Rural Development in Taiwan, 1950s–1970s

This chapter examines Taiwan's impressive record of rural development. In Taiwan, the defeated Kuomintang regime (KMT or Chinese Nationalist Party) sought to regain control of mainland China by transforming the island into a model province that would legitimize its right to rule. The KMT carried out a comprehensive land reform program in the early 1950s, which led to the creation of a smallholder farm economy with extremely low levels of inequality. In addition to land reform, the KMT built up a rural extension system to provide technical education and production inputs to farmers. These institutions resulted in nearly two decades of accelerated growth. According to Taiwan's former president Lee Teng-hui, agriculture played a textbook role in Taiwan's development. It met the domestic demand for food, accounted for a substantial share of exports, and provided capital and labor for industrialization. As one of the first countries in the post-World War II period to achieve industrialized nation status, Taiwan stands out as an exemplary case of successful development. The chapter then sheds light on what happened after the government's urban-biased policies were reversed in the 1970s.