The population of Taiwan in 1999 was estimated at around 22.4 million people, with a growth rate of 0.6%. The economy of Taiwan was largely driven by its services sector, which accounted for around 70% of the country’s GDP. This was supplemented by the manufacturing and agricultural industries. Foreign relations in 1999 were largely positive, with the country having strong ties to many East Asian nations as well as the wider international community. Politically, Taiwan had been a multi-party democracy since 1949 when it formally adopted its modern constitution. The ruling party at this time was the Kuomintang (KMT), which had been in power since 2000. In 1999, Lee Teng-hui was President and had been since 1988. See ethnicityology for Taiwan in the year of 2018.
Yearbook 1999
Taiwan. Relations with China were marked by both progress and war threats. A delegation from Taiwan’s semi-official liaison agency SEF (Straits Exchange Foundation) visited China in June, together with its Chinese counterpart ARATS (Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait), to prepare a visit to Taiwan by ARATS Chairman Wang Daohan.
In an interview for German media this summer, President Li Denghui said Taiwan’s relations with China would be “intergovernmental.” That statement led to very sharp reactions from China. In Chinese press it was called that Li’s attempt to separate China and Taiwan would lead to disaster for the 22 million people in Taiwan. In addition, it became clear that China’s army was in readiness on the mainland side of the Formosa Strait.
Visit Countryaah official website to get information about the capital city of Taiwan. Macedonia became the second European country (after the Vatican City) and the 28th in the world (most small states in Africa, Central America and the Pacific) establishing diplomatic relations with Taiwan. Prime Minister Siew later denied in an interview that Taiwan would have bought the diplomatic recognition of promises of aid. However, both aid agencies and business delegations from Taiwan visited Macedonia during the year.
- Also see Abbreviationfinder.org to see the acronym of TWN which stands for Taiwan and other definitions of this 3-letter abbreviation.
The new government, which was presented on February 1, did not contain many new faces, but looked almost like the former. In August, the ruling party appointed GMD (Guomindang) Vice President Lien Chan as presidential candidate for the March 2000 elections.
However, the presidential campaign was abruptly interrupted by the severe earthquake that hit Taiwan in September. Over 2,000 people lost their lives and 100,000 are estimated to have become homeless. The earthquake was measured at 7.6 on the Richter scale and had its center in the Nantu Province on the western most densely populated part of the island. A government spokesman admittedly declared after the disaster that “money is not the problem”, but the earthquake will undoubtedly have consequences for the growth of Taiwan’s economy, which has already shown signs of slowing down. In 1998, the growth rate of the economy was 4.83%, a high figure in Europe, but the lowest in sixteen years in Taiwan. A number of measures to stimulate the economy were therefore introduced in February. some restrictions were removed for the banks, as well as some obstacles to foreign ownership were removed.
There is a lot to see on the small island
Taiwan is visited every year by a couple of million tourists, for whom the beautiful island has many tourist advantages to offer. The capital Taipei is a modern and busy Asian city with its skyscrapers. The tallest of them is the 509-meter-high Taipei 101, which has held the title of the tallest building in the world for a few years. Perhaps the biggest cause for pride, however, is the National Palace Museum in Taipei, whose importance to Chinese culture has been compared to the importance of the Paris Louvre to the West. Many of the museum’s immeasurably valuable treasures belonged to the collections of the Chinese emperors. When the last emperor Pu Yi was expelled from the Forbidden City of Beijing in 1924, the items were packed in thousands of wooden boxes, which were later transported across China to the safety of the Japanese occupying forces. In 1949, Kuomintang brought a significant portion of them with them to Taiwan.
Located in the mountains of the central part of the island, Sun Moon Lake is Taiwan’s largest lake and a popular tourist destination. There is much to see in the area, including temples, nature trails and the cultural village of the island’s indigenous tribes. Taiwan is a very mountainous island with the highest peaks rising to nearly four kilometers.
The attraction of the East Coast is the stunningly beautiful Taroko National Park near the city of Hualien. The steep walls of the 20-kilometer-long Taroko Gorge there are marble shaped by nature. In addition to forests, mountains and magnificent canyons, the area has tunnels, temples, rivers, waterfalls and hot springs. In fact, there are many different hot springs in Taiwan, some in their natural state, some used by spas. The Japanese brought their spa culture to Taiwan as early as the late 19th century, but after Japanese rule, spa enthusiasm slowly waned. In this millennium, however, it has once again been brought to a new heyday.
At the time of writing, there are nine national parks in Taiwan, each with its own attractions. The oldest and southernmost of them is Kenting National Park, established in 1984 at the southern tip of the island, which protects the remains of a tropical rainforest. The park also has mountains, coral lakes, caves and beaches, as well as a rich fauna and flora.
The numerous pavilions and temples on the shores of Lake Lootus on the outskirts of the southern city of Kaohsiung are well worth a visit.
On the northeast coast of the island, on the other hand, you will find fine beaches with diverse water sports, as well as special-shaped, erosion-shaped rock formations, the most photographed of which are known as the “Queen’s Head”.
