Taiwan's territory is small, our population is limited, and our internal market scale is not large as well; therefore, the quickly expand of economy is not depend on the internal trade.  We depend on international trade instead.  This is how Taiwanese made our own successful story in economy.

During 1952 to 1995, the GDP (Gross Domestic Production) had grown 33 times than its pervious shape, the GNP (Gross National Production) had grown 12 times than its pervious shape, and the amount of international trade had grown 71 times than its pervious amount.  Of the international trade, the amount of exportation had increased 96 times than its pervious amount and the amount of importation had increased 55 times than its pervious amount (see Chart E1 and E2 below).  The growth represents the international trade had played an important role in the process of the developing economy in Taiwan (施添福[2] 225).

According to de Blij, "It is also true that Taiwan received much Western assistance; however, it got out of debt faster than anyone expected.  In some ways, Taiwan's emergence as an economic tiger on the Pacific Rim id even more spectacular than Japan's.  Today, annual per-capita income exceeds U.S. $ 15,000, which is higher than that in many European countries" (de Blij 483).

Taiwan is pretty much involved in globalization.  It imports raw cotton for its textile industry, bauxite from Indonesia for aluminum, oil from Brunei, and iron ore from Africa (de Blij 483).  Take the digital chips of cell phone of Ericsson as another example:  It is devised in Sweden --> designed the blueprint in the United Stated --> manufactured the archetype in Japan --> produced digital chips in the United States --> tested and packed in Taiwan --> sent to the production line of Ericsson all over the world (施添福[1] 191).

Taiwan has a developing iron and steel industry, nuclear power plants, shipyards, a large chemical industry, and modern transport networks (de Blij 483).  However, in the process of globalization, Taiwan is famous for its high-technology industries, such as personal computer, telecommunications equipment, and precision electronic instruments (see Picture E1 →).  In the aspect of information industry, Taiwan has developed into a professional producer of PC hardware, ranging from mainboard, keyboard, mouse, to notebook computer.  In the aspect of semiconductor industry (see Chart E3 below), the productions of DRAM and TFT-LCD (liquid crystal display) are the most representative ones.  After the earthquake on September 21st, 1999, in Taiwan, there was an electric power cut, resulting in a serious short supply of semiconductor all over the world.  From this incident, it is not hard to see the important role Taiwan plays in the world (施添福[4] 114).

Note: During the process of production, chips have to be washed by high concentration of sulfuric acid, nitric acid, and other substances.  Some equipment needs to be washed by alkaline substances, and then by pure high-pressure water to wash off the residual of acid or alkaline substances.  The used water has to go through some special processes, such as filtration, to recycle to use as water for cleaning the factory buildings and pipes.  Finally, send out the waste water to the polluted water treatment plant in the industry according to the standards of discharge polluted water.  One substance among the polluted water is fluoride cyanic acid, which is used to rinse the machine parts and chips.  It is poisonous.  It is colorless and looks just like water.  When touching it, it will not cause any feeling to whoever touches it.  However, it has strong ability to pass through people's skin and erode calcium in their bones (施添福[4] 97).

Furthermore, as de Blij mention, "Taiwan has enormous brainpower, and many foreign firms join in the research and development carried on in such places as Hsinchu (see Picture E2 below) in the north, where the government has helped establish a technopole centered on the microelectronics and personal computer industries; in the south, the science city of Tainan specializes in Microsystems and information technology" (de Blij 483).