Capital Project Budget Reporting Form Type Budget: Design Project Name: Heating Plan: Fill & Download for Free

American Progress says:EconomyRaised housing payments for new homebuyers by about $500 in 2017. On its first day, the Trump administration reversed an Obama administration action to lower Federal Housing Administration, or FHA, mortgage insurance premiums for new homebuyers by 25 basis points, which could have lowered mortgage payments for 1 million households purchasing or refinancing their home this year alone.Attacked the Department of Labor’s fiduciary rule, which would have required retirement advisers to act in their clients’ best financial interest. President Trump delayed the rule’s implementation by 60 days and has ordered the department to re-evaluate the rule. This will make it much harder to save for retirement, as high fees from conflicted advice result in savers losing $17 billion in fees annually.Delayed court proceedings on the Obama administration’s expansion of overtime, failing to defend the pro-worker rule. This rule would have raised wages for workers by $12 billion over the next 10 years and extended overtime protections to 4.2 million more Americans. In his confirmation hearings, Labor Secretary nominee Alexander Acosta suggested he would attempt to weaken the overtime rule.Delayed enforcement of a rule to reduce workers’ exposure to deadly silica dust for three months. After more than four decades of development, this rule would protect construction and manufacturing workers from inhaling silica, which can lead to lung cancer, silicosis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and kidney disease. It was projected to save more than 600 lives and prevent more than 900 new cases of silicosis each year.Repealed the Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces Executive Order, which ensured that federal contractors complied with worker protection laws before receiving government contracts. The order would have required companies wanting to do business with the government to disclose past labor law violations and come into compliance before receiving new contracts. Because of the repeal, millions of workers will be more vulnerable to wage theft, workplace injuries, and discrimination on the job. The order also would have protected women by banning forced arbitration in the case of sexual assault, harassment, or discrimination claims.Supported efforts in Congress to cut taxes on the wealthy that help fund the Affordable Care Act, or ACA. As part of Congress’s effort to repeal and replace the ACA, a move that President Trump supported, the 3.8 percent net investment income tax would have been repealed at a cost of $157 billion over 10 years, according to Congressional Budget Office, or CBO. This is revenue needed to fund important programs that ensure basic human living standards and retirement security for tens of millions of working Americans. Based on Trump’s rental real estate income alone, The Wall Street Journal estimated the repeal would have saved Trump $3.2 million in taxes in 2016 alone.Tried to cut his own taxes by millions of dollars while taking health insurance from tens of millions of Americans. Based on President Trump’s leaked 2005 Tax Return Form 1040, repealing the ACA could give Trump a personal tax cut of more than $2 million. At the same time, the House legislation to repeal the ACA would have taken health insurance from 24 million Americans.Assembled a team of wealthy financial industry elites to advise him on tax reform, which he promised would benefit the middle class. The tax code is the tool of choice when special favors are doled out to special interests. Despite his campaign promises to drain the swamp, President Trump has assembled a band of elites to construct his tax reform plan: three former Goldman Sachs executives, Steve Mnuchin, Gary Cohn, and Steve Bannon; two more former executives from the finance industry, Justin Muzinich and Craig Phillips; and a former tax lobbyist for Fidelity Investments, Shahira Knight.Made it harder for veterans to find jobs with a federal hiring freeze. Veterans receive a strong hiring preference for federal jobs, and roughly one-third of all newly hired federal employees in 2015 were veterans. Even if many jobs at the Department of Veterans Affairs, or VA, are exempt from the hiring freeze, other vacant jobs will still be unavailable at other federal agencies.Proposed budget cuts that would devastate rural America. President Trump’s budget would eliminate programs that support rural jobs, housing, infrastructure, health care, and economic development. If implemented, these budget cuts would eliminate affordable housing for tens of thousands of struggling rural families; eliminate community service jobs for 18,000 senior citizens living in rural areas; and eliminate critical support for airline connections serving 175 small and rural communities.Proposed dramatically slashing job training programs and worker wage and safety enforcement. President Trump’s proposed fiscal year 2018 budget could result in 2.7 million adults and youths losing access to job training and employment services in 2018.Proposed budget cuts that would increase roadway congestion and reduce economic productivity. The budget calls for eliminating the TIGER grant program at the U.S. Department of Transportation, or USDOT, which funds innovative surface transportation projects. Additionally, the budget calls