A comparison of Taiwan and China

Taiwan looks very small on the world map but its total population is approximately 23,000,000, which is larger than 170 countries in the world. It may not have done as badly as some suggest.

• The size of population in china is 58 times of that in Taiwan but their total national income is only 10 times greater than Taiwan’s.
• Taiwan’s GDP per capita is 5 times more than that of China. Even though China’s economy has been growing rapidly, the gap between Taiwan and China has actually remained the same.
• In terms of PPP, Taiwan ranks 39th in the world whereas China ranks 133rd.
• China’s infant mortality (21.96/1000 live births) is 4 times of that in Taiwan (5.45).
• In China, 8% of the population live under the poverty line whereas there’s only 0.95% in Taiwan.
• The unemployment in Taiwan was 3.9% when the DPP handed it to the KMT and it’s now over 4% after Ma took over but the unemployment in China is estimated to be between 15-20%.
• On average, each individual in Taiwan have 1.06 mobile phones but those in China only have 0.41. In Taiwan, 57% of population have access and use the internet but there’s only 19% in China.
• Looking at Gini Index (the level of economic inequality, the greater the figure, the worse the inequality), Taiwan got 33 in 2000 and fell steadily between 2001 and 2006. China got 41 in 2001 and 47 in 2007. Well, inequality in a ‘communist’ regime is greater than a country generally considered ‘capitalist’?
• Taiwan’s corruption index is 5.7 but China is only 3.5 (worse). Corruption in China seems to be prevalent.
• Most importantly, Taiwan’s press freedom is 10, which ranks 32nd in the world but China is only 89, which is the 163rd place in the world and only better than 6 other countries. In other words, there’s literally NO press freedom in China!
• On average, 550,000 Taiwanese share an airport but in China, 2,840,000 people share an airport.
• The life expectancy in Taiwan is 4.6 years longer than that in China.
• Looking at the Global Competitiveness Index, Taiwan is the 14thworldwide (5.25) and China comes the 34th (4.57).

China has always been clear about their intention to take Taiwan and alarmingly, the current ruling party, KMT, is very willing to help China in this regard. However, Taiwan is still ahead of China on various measures and it’s still a long way to go to bring China to where Taiwan is. As of now, most Taiwanese identify ourselves as Taiwanese and would not accept the level of human rights abuse in China and let go of the freedom and democracy we have fought hard for. Unfortunately, the majority of press are pro-China or even owned by Chinese business and have been exaggerating China’s success, which is limited to certain areas and certain social circles, and putting Taiwan down whenever they can.

(Source: http://www.wretch.cc/blog/billypan101/11740452)

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/tw.html

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ch.html

http://www.faqs.org/docs/factbook/fields/2172.html

http://www.transparency.org/policy_research/surveys_indices/cpi/2007

http://www.gcr.weforum.org/

http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=24025