V. G. BUROV

Doctor of Philosophy

In May 2009 After a long, eight-year break, I managed to visit Taiwan again, for the sixth time, or rather, its main city Taipei. Over the years, it has undergone significant changes for the better.

TAIPEI DAILY LIFE

First of all, transport links have improved, as evidenced by the appearance of new metro lines, the stations are very convenient, equipped with signs in Chinese and English, and detailed information in the form of a running line is also available in the cars. The ticket is cheap-from 15 to 40 Taiwan dollars (or taibi, as the Taiwanese call their currency), depending on the number of stations. One Taiwanese dollar is equal to about one ruble, i.e. a trip to the subway costs an ordinary Taipei citizen about the same as a Muscovite, but the latter's salary is much lower on average.

There are no problems with bus and taxi services in the city. Many Taipei residents prefer to ride mopeds. This means of transportation is used not only by young people, but also by elderly matrons.

In February 2007, a super-fast railway (300 km per hour) was opened from Taipei to the second most important city of Kaohsiung in the south of the island. If earlier the travel time was 4-5 hours, now it is only 1.5-2 hours. Much cheaper than in Moscow, Taipei hotels, one room in a 4-star hotel can cost a little more than 100 am. United States dollars.

In recent years, the city has built buildings of new large stores, including well - known Japanese companies-Sogo and Mitsukoshi, along with many small and medium-sized shops selling all sorts of things, the abundance of inexpensive eateries and cafes for every taste is striking, which distinguishes Taipei from Russian cities. A large number of them are located in the underground floors of supermarkets. In one of them, I counted several dozen with a total number of seats of at least 1000! You can have lunch for 120-160 taibi, i.e. rubles, and the soup is served free of charge. Here everything is made for the convenience of store visitors. A striking contrast to Moscow! So, in the recently built and widely advertised shopping and entertainment center "European", the entire underground floor is given over to a garage, and in the very center there are only a few expensive cafes.

In 2004, the tallest tower in the world at that time, "Taipei 101", was built in the city, with 101 floors. Its height is 508 m. On the 88th and 91st floors, there are glass - enclosed viewing platforms that offer a beautiful view of the city. At the base of the tower are several floors of shops and underground garages. Not far from it is one of the largest Taipei bookstores, its total area is 3000 square meters.m. for visitors there are tables and chairs so that they can get acquainted with it before making their choice in favor of a particular book. There is also a department in the store where you can buy books published on the mainland. Previously, such departments did not exist.

I read some interesting information in one of the Taiwanese newspapers: it turns out that about a million Taiwanese people are not married - many young women earn enough to support themselves, they do not need the financial support of a man.

Taiwanese people are friendly, polite, always ready to help a foreigner, their faces radiate optimism. According to my observations, they have confidence in the future. The number of unemployed due to the global economic and financial crisis has increased, but does not reach 6% of the total working-age population. The level of well-being of Taiwanese people is indicated by this fact. A Taiwanese professor told me a few years ago that when he started working at the university in the 70s, he didn't have the money to buy milk for his child, and now he has no money at all.

he has a nice apartment, a car and a high salary.

CAUSES OF AN ECONOMIC MIRACLE

The successful economic development of Taiwan over the past few decades raises one very important and fundamental question for scientists and politicians - the reasons for the Taiwanese economic miracle.

A few years ago, Vladimir Solovyov's Orange Juice program was broadcast on Russian television, in which he collected two interlocutors of different political and ideological beliefs. In one of the programs that I happened to watch, Garry Kasparov, a "well-known democrat", and Alexander Tkachev, the governor of the Krasnodar Territory, "came together". Kasparov strongly promoted democratic Taiwan, contrasting it with totalitarian mainland China. Tkachev didn't know what to say. Meanwhile, Kasparov deliberately or unknowingly kept silent about the fact that during the period of rapid economic development of Taiwan, there was a rigid vertical of power and a one-party dictatorship of the Kuomintang. Its leader, Chiang Kai-shek, learned the necessary lessons after being defeated by the Communists on the mainland. He reformed the party, freeing it from incapacitated, corrupt elements. The Kuomintang has become the core of the authoritarian regime, the main political force for modernizing Taiwanese society.

