asia Pacific context, I think Europe is
my guiding light. 

As I mentioned earlier, the big FOUR in European Union
today, France, England, Germany
and Italy,
were involved in two of the world's bloodiest wars in the 20^th
century, WWI and WWII.  It is no wonder that certain amount of profound
distrust of each other exist between them, even today.  In the entire 20^th
century landscape, which remains true in the 21^st century, even with
today's European Union as a political entity, to have neutral place among these
four is still a basic necessity, if not a desire.  That neutral place is
called Switzerland. 

It is no wonder that throughout WWI and WWII, Switzerland
remained neutral, and today it is NOT in the European Union.

Yet, when Europe, certainly dominated by the "big
four" in 1954, wanted to create the world's largest and most advanced research
center, CERN (Organisation européenne pour la recherche nucléaire) it did not select London,
Paris, Berlin
or Rome as the
site.

It picked Geneva.

The
above picture, according to CERN's website, is "The gargantuan ATLAS
particle detector is seven stories tall. Physicists hope to use it to answer
fundamental questions about mass, "dark matter" and perhaps even
discover extra dimensions to space-time."

Once again, neutrality, a place where the big four can
feel comfortable, won the day!  Indeed, in the second half of the 20^th
century, and I am confident in the 21^st century, Switzerland will continue to play a critical and
fundamental role in the development of Europe
as a political and economic powerhouse for the world.

I think you can see where I am going.  There are
of course critical differences between Europe and East
Asia.  Yet there are also similarities. 

For example, there is also a big FOUR in Asia
Pacific:  Japan, South Korea, Mainland China
and Vietnam. 
I included Vietnam because everyone know that it is the fastest growing economy
in Asia today, even though it is one country that suffered the most recent
brutal conflict, first with France and later with United States in the second
half of the 20^th century and despite its recent economic
difficulties.

During WWII, the big FOUR in Asia
also engaged in exceedingly bloody conflicts.  Distrust, or even hatred,
still exist, in many quarters, although fortunately not all, even to this day.

In this landscape, Taiwan is sort of an oasis. 
For example, despite the more than half a century of Japanese colonization,
relations between Taiwan and
Japan
remain tranquil, if not warm.

It is well known that because of the brutality of Japan's colonization of Korea and the brutality of Japan during WWII, among its neighbors, there is
the inevitable deep suspicion of Japan.  I cannot foresee the
day where Japan
can decrease or reduce this suspicion by itself.  The behavior of the last
Prime Minister of Japan Koizumi clearly demonstrated that it would not be easy,
if not impossible.

Yet, undoubtedly, Asia without strong and/or synergistic
alliance with Japan
would have intrinsic if not fundamental difficulties.  Japan, after all, is still a
technological, intellectual and economic marvel and powerhouse of the
world.  So I see that this is where Taiwan
could leverage its good relations with Japan
to be the neutral ground where Mainland China,
South Korea and Vietnam can feel comfortable with Japan.

There is one major difference, however between Taiwan and Switzerland
and that is the relationship between the Mainland and Taiwan.  In the European
model, Switzerland does not
have a counterpart, unless you consider the Former Soviet Union or now Russia
as Mainland's counterpart.  However, in my mind, that is a stretch. 
Furthermore, unlike Taiwan
and the Mainland, Russia and
Switzerland
do not share common culture.

In this situation, for Taiwan, there is a powerful and
massive neighbor living right next door.  What is even more intriguing is
that this neighbor has the same culture as Taiwan, speak the same language
(even the dialects, Hakka or Ke-Jia and Min-Nan, are identical,) have the same
written language (except for the simplified and complicated version,) eat
identical cuisines (although each region claims that its local cuisine is the
best,) drink the same potent liquor, worship Confucius, and so on and so on and
so on. 

So, it seems obvious to me that the most formidable
challenge for Taiwan
to achieve the status of "Switzerland of Asia Pacific" status is to find
a way to co-exist, co-habitat or whatever is the politically acceptable
terminology in an economic and intellectual robust manner, with the Mainland.

If Taiwan
could accomplish that, and more, and there is every reason to expect that it
will succeed because of the inherent "practicality" of the people of Taiwan, then I am confident that the possibility
is extraordinarily high that Taiwan
can become the Switzerland of Asia Pacific in the 21^st century.

Wouldn't that be truly exhilarating in this century
for Asia Pacific?

Thank you.

Da Hsuan Feng

Senior Executive Vice
President

National Cheng Kung University

Tainan,
Taiwan