for the phased elimination of the New Starts program within the Federal Transit Administration, which funds major public transportation projects. Rail and bus rapid transit projects help to reduce roadway congestion and air pollution while spurring economic development.Proposed budget cuts that would threaten billions in loans and investments to distressed communities. The proposed budget would eliminate the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Community Development Financial Institutions Fund, which supports billions of dollars in financing across low-income communities, including more than $300 million in rural and Native American communities, as well as the Economic Development Administration and the Manufacturing Extension Partnership, costing another $300 million or more that is annually invested in community growth. Without federal support, economic development in these locations will suffer, including small-business development.Reneged on his promise to disclose his tax returns. President Trump’s refusal leaves Americans in the dark about whether any tax reform he proposes will benefit him or working Americans. Trump repeatedly stated before and after he was elected that he would disclose his tax returns. While initially he said he could not release them because he was being audited—a fact that does not prevent anyone from releasing their returns—his counselor, Kellyanne Conway has now said, “He’s not going to release his tax returns.”Proposed $6.7 billion cut to housing and community support programs. President Trump’s budget would eliminate the Community Development Block Grant, which is used by 1,265 local communities for important initiatives such as Meals on Wheels, neighborhood rehabilitation, the development of affordable housing, job training, and business expansion. The Housing Choice Vouchers program will also experience deep cuts in funding, as will other programs providing supportive services for the elderly and persons with disabilities. According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, about 200,000 families will no longer receive a housing voucher to pay for their rental costs and could eventually face homelessness in a housing market where there is a severe shortage of affordable housing.Attacked neutral budget analysts so that lawmakers ignore negative effects from their policies. The Trump administration attacked the nonpartisan CBO in an attempt to preemptively discredit their estimates related to legislation repealing the ACA. These attacks continued after the CBO estimated that the House ACA repeal bill would take coverage away from 24 million Americans by 2026. This is part of a larger attempt by the Trump administration to discredit independent data and analysis in order to obscure the negative impacts that their agenda will have for working families.Undermined investor protection by making it harder for the Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, to hold Wall Street accountable. An independent and vigorous Division of Enforcement at the SEC is vital to preserving free and fair financial markets for investors. After the Bernie Madoff scandal, Obama administration SEC Chair Mary Schapiro made it easier for Division of Enforcement staff to open investigations and issue subpoenas to protect investors and get to the bottom of suspected malfeasance. Chair Michael Piwowar inexplicably rolled back this change, hindering the SEC’s ability to protect the average investor from financial wrongdoing. He has also proposed rolling back key advances in corporate transparency, including regarding human rights risks in supply chains and the pay ratio between CEOs and the median worker.Proposed funding cuts for programs that help support and encourage small business development. President Trump’s budget cuts funding for several programs that help groups with historically low business ownership rates overcome barriers to becoming entrepreneurs, including the PRIME technical assistance grants for low-income micro-entrepreneurs; the Minority Business Development Agency, and the Economic Development Administration.Attempted to make it harder for entrepreneurs to get access to affordable health. The ACA helps millions of entrepreneurs obtain access to health care without relying on a spouse or employer, which allows them to take one of the necessary risks associated with starting a business. The proposed American Health Care Act, or AHCA, would reduce access to health care and make it more expensive for many people to get comprehensive health care coverage.Proposes leaving 23,000 calls for help unanswered from disaster-struck Americans. President Trump’s skinny budget proposed eliminating the Corporation for National and Community Service, which would also eliminate AmeriCorps, a vital service program that plays a critical role in mobilizing volunteers to aid with disaster preparedness and response.Proposed slashing the WIC program. President Trump’s proposal to slash funding for the WIC program puts basic food security at risk for thousands of families. At an annual food cost of about $513 per person, the $200 million cut could help pay for a year’s worth of food and formula for nearly 390,000 participating women, children and infants.Proposed elimination of the HOME Investment Partnerships Program. To date, HOME has helped more that 1.2 million families gain access to safe and affordable housing. But this successful program is also on