Although a staunch anti-communist, Chiang Kai-shek could not help but understand that the CCP's victory was not least due to its better organization, better training system, and common ideological and political principles. "If we want to defeat the Communist bandits," Chiang Kai - shek said, " we must learn all their methods and use their techniques."¹. He stressed the importance of creating small but efficient party cells, unconditional subordination of party members to leaders, and organizing a coherent system of internal party information. In fact, the GMD adopted the communist principle of "democratic centralism". In addition, there was a fusion of the party with the State, its penetration into all spheres of public life, and its control over the army and security forces. Everything, even the slightest expression of opposition to the political regime, was severely suppressed.

At the same time, the spirit of absolute submission to the leader was cultivated. One member of parliament wrote at the time: "If the party is likened to an organism, then the chairman must look at his party colleagues as hands and feet, and they must look at him as a head; there can be no hands and feet that do not obey the head, just as there can be no party members who do not obey to the chairman"². The cult of Chiang Kai-shek in Taiwan was no different from that of Stalin or Mao Zedong.

The use of Soviet political experience was largely due to the influence of Chiang Kai - shek's son, Jiang Jingguo, who spent more than a decade in the Soviet Union and was well acquainted with its political practices. 37 years - from 1950 to 1986, Taiwan had an authoritarian GMD regime. The activities of other parties were only allowed in 1986, but it was thanks to this regime that the economic modernization of Taiwanese society was carried out, and the economic foundation of the current Taiwanese democracy was created.

First of all, the agrarian reform was carried out, which had not only purely economic, but also social and political goals, it included three measures - reducing rents, selling state-owned land and exchanging landowners ' land for shares in privatized state-owned enterprises. At the same time, measures were taken to "urbanize" the village, i.e. to create urban amenities in it, in particular water supply and sewerage, activities were launched to distribute new agricultural knowledge among the peasants, and the creation of professional peasant organizations was encouraged.

In the 90-ies of the last century, many of our Russian politicians and publicists scoffed at the planning of the economy in the Soviet Union in every possible way. Meanwhile, a similar practice existed in Taiwan under Chiang Kai-shek and his successors. State regulation of the national economy was manifested, in particular, in the planning of economic development. Over the course of 40 years, starting from 1950, 6 four - year plans were implemented, one-6 - year and one-10-year, and in 1991-1996 another 6-year plan was implemented. Each plan included a program for the construction of a number of large objects of national significance. Enterprises for the production of electricity, petroleum products, steel, ships, sugar, and salt were established; railways, highways, and bridges were built; air transport, information systems, reservoirs, water supply and drainage systems, and land reclamation were developed.

Jiang Jingguo called the model of state participation in the development of a free, market economy a "planned free economic system."

Thus, the merits of the Kuomintang and Chiang Kai-shek personally in Taiwan's economic miracle are obvious. Chiang Kai-shek's modernization of Taiwanese society cannot fail to inspire respect. Figuratively speaking, without Chiang Kai-shek and the Kuomintang, there would be no Taiwan today.³

And finally, once again about democracy in connection with Kasparov's statements. Relatively recently, in an interview with Nezavisimaya Gazeta, Joseph Weiler, a world-renowned lawyer, stated literally the following:"...The relationship between scale, size, and democracy is often underestimated. On a cyclopean scale, democracy becomes nominal, and the significance of individualism shrinks. We make a mockery of ourselves when we say that we want to democratize China (podch. nami. - V. B.). Democratizing China will either lead to the construction of a formal meaningless democracy, when people will come to the polls once every five years, or to the collapse of the country. There are no democracies of this size. " ⁴

TAIWAN AND MAINLAND CHINA

And today, the Kuomintang is at the forefront of a new renewal of Taiwanese society. From 2000 to 2008, the ruling party of Taiwan was the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), the second largest party on the island. It consists mainly of individuals who (in the past and present) were opposed to the Kuomintang. The success of DPP representative Chen Shui-bian in the presidential elections of 2000 and again in 2004 was largely due to Taiwanese fatigue with the authoritarian GMD regime, the corruption of some officials, and certain economic problems that arose at the end of the last century. Taiwanese society wanted change, and with the new leadership coming to power, ordinary Taiwanese hoped for a change in the situation for the better.

