THIS LAND, THIS PEOPLE

Longitude 123° east, latitude 25° north. Here, countless centuries ago, the mantle of the earth cracked and heaved upwards. And when the waters of the Pacific receded, an island stood like a sentinel off the continent of Asia. Today, this island is called Taiwan. Taiwan is a province of the Republic of China. On its 14,000 square miles live more than 16 million people. The living legacy of a civilization whose written history goes back 5,000 years. By drawing on this history, our people have fought against high odds to create in just 25 years a dynamic society on a scenic and fertile island. [Music] The mountainous spine of Taiwan bisects a valuable timberland. On these steep flanks, forestry experts have developed a careful program of planting and cutting that is now the foundation of a thriving lumber industry. And along our craggy eastern coast, plentiful marble deposits have in recent years been efficiently tapped. [Music] And the great coastal plains to the west have been turned into lush grazing pastures [Music] and high yield farmlands. But frankly, the 20th century demands more than just wood, stone, and grain. It demands the most sophisticated technology, social services, and education that modern mind can develop. To paraphrase John Dunn, no nation can afford to be an island. Today's instantaneous communication and jet age transportation have shrunk the globe and brought men of all nations ever closer. Here, delegates from Europe, Africa, and the Americas have come to Taipei, our capital city, to join their Chinese hosts in a World Junior Chamber of Commerce Convention. At the top of the agenda, fashioning new ways for countries to pull their economic and social advances. [Music] Conventioneers, businessmen, and tourists alike are increasingly using their visit to Taiwan to explore our island. The traveling is easy. We have modern transportation network built around planes, superighways, and express rail service. And what do they see? A fascinating blend of old and new, such as this multi-storied pagod, which suggests at the same time grace and strength. [Music] and the classic Palace Museum near Taipei, repository of the finest in Chinese art. And nearby the memorial hall of Dr. Sununyat Sen, father of the republic. [Music] And in plain sight is a fertile crossing of religions from both east and west. Just a short walk away from where a Christian choir rehearses might be. A magnificent Buddhist temple guarded of course by the traditional stone lions that keep out the evil forces. Religion plays an important part in our daily lives. But as diverse as our beliefs may be, we have of course a common creed. the progress on many fronts of our country and the statuary and artifacts in the 2500 temples maintained by this religion are a treasure trove for any serious student of religion or of art. Here in Taipei, for example, is a magnificent hall inside of which rest 10,000 individually crafted Buddhas. Behind our religious freedoms and guiding our economic growth is Asia's oldest constitutional democracy. As these soundtracks blaring campaign slogans prove, anyone who is of age and with a high school education can run for office. Oftentimes, it seems that just about everyone does. Our constitution was drafted in 1946. And we've had universal suffrage on Taiwan since 1951. Voting is, of course, by sacred ballot. And yes, our election returns, too, are televised coast to coast. Our TV sets, indeed most of our electric appliances are now produced in Taiwan. It is at trade shows such as this one that exports and import deals are made. Foreign trade had been superb. 1974's total was 12.6 billion, up from 8 billion the year before. Perhaps our most important industry has been the education we give our children, which of course is the best gift a parent can make to his child. Today, free education of all youngsters between 6 and 15 is mandatory. Just a generation ago, the literacy rate was less than 50%. Today, it is more than 95%. And the schooling is both classical and modern where we feel our children need the best of both worlds. [Music] After middle school, many of our teenagers enter vocational institutions. There are more than 170 such schools on the island. Over a quarter million youths are studying at Taiwan's 100 junior and four-year colleges. The brightest of these earn scholarships for still more advanced work, often overseas. Though we once suffered a brain drain with students remaining overseas, today opportunities are so good at home that most of our overseas students want to return. [Music] and their knowledge and skills are put to use in projects like this open pool nuclear reactor at Singa University. This nuclear generating plant is the first of a network. With our rising energy needs and the volatile oil prices, we're taking steps to ensure a power supply that is both adequate and affordable. Within a decade, we will be the first country in the world to derive