President Trump’s budget chopping block, thereby threatening housing security for thousands of families.Proposed eliminating NeighborWorks America. NeighborWorks America provides grants to community development organizations that help build and maintain affordable housing. The program created 53,649 jobs and assisted 360,009 families with affordable housing in the last year alone.Environment and energyProposed cuts to energy programs that save people money. The Trump budget blueprint calls for a 5.6 percent cut overall to the U.S. Department of Energy. This cut, along with calls for additional funding to nuclear security and waste cleanup, mean that there will be steeper cuts for programs designed to develop household appliances that save families money. President Trump’s budget proposal also eliminates programs such as ARPA-E, which helps entrepreneurs develop clean, affordable energy, and the Weatherization Assistance Program, which upgrades the homes of low-income families with insulation and cost-effective energy efficient improvements to help reduce utility bills.Allowed a dangerous pesticide to stay on the market, despite it being a threat to children’s health. Chlorpyrifos a common agricultural pesticide that causes neurological harm in children exposed in utero. In 2016, the EPA’s scientists concluded that the agency should ban chlorpyrifos after finding unsafe levels of the chemical on apples, peaches, oranges, strawberries, and other fruits. Dow Chemical, one of the largest producers of products using this chemical, gave $1 million to President Trump’s inauguration committee and leads a presidential advisory committee on manufacturing. On March 28, Trump’s EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt rejected the findings of the agency’s scientists, denied a petition to ban the chemical, and delayed further action until 2022.Eliminated pollution standards for power plants and oil and gas facilities. In his final term, President Obama established the first-ever carbon pollution standards for power plants and the first-ever methane standards for oil and gas drilling facilities. These standards would have reduced soot- and smog-forming pollutants that trigger asthma attacks and cut emissions of carbon and other gases that cause climate change. On March 28, President Trump signed an executive order that started the process of nullifying these pollution standards and making it harder for future presidents to put them back in place.Proposed cutting EPA programs to clean up water sources. In February, President Trump proposed a budget for the EPA that would cut the agency’s funding by 31 percent and its staff by one-quarter. The president’s proposal targets several popular programs, such as regional efforts to clean up the Great Lakes, Gulf of Mexico, Chesapeake Bay, and other iconic bodies of water.Proposed eliminating programs at the EPA dedicated to preventing children’s exposure to lead-based paint, which can cause neurological delays. An estimated 38 million U.S. homes contain lead-based paint, and in 2015, the Centers for Disease Control found that 243,000 children had elevated levels of lead in their blood. Lead is a neurotoxin that causes permanent nerve damage.Rolled back important protections for drinking water in coal communities. One of the Trump administration’s first actions was to nix the Stream Protection Rule put in place by the Obama administration to prevent coal companies from polluting nearby streams. Scrapping this environmental protection was a top priority of the coal industry at the expense of clean drinking water in coal communities.Repealed anti-bribery rule to the delight of the oil industry. President Trump eliminated an anti-corruption rule that had required oil and gas companies to disclose payments to foreign governments. When he was still the CEO of Exxon Mobil, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had lobbied to remove the rules established under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.Ripped off American taxpayers and avoided fixing the broken federal coal-leasing program. The Trump administration moved to preserve a loophole the Obama administration closed that allows coal companies to rip off taxpayers by allowing them to sell coal mined on federal lands to their own subsidiaries at artificially low prices and shirk royalty payment responsibilities.Halted the first comprehensive review of the federal coal program in more than 30 years while simultaneously opening public lands for new leases to mine coal. Federal coal lease sales only bring in, on average, $1 per ton in bids, and taxpayers are estimated to be losing $1 billion annually in lost royalty payments on undervalued coal sales.Proposed major cuts to the Department of the Interior’s budget that would impair critical maintenance of our national parks while making a public show of supporting them. A few weeks after proposing to cut $1.5 billion, or 12 percent, from the Department of the Interior’s budget, President Trump had Press Secretary Sean Spicer ceremoniously hand a $78,000 check—Trump’s first-quarter earnings—to Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke to help the National Park Service. Here’s the rub: Trump’s check only covers 0.01 percent of $1.3 billion in “critical systems deferred maintenance” that the National Park Service urgently needs.Pulled the rug from under private investors backing conservation efforts. As part of a