[lbo-talk] Taiwan [was "Theory's Empire, " an anti-"Theory" anthology

Wojtek Sokolowski swsokolowski at yahoo.com
Thu May 29 18:16:54 PDT 2008


--- Chris Doss <lookoverhere1 at yahoo.com> wrote:


> C'mon Woj, I'm mostly with you on this, but Taiwan
> is
> not mainland China.
>

[WS:] Of course it is not, but it can be used as a decent counterfactual to China. It has a lot of "ceteris paribus" qualities - rural backwardness, similar culture, similar general approach to moderization (centralism, import substituton policies). What they separates them, inter alia, s the anti-intellectualism cum anti-Sovietism unleashed by Mao agianst his "revisionist" pro-modernization rivals (Liu Shaotsi sp?). I think that this rural idiocy (decenralization of industry to rural comunes, forced relocation of urban population to the countryside) was a big setback to China's development.

In the meantime, Taiwan was gradually reducing its import substitution policies and encouraged export oriented policies which eventually established it as a hi-tech power house.

Wojtek



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