About Taipei, we did not do a tour because we were on this ship six years ago, and I will today get into what we saw in 2019, plus bring you up to date on what is happening today.
I thus start with some nostalgia, as on 4December2019 I posted on our Diamond Princess stop in Taipei.
- To begin, I went back to a 20November2008 posting reporting on a project I had in 1988 working with the Taiwanese government.
One final anecdote is that PICHTR, exactly 20 years ago, worked with ITRI to produce an $80 million multiple product OTEC study for Taiwan, led by Paul Yuen and my engineering team (same group as mentioned above). In our small way, then, we like to think we stimulated some interest in what could someday be the most important renewable energy resource for Hawaii and World. Maybe The Blue Revolution (see Chapter 4 of SIMPLE SOLUTIONS for Planet Earth) has finally started.
- Plus, I made visits to their second largest city, Kaohshiung, today with a population of 2.7 million. To quote:
- I also had a project with Sun Yat Sen University in Kaohshung to study the potential of the whale shark replacing cattle for protein. My visit to Churaumi Aquarium was helpful, for they showed some graphics with photos of 300 babies in a female whale shark. Considering that a cow mostly produces one calf, the economics of a whale shark industry seems intriguing.
- One more aside, Sun Yat-sen is known to be the individual who founded the Republic of China in 1912 and today is particularly revered in Taiwan as the Father of the Nation,
- Was born in 1855 in what is now Guangdong of Hakka and Cantonese descent.
- He came to Hawaii at the age of 13 and went to Iolani School and Oahu College, which later became Punahou School. It was in Hawaii that he first learned about Western ways and democracy.
- There are seven statues of him in Hawaii, with a popular one located at the Chinese Cultural Plaza in Honolulu Chinatown, donated by the Kaohsiung City Government in 1984 to commemorate the 90th anniversary of the establishment of the Revive China Society.
- He went on to get a medical degree in 1892 in Hong Kong.
- Of course he did a lot more and passed away in 1925 at the age of 59.
- So Honolulu has produced two presidents, Barack Obama and Sun Yat-sen.
- Well, all the above to indicate that I've traveled to Taiwan more than a dozen times. Some changes since my last visit six years ago,
- The population of Taipei depends on who you ask.
- This is because the city has undergone a metamorphosis.
- One source gives these data:
- Taipei 2.779 million
- New Taipei 4,071 million,
- Kaohsiung 2.722 million.
- Below, the white part is Taipei City.
- But more important than the above, the population of Taiwan was 23.6 million in 2019. Today? Only 23.3 million.
- You might think that the threat of China was why some moved away. Turns out that net-migration is a plus, not a minus.
- The primary reason is that for the 22nd consecutive month, there were more deaths than births.
- That is, like several economically well developed countries in Asia, birth rates are dramatically falling.
- In 1976, Taiwan had 425,125 births, increasing the national population by 348,090 people.
- In 2024, there were only 134,850 births, dropping the population by 67,251 that year.
- South Korea has an annual crude birth rate of 4.78/1000 people, the lowest in the world. Taiwan is approaching that rate.
- Another reason why the population is declining is that people are getting older, with 19.9% of the population now 65 and older, joining Japan and South Korea as super-aged nations. Taipei was even higher at 24%!
- Taiwan today has a population of 23.4 million. This number is predicted to drop to 20.7 million by 2045, with 35% 65 and older.
- You ask, why are their birth rates so low? Google AI indicates that much of Asia is in this transition because of a combination of economic and social factors. The high cost of raising children, increased opportunities for women, and the challenges in balancing work and family life. There is now greater access to contraception and a shift from traditional family mores to economic stability.
- Of course the larger question is, how has Taiwan's relation to China changed? Google AI provided this feedback.
- I asked Google AI the key question:
The current official policy of the Trump administration is complex and appears to be a combination of transactionalism, strategic ambiguity, and a focus on defense burden sharing
. While the administration has historically supported Taiwan through arms sales and deepened security ties, recent actions and statements suggest a shift towards using Taiwan as a bargaining chip in broader negotiations with China. The administration also emphasizes a "burden-sharing" approach with allies and partners and has shown a willingness to impose tariffs on China if it attacks Taiwan. - But back to our present cruise.
- Keelung Port is 16 miles from Taipei.
- Their tallest building, Taipei 101, has 101 floors, and was the highest in the world from 2003 until 2008.
- At 1667 feet, it is now #11.
- One World Center in New York City at 1776 feet is #7, and Burj Khalifa at 2727 feet is #1.
- Any visit to Taipei should incorporate a tour of the National Palace Museum. Why? According to Google AI:
Evacuation from Beijing: In the 1930s, facing the imminent Japanese invasion, authorities at the Palace Museum (located within the Forbidden City) packed a large portion of the imperial collection—nearly 20,000 crates of artifacts—and shipped them south to be stored in various locations across China.
- Civil War and Relocation to Taiwan: After World War II, as Mao Zedong's Communist forces gained the upper hand in the Chinese Civil War, Chiang Kai-shek and his Nationalist government (Kuomintang, or KMT) decided to relocate some of the most important and irreplaceable pieces to Taiwan.
- The Move: Between 1948 and 1949, in three separate shipments, around 600,000 items (roughly a quarter of the total artifacts moved south from Beijing) were transported by ship to Taiwan, along with the nation's gold and foreign exchange reserves. The remaining items fell into Communist hands and were returned to the Palace Museum in Beijing.
- The first stop of the Taipei tour I took in 2019 was to the National Palace Museum. I said in my subsequent posting, how can I show 600,000 photos? So I limited mine to just jade.
- Jade is not all green. This gem can also be white, black, yellow, lavender, red, orange, blue and mulitple colors.
- I took a photo of this huge piece of gold jade, and note the handle of my walking cane.
- I regret my decision not to purchase a dragon made of blue jade for $200 in Shanghai. I was born in the year of the dragon.
- One of the stops was to the Grand Hotel for an incredible Chinese buffet.
- The final tour stop was to Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall.
Chiang's reputation spans the full gap from revile to revere. His respect in Taiwan has steadily declined because he executed many of the local educated and elite. Interestingly, China is more and more portraying him as a hero for his anti-Japanese resistance during World War II. Similarly, the U.S. twice tried to assassinate him, but now seems to look at him more favorably.
In any case, he ruled Taiwan from 1949 to 1985, passing away at the age of 87. Madame Chiang Kai-Shek lived on for almost two decades till the age of 105. She, Mei-ling, is one of the three famous Soong sisters, for older sister Ai-ling married China's richest man, H.H. Kung, while #2, Ching-ling, married Sun Yai-sen, Father of Modern China. She went on to became the only Communist of the three, and became honorary President of China in 1981 just before her death.
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