However, Chen Shui-bian's eight years as president had left them disappointed. This is due, in my opinion, to three reasons: his inefficient economic policy, the corruption of a certain part of the DPP leadership (suffice it to say that currently a criminal case has been opened against Chen Shui-bian on charges of accepting bribes and he is under arrest), and his unwise behavior towards mainland China.

In the 90-ies of the last century, even under the GMD, Taiwan began to pursue a policy of economic cooperation with China: Taiwanese businessmen were allowed to travel to the mainland, open Taiwanese enterprises there, and invest in the Chinese economy. Such a policy, while being beneficial for both sides, has contributed to the broad development of Taiwan's trade and economic ties with the mainland. As of September 2007, Taiwan's investment in China was $45 billion. In the same 90's, the Taiwanese authorities also allowed private visits to the mainland, as well as cultural and scientific exchanges. After the defeat of the GMD in 1949, about 1.5 million Chinese moved to Taiwan and had relatives in mainland China. Since the mid-1990s, many Taiwanese residents have made regular trips to the mainland, but government officials and military personnel have been banned from doing so. Now more than 400 thousand Taiwanese live on the mainland, of which 18 thousand are permanent. In turn, representatives of the scientific community and cultural figures from the mainland were invited to Taiwan.

Government in Taiwan until 2000-Lee Denghui (then a member of the GMD) and then in 2000-2008. Chen Shui-bian-pursued an ambivalent policy towards mainland China. On the one hand, they sought to develop economic cooperation with him. On the other hand, they followed the policy of recognizing Taiwan by the international community as a sovereign, independent state, which could not but cause strong opposition from the Chinese leadership, which considers Taiwan its province.

Often, because of disagreements between the authorities on both sides of the Taiwan Strait, the situation sharply worsened, and there was a threat of armed conflict. It should be emphasized that the course of Li Denghui, and then Chen Shui-bian, was unpromising, because even Taiwan's closest ally, the United States, always adheres to the one-China policy. It is enough to recall President Clinton's statement about the American "three no's" policy towards Taiwan: no support for Taiwan's independence, no support for "two Chinas" or "one China - one Taiwan", and no support for Taiwan's requests

on joining the UN or other international organizations under the conditions of full membership ⁵. This policy is followed by all subsequent US presidents, despite their obvious sympathy for the regime that exists in Taiwan.

The tension in relations between the two sides could not but worry ordinary Taiwanese and a significant part of the local political elite. They believed that Taiwan's confrontation with mainland China could only bring it economic and political damage. It should be emphasized that currently, Taiwanese people make 5 million tourist trips to the mainland every year - there is much to see, and the trip itself is inexpensive compared to the prices that exist in Taiwan.

The Kuomintang leadership caught on to these sentiments, which were gradually becoming dominant in Taiwanese society. Back in 2005-2006, it began to establish contacts with the leadership of mainland China, including trips of the GMD leaders to the mainland, their talks with the top leadership of the PRC and the CPC, and solemn meetings were held for delegations from Taiwan, which were widely covered in the Chinese press.

After the GMD representative Ma Yin - jeou came to power in 2008, negotiations between representatives of two parastatal organizations-the Taipei Foundation for the Development of Cross-Strait Ties (SEF) and the Beijing Association for Cross-Strait Ties (ARATS) - took place in the summer and autumn of the same year in Beijing and then in Taipei. The last negotiations between them took place back in 2002 and ended without success. Now, a number of agreements have been reached, first of all, charter flights were opened, and then regular flights were opened between the cities of mainland China and Taiwan, direct mail and steamship services were established. Previously, to make a trip to Taiwan or the mainland, you had to fly through Hong Kong.

