Wirtschaftspolitik und State-Building: Die nationalchinesische Industrialisierungspolitik in historischer PerspektiveMichael Meyer

ASIEN – Nr. 80 (2001) pp. 42–63

The 1997/98 financial crisis not only called into question the validity of interventionist development approaches in East Asia, but also undermined the concept of a unitary „East Asian model“ as such. In particular, it exposed differences in industrial policy that previously had been only scarcely noticed. This article analyses the formation of the Nationalist Chinese industrialization strategy, some aspects of which made Taiwan less susceptible to the crisis than other countries in the region. It does so by first pointing out that this strategy was rooted in the debates on economic development of the 1930s and 1940s. The policies underlying the Taiwan success story were, in other words, originally conceived in Mainland China and for Mainland China. Secondly, it discusses the motives behind this particular strategy choice. It is argued that the most important factor prompting Nationalist academics and technocrats to choose a different approach than their Japanese and Korean counterparts were the necessities of state-building in the historical context of early twentieth century China. Some of their considerations might still deserve attention – in China as well as in other places.