more than half its energy from nuclear sources. [Music] and young and old engineers alike are busy with the planning and building of ever more industrial complexes. Our island was heavily bombed in World War II, after which our economy grew slowly. But today, the Republic of China's per capita income is the second highest in Asia, which really means that our tedious post-war reconstruction is over. Now we're building not only for today but for tomorrow. The atomic power plants will supplant such dams as this one at Tangwen. Surprisingly, Taiwan has no rivers large enough for navigation. So, dams are essential in utilizing the waters we have. They form reservoirs that make possible was completed in 1974 is the breathtaking addition to the world famous Grand Hotel. Perched high on a hill and overlooking all of Taipei, the Grand is perhaps the brightest jewel of this vibrant modern cosmopoulos. [Music] traffic in Taipei streets, the crowds who cover the sidewalks. It's easy to believe that some 2 million people live here. Yes, our capital has the fast pace, the high-rise and hard-edged glitter of other great cities. city that has trebled its size in less than a generation. Taipe's growth has been remarkably well mapped. When the cars that prosperity brought clogged our old thorough affairs, we built new ones. And of course, drivers wanted to tour more than just Taipei. So traffic engineers planned an inter island grid of highways. And concrete was soon being poured both as road beds and as the arches needed for elaborate overpasses. The earth movers arrived to level and grade the bed. And finally the surfacers. The result yet another modern highway vital to an industrial society. [Music] Fueling our industries are petrochemical complexes like this one at Kion. Here, M East crude is distilled for gas and oil and for byproducts used in the manufacturer of plastics and textiles. [Music] One sure sign of a society's advance from an agrarian base is the automobile. For decades, we imported our vehicles. But today, we assemble and build most of the cars, buses, and trucks that travel our roads. This sheet of steel is being formed for another of Taiwan's key industries, ship building. Because we are an island, we depend on inexpensive bulk transportation. Indeed, our economic growth has coincided with our ability to increase our merchant marine. By 1976, at the end of a 4-year expansion program, the shipyards at Kilong in Kaosong will be building each year oceangoing vessels with a combined capacity of almost 1 million dead weight tons. Much of the cargo these ships will carry will be containerized. This innovative way of transporting bulk cargo has been introduced to our major ports with great success. Workers at the factory carefully pack their products, whether they be bolts of fabric or color TV sets, into standardized containers. These large metal boxes are sealed and brought by truck or by rail to the ports. They can be loaded much quicker than conventional cargo and therefore much more cheaply. And since the containers won't be unpacked until they reach their destinations, spoilage and loss is also minimal. One chief export these past few years has been appliances, both major household conveniences and the transistorized electronic gadgetry that only an educated and skilled labor pool can assemble. These products range from various types of radios to both black and white and color television sets. We now produce almost 5 million sets a year, many for domestic consumption. [Music] Our textile industry's output too grows annually through the island. Mills spins synthetic fabrics which are among our leading export goods. Much of the material is shipped in boats to overseas designers who will turn them into the latest fashions. But much of it is made by our own skilled craftsmen into durable but inexpensive readytoeares. We now export more than $1 billion worth of finished garments each year. [Music] And of course, clothing remains a favorite purchase of Taiwan's shoppers. Bustling urban department stores like this one in Taipei sell both finished goods and the uncut fabrics that buyers will take to small shops where some of the best custom tailor in the world are found. In fact, citizens of Hong Kong, long known as a mecca of custom tailoring, are today flying to Taipei for better handfinished suits and dresses. Major stores stay open late here, turning our downtowns into neon wonderlands, not far removed from Broadway or the Ginsa or Piccadilli. The reason, a booming economy. Our per capita income will soon vault over $700, second highest in all Asia. Even as our society industrializes, the government has moved to expand the vital agricultural base. First, a land reform program begun in 1949 gave farmers a firmer stake in their futures. Now, as rural residents increasingly flock to the cities, we are compensating for their absence by mechanization. The traditional water buffalo, ubiquitous still throughout