The measures taken have opened the way to Taiwan for tourists from mainland China. During my stay in Taipei, I was able to meet numerous groups from various places in China on a daily basis (planes fly to Taipei not only from Beijing, but also from Shanghai, Xi'an, Guangzhou, Fuzhou, Xiamen, from a total of 21 cities). Chinese tourists are usually elderly and retired people. An eight-day tour costs 5,000 Chinese yuan, which is about $800. Every day, according to various sources, from 3 to 6 thousand people come to Taiwan. tourists from the mainland. They have already generated $600 million in revenue in one year. (data for May 2009).

Beijing has also changed its stance on Taiwan's participation in international organizations. In particular, with his tacit consent, the Taiwanese representative recently participated in the session of the World Health Organization as an observer, which the Chinese authorities had previously strongly objected to.

It should be noted that the recent policy of rapprochement with mainland China adopted by the Taiwanese leadership is causing a mixed reaction in Taiwanese society. The DPP organized a number of protest actions in this regard. On November 4, 2008, its supporters tried to prevent the arrival of the Beijing ARATS delegation in Taipei by staging a noisy demonstration at the capital's airport. May 17-20, 2009 The DPP organized a series of demonstrations against the policies of Taiwan's current leader, Ma Yin-jeou. The demonstrators ' demands boiled down to accusing him of betraying Taiwan's national interests, literally saying: "End the colonial rule of the Republic of China by an alien gangster government, preserve Taiwan's independence." The DPP and its supporters promote the thesis that the Taiwanese are a special ethnic community, different from the Chinese, and therefore Taiwan has the legal right to be an independent state.

Nevertheless, the GMD and its leadership continue to adhere to their policy towards China, which, according to opinion polls, is supported by the majority of the island's population. This course is to move closer to the mainland while maintaining Taiwan as a sovereign State. The GMD leadership assumes that Taiwanese people are a single ethnic community with mainland Chinese, so there are no insoluble contradictions between them, but "first you need to solve economic problems, and then political ones."

In the context of globalization, especially during the global economic crisis, the stability of the Taiwanese economy largely depends on its world economic relations, including relations with mainland China. Currently, mainland China accounts for about 40% of Taiwan's total exports. Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman, who was in Taipei in May 2009, said that there is no reason not to develop trade and economic relations between the two sides of the Strait. The fact that the party's chairman, Wu Baoxun, relinquished his post to Ma Yin-jeou in mid-June 2009 indicates that the KMT leadership is interested in continuing cooperation with mainland China. According to many Taiwanese and Western analysts, the GMD leadership took this step in order to organize a meeting between Ma Yin-jeou and Hu Jintao in the future, because it understands that the Chinese leadership will not accept the Taiwanese leader as a statesman.

RUSSIA IN TAIWAN

Until the early 90's of the last century, any relations between the Soviet Union and Taiwan were out of the question, although some Taiwanese scientists took part in international congresses held in our country. In contrast, Soviet scientists were forbidden entry to the island by the Taiwanese authorities, in particular, I was not allowed to visit Taiwan in 1988 to participate in an international philosophical conference, although I had an invitation to do so.

The first time I was able to visit Taiwan was only in December 1991, just in the days of the collapse of the Soviet Union.

In the early 1990s, a certain part of the Russian political elite was euphoric about the possibility of large-scale cooperation between Russia and Taiwan, in any case, the Mayor of Moscow, G. Popov, visited Taiwan at that time, and a number of other officials visited. Interest in Russia has also increased dramatically in Taiwan, with some unofficial and official delegations visiting our country, the highest being at the level of the Deputy Foreign Minister of Taiwan. However, both Taipei and Moscow soon realized that the establishment of any full-fledged ties with Taiwan is fraught with negative consequences for Russia in relations with the PRC. However, since there are also economic and cultural spheres of cooperation in addition to political ones, the Taipei-Moscow (in 1993) and Moscow-Taipei (in 1996) Commissions for Economic and Cultural Cooperation were established. Both commissions carry out fruitful work within the limits of their powers.