sweeping executive order aimed at gutting actions the Obama administration took to address climate change, President Trump rescinded the presidential memorandum that encouraged private investment when developers work to mitigate impacts on natural resources. This action undercuts the economic and environmental gains that the fast-growing restoration industry has made recently to the tune of $1.15 billion between 2014 and 2015 in private capital invested in habitat conservation and water management. These relatively new environmental marketplaces rely on regulatory consistency that President Obama’s memorandum bolstered.Declared open season on baby bears and wolves in wildlife refuges. President Trump overturned a rule that had protected black bear mothers and their cubs from being hunted in their dens. The Obama administration’s “Fair Chase” rule, which applied to national wildlife refuges in Alaska, also limited baiting, trapping, and the use of aircrafts to track and shoot bears and wolves.Moved to weaken air quality standards for ozone. Ozone pollution is a key contributor to smog, which can cause more frequent asthma attacks and exacerbate lung diseases. President Trump’s EPA is moving toward changing air quality standards established under the Obama administration to allow greater ozone pollution. Ground level ozone pollution can increase the frequency of asthma attacks, cause shortness of breath, aggravate lung diseases, and cause permanent damage to lungs through long-term exposure. Elevated ozone levels are linked to increases in hospitalizations, emergency room visits, and premature death, and can cause pronounced health impacts in children and the elderly.Signed an executive order nullifying the “social cost of carbon.” President Trump essentially determined that climate change has no cost by eliminating a critical metric used to measure the benefit of cutting carbon pollution.Stopped rules that would limit dumping toxins from power plants. Trump’s EPA is stopping rules that would limit the dumping of toxins, such as mercury and arsenic, and pollution from power plants into public waterways. These would have been the first protections in more than 30 years to curb toxins and other pollutants in power plants.Changed standards to protect water and wildlife from lead poisoning. Hours after riding a horse to his first day on the job, Secretary of the Interior Zinke reversed a ban on using lead bullets for hunting in wildlife refuses. Lead content in these bullets can poison water and wildlife.Opened the door to reducing methane pollution standards. The president signed an executive order directing the EPA and the Bureau of Land Management to review the methane pollution standards for oil and gas drilling facilities and determine whether to rescind or revise them. Methane pollution supercharges global warming 86 times as much as carbon pollution.Took steps to reverse progress to date on U.S. preparations for climate change. President Trump signed an executive order rescinding previous executive orders related to preparing the U.S. for climate change; encouraging private investment in efforts to mitigate pollution; and ensuring our national security plans consider climate change impacts.Nominated an EPA administrator who denies scientific proof of climate change. EPA Administrator Pruitt told the media that he does not think carbon dioxide is the primary contributor to climate change. His statement is the climate science equivalent of saying the world is flat.Proposed budget cuts to that will cause 5.7 million low-income residents to lose assistance with their heating bills and about 673,000 to lose cooling assistance. President Trump’s proposal to eliminate the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program, or LIHEAP, will be especially dangerous as more states experience extreme weather.Democracy and government reformImperiled American voters with untrue claims about illegal voting. President Trump’s empty claims of widespread fraud undermine the integrity of our elections and lay the basis for voter suppression efforts that attack our constitutional right to participate in self-government. When government officials spread lies that call into question the legitimacy of our elections, people lose faith in the democratic process. Instead of responding to the clear and present dangers of foreign interference and discriminatory efforts to keep some American citizens from casting their ballots, Trump chooses to spread baseless slander while calling for a witch hunt against American voters.Brought pay-to-play corruption to the presidency. The Trump family continues to promote their private business interests at home and abroad while profiting off of the presidency. Corruption, or even the appearance of corruption, diminishes trust in government and increases cynicism toward democratic institutions. At a time when 75 percent of Americans already believe that corruption is widespread in government, President Trump’s blatant disregard for ethics rules and constitutional prohibitions on presidential enrichment further undermine democratic norms and threatens our democracy, economy, and national security.Undermined transparency and accountability by continuing to hide his tax returns and withholding White House visitor logs. Due to his refusal to release his tax returns the full extent of President Trump’s indebtedness and foreign entanglements remains unknown. As a result, Americans