Asia, is giving way here to the high efficiency machines of modern agriculture. And with the machines go government sponsored instructions on how to use them. The result, our farmers, armed with the latest in seed research, pest control, and machinery have combined to produce up to three crops a year, making us in this age of food shortfalls net exporters. Among the biggest cash crops, sugar, which thrives on Taiwan's broad plains. At harvest time, giant combines crisscross the fields. The stalks they cut are transported to modern processing plants. Here, sugar is refined and then exported around the world. We also grow fruits commercially. Apples and pears thrive in the temperate highlands, and pineapples grow big and juicy in the subtropical lands. These fruits are processed and canned in plants that are becoming increasingly mechanized. In fact, Taiwan and not Hawaii leads the world in the export of canned pineapples. Livestock breeding has also been improved by modern husbandry techniques. We've imported heartier strains of pigs and cattle from America and Australia. And these more disease resistant animals are fed a scientific diet that fattens them rapidly. Another commercial benefit of modern aronomy has been the quicker propagation of such plants as the orchid. We call this the king of flowers. And by perfecting a way to start several hundred buds from a single bulb, we become the orchid nursery of the world. In addition, we now export fresh cut flowers to markets as distant as America's west coast. Industry, commerce, agriculture. These are the fields that have sparked our economic resurgence. But there's more, much more to us and to our island. World famous Sunmoon Lake here is typical of Taiwan's great natural beauty. It was such landscapes that provoked the Portuguese when they landed here in the 17th century to call what they beheld Ilya Formosa, the beautiful island. And it is such landscapes that almost 1 million foreign visitors a year seek along with our own people who are traveling more as their leisure time grows. And with this increase in leisure time has come a renewed emphasis on sports and recreation. Fitness of mind and fitness of body. The sages teach. These swimming pools are in Taipei. Near them an artificial skating rink. [Music] and a new amusement park. Throughout the island, you can see our people enjoying a diversity of recreations. For instance, in sports, our boys baseball teams have been world champions in their age groups. Soccer, the most popular sport in the world, is played here at the elementary and middle school levels. And track and field has been popular since Decathlon star CK Yang and sprinter Chi-Chang won Olympic medals. But as you can see, the stress here is not on producing worldclass athletes. Rather, it's encouraging everyone to participate. In the area of eastern sports, we practice the smashing martial arts that the West calls collectively kung fu. A form of self-defense, yes, but more importantly, a form of intensive self-discipline. [Music] [Applause] And this is definitely not Oxford rowing against Cambridge on the temps. It's a traditional race between dragon boats. The origins go back several thousand years to a time when crews would race out to salvage ships in distress. Now it's become a sport that combined speed and stamina with accuracy. Watch this final flag crash. These card flippers haven't packed the stands for a college football game. They've come to watch an annual exhibition of mass gymnastics. And it also takes an area as big as a stadium to hold a group dance exhibition. But these are mere warm-ups compared to our biggest celebration of the year, the day we call double tent. Parades are only one of the festivities held on the 10th day of October, which is the 10th month. The holiday honors the founding of the Republic of China. The year was 1911 when on double 10, Dr. Sununyat Sen on his 10th try led the forces which finally overthrew the last Menchu emperor. And on this day, it is customary for dignitaries to review our armed forces. For more than a quarter century now, we have depended on our combat ready army troops, as well as our naval battalions seen here conducting maneuvers on the Pacific. These two branches have joined with our air force to stand as both a strong deterrent against aggression and as a watchdog force that helps maintain peace throughout Asia. [Music] Double 10 then stands as a vital symbol of freedom in the annals of international history. If you were to measure a republic against the millennia of Chinese civilization, it was established late. But that doesn't mean freedom's lessons haven't taken root. They have. And that's why we fought so hard against such odds to preserve it. As our island has stood as a sentinel in the Pacific, so our people now stand as a sentinel of freedom in Asia. Has the turmoil and the pain been worth it? Well, 25 years ago, this part of Taipei was a swamp. Look at it now. [Music]