Currently, the trade turnover between Taiwan and Russia is $3.9 billion, of which Russian exports account for $3 billion.⁶ Taiwan mainly imports raw materials, mainly oil, and exports computer equipment and related products. According to Taiwanese experts, the increase in trade turnover is hindered by high customs duties for foreign exporters. As for cultural ties, first of all, we should mention the constantly increasing number of young people from Russia traveling to the island for study or internship, mostly they come with grants from the government Fund, the monthly stipend is approximately $ 750 - $ 900. The subject of their study is the Chinese language, which has its own specifics, because Taiwan still uses full characters, which on the mainland as a result of the writing reform in the mid-1950s were replaced by simplified, short ones. In addition, in Taiwan, the written language, official correspondence often uses wenyanisms, i.e., the word "Chinese".e. ancient expressions and lexical expressions in general, characteristic of the educated environment of the first decades of the XX century. In print publications and newspapers, the traditional old Chinese custom of writing from top to bottom and from right to left has been preserved. In addition to Chinese, Russian students study economics, law, literature, and art. Over the past few years, Taiwanese universities have accepted about 300 students from Russia and the CIS countries. Further increase in their number is hindered by the unresolved issue of recognition of higher education diplomas in Taiwan in Russia. The number of young Taiwanese people who want to get a higher education in Russia is 150 people.

As Li Ming, the former head of the cultural department of the Taiwan Representative Office in Moscow, said in an interview with me, before Taiwan focused only on Europe and the United States in matters of cultural cooperation. However, in recent years, "the ice has broken", Taiwanese theater and music groups began to come to Russia, in particular, to the Chekhov Festival; the Mariinsky Theater, other groups and individual performers visited Taiwan on tour. In 2007, the "cultural exhibition of Russia" was held, where the manuscripts of Pushkin, Tolstoy and Sholokhov were presented.

Currently, several hundred Russians live in Taiwan-businessmen, university teachers, and students. Three universities in Taiwan have Russian language faculties. In two of them-the State Political University (Zhengzhi) and the private University of Chinese Culture, these faculties have existed for several decades.

A pioneer of Taiwanese Russian studies can be considered Professor Wang Zhaohui, who was educated in Harbin, and it was he who brought up the first Taiwanese specialists in the Russian language.

This recently deceased man was surprisingly modest, gentle, and sympathetic. Another major expert in the field of teaching Russian was Professor Ming Qi, who worked for many years at the University of Chinese Culture. I also had to meet this friendly, courteous person more than once.

At the Russian language faculties of both universities, teams of enthusiasts have formed who consider teaching Russian language and literature a matter of life. This was clearly demonstrated by the International Conference held at the Political University in May 2009 dedicated to the 200th anniversary of the birth of Nikolai Gogol, which I happened to attend.

The Taiwanese Panorama magazine, published in Taipei in Russian and published for 15 years, plays an important role in familiarizing the Russian public with the life of Taiwan, its culture, art, everyday life, and political processes taking place in Taiwanese society. Its only drawback is that it absolutely does not publish materials on the history of Taiwan, even for the period associated with the arrival of the GMD on the island. Meanwhile, there were events that may be of informative and recommendatory interest to Russian readers and politicians.

^{Chiang Kai-shek.} 1 Essays. Taipei. 1974. Vol. 24, p. 33 (in Chinese).

² See: Li Yunhang. Evolution of relations between the Party and the government after the GDM moved to Taiwan. Taipei, 1994, p. 6 (in Chinese).

³ For more information about the modernization of Taiwanese society, see my monograph of the same name, published in 1998 by the publishing house of the Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

⁴ Nezavisimaya gazeta. 26.06.2009.

⁵ See: Ostrovsky A.V. Taiwan on the eve of the XXI century. Moscow, 1999, p. 160.

⁶ According to the Moscow office of the Taiwan Foreign Trade Association.

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