cannot be sure that Trump is not providing favors and special treatment to his business partners or that foreign states and businesses are not leveraging influence over the Trump administration and its decisions. It is impossible for Trump to lead an effort to revise the tax code without Americans knowing how his proposals would line his own pocket. Changing the practice to stop disclosing White House visitor logs prevents the public from knowing who is accessing federal officials on a daily basis and keeps special interest influence shrouded in secrecy.ImmigrationSigned two Muslim and refugee bans, both of which have been enjoined by federal courts. In January, and then again in March, President Trump signed executive orders banning immigrants from seven—and then, subsequently, six—Muslim-majority nations for at least three months and halting the refugee program for four months. The January executive order sparked widespread protests at airports all across the country and was quickly blocked by a federal court in Washington state and then by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. In early March, Trump signed a barely revised version of the original order, which courts in Hawaii and Maryland rightly acknowledged still constituted a Muslim and refugee ban. The core parts of the ban were once again put on hold.Made every unauthorized immigrant a deportation priority, regardless of equities. As a matter of the smart prioritization of resources, the Obama administration focused its immigration enforcement on serious threats to national security and public safety, as well as recent border crossers. Within days of taking office, Trump signed an executive order eliminating the Obama priorities, effectively making all unauthorized immigrants a priority for deportation, regardless of how long they have been in the country, their ties to families and communities, or other equities. In practice, this has meant that people like Guadalupe García de Rayos, a mother of two from Arizona who has been in the U.S. for over two decades, and Maribel Trujillo Diaz, a mother of four U.S.-born children have been deported.Made immigrant survivors of domestic abuse and sexual assault afraid to turn to law enforcement for help. Aggressive immigration enforcement by the Trump administration—including a case in El Paso, where immigration officials arrested a victim of domestic abuse at a courthouse after she received a protective order against her abuser—has made immigrants and Latinos, regardless of immigration status, increasingly reluctant to come forward to report crimes. Prosecutors in Denver have been forced to drop four domestic violence prosecutions because immigrant victims no longer wish to cooperate. Another domestic violence case in Austin hangs in limbo under similar circumstances. Since last year, Los Angeles has seen reports by Latinos of sexual assault decline by 25 percent, and Houston has seen reports by Latinos of rapes decline by nearly 43 percent. By making everyone a priority, the administration has made no one a priority to the detriment of public safety.Arrested multiple recipients of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA. Even though Trump has said that he will deal with young unauthorized immigrants with “great heart,” and even though Secretary of Homeland Security John F. Kelly has said that he is “the best thing that happened to DACA,” the Department of Homeland Security has detained at least five recipients of DACA—which grants eligible young people a two-year reprieve from deportation and a work permit—since taking office. The detained include Daniela Vargas, Daniel Ramirez, Edwin Romero, Josue Romero, and Francisco Rodriguez. It is now also being reported that the Department of Homeland Security deported Dreamer Juan Manuel Montes while he was protected from deportation through DACA.Threatened to take away critical community safety funding from so-called sanctuary jurisdictions. As part of the January 25 executive order on interior immigration enforcement, President Trump threatened to take away federal funds from more than 600 so-called sanctuary jurisdictions that limit cooperation with federal immigration enforcement. On March 27 Attorney General Jeff Sessions threatened to revoke Department of Justice grants that, among other purposes, help local law enforcement to eliminate barriers to processing rape kits, combat gang and gun crime, and stop human trafficking. The attorney general’s comments were swiftly denounced by the Fraternal Order of Police and the International Association of Chiefs of Police. Research shows that counties with sanctuary policies have lower crime rates and stronger economies than those without the policies.Scared authorized immigrants away from accessing benefits and necessary health care for which they and their children are eligible. Not long after the Trump administration took office, a draft executive order leaked, illustrating that the administration was looking to target even legal immigrants living in the United States. Among other provisions, the draft order would make lawful permanent residents, or green card holders, eligible for deportation if they use any type of means-tested benefit. The mere possibility of the order, as well as increased immigration enforcement, has had a chilling effect on communities across the nation. In California, for example, the Alameda County Community Food Bank saw 40 families cancel their food stamps and another 54 eligible families choose not to apply for food stamps. Other reports indicate that some immigrants are taking their names off of the list to receive baby formula or keeping children away from child care centers.FaithTrampled on the religious liberty of Muslims with his attempts at unconstitutional travel bans. President Trump’s January 27 executive action on refugees and revised March 6 executive action both aimed to prohibit travel to the United States for nationals of Muslim-majority nations and fundamentally reshape the refugee admissions program to prioritize the claims of Christians. Trumps actions have alienated the Muslims communities not only within the United States but also around the world, damaging critical relationships with national security allies.Attempted to redefine religious liberty only for those who share a conservative Christian faith. From the anti-Muslim travel bans to disturbing Holocaust-denying remarks, the administration is a threat to religious minorities, many of whom are already vulnerable to rising incidents of anti-Semitism and anti-Muslim bigotry.Promises to destroy the Johnson Amendment, which prevents nonprofit organizations—including houses of worship—from endorsing political candidates. A leaked draft executive order indicates plans to insert religious exemptions in federal nondiscrimination protections, revealing a pattern of attempts to redefine the foundational value of religious freedom so it will only protect people of faith who share conservative Christian beliefs.Gun violence preventionSigned a law that weakens the firearms background check system and undermines enforcement of the current law that prohibits certain individuals with a serious mental illness from gun possession. Using the shortcut process of the Congressional Review Act, President Trump repealed a Social Security Administration regulation that formalized the process by which the agency could provide to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, or NICS, the names of beneficiaries who—because of serious mental illness—are prohibited from gun possession under federal law. This action represents a significant step backward from recent efforts at the federal and state level to better enforce current law by ensuring that all records of prohibited purchasers are provided to NICS.Made it easier for fugitives to buy guns. Under federal law, anyone who is “a fugitive from justice” is prohibited from buying and possessing guns. Since at least 2006, the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives have disagreed over the proper scope of this law, with the FBI adopting a position that it applies to all individuals with an outstanding arrest warrant while the ATF argued for a narrower interpretation that it applies only to individuals who had left the state where the warrant was issued. Because the FBI is the agency that operates the background check system, that agency’s interpretation prevailed. However, in February 2017, the Department of Justice issued new guidance resolving this dispute by adopting ATF’s interpretation and dramatically narrowing the category of individuals with active criminal warrants who will be prohibited from buying guns.Health careAttempted to repeal the ACA. Repeal of the ACA would cause significant stress and anxiety for millions of families who rely on it for coverage. The AHCA would have resulted in 24 million more people being uninsured in 10 years—breaking President Trump’s promise to cover “everybody.” It would also have broken Trump’s campaign promise not to cut Medicaid.Undermined the ACA marketplace. The Trump administration has already undermined the ACA marketplace by refusing to officially abandon its efforts to repeal the law. In addition, its refusal to commit unequivocally to paying the cost-sharing reduction subsidies is generating massive uncertainty for insurers. This uncertainty is having a direct impact on the marketplace by encouraging insurers to quit the market in 2018 or raise premiums.Began to undermine Medicaid. In a letter to governors by Secretary of Health and Human Services Tom Price and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Seema Verma, the administration encouraged states to pursue harmful changes to their Medicaid programs, including work requirements and increased cost-sharing.Made ACA marketplace enrollment more difficult. In the final days of the most recent open enrollment period, the Trump administration cancelled Get 2019 health coverage. Health Insurance Marketplace TV ads and email outreach, which are critical in helping people remember the deadline and enroll in time. Although some of this was restored after a backlash, a former Get 2019 health coverage. Health Insurance Marketplace chief marketing officer estimated that the administration’s actions reduced enrollment by 480,000 people.Stripped Title X funding. With Vice President Mike Pence’s tie-breaking vote, the Senate voted to overturn Obama era protections for Title X providers. Trump signed the bill, which allows states to block Title X funding. Title X funding provides critical reproductive, educational, and counseling services related to family planning and contraception to 4 million clients each year.Reinstated the Global Gag Rule. One of Trump’s first actions as president was to reinstate the Global Gag Rule, which prevents recipients of U.S. foreign aid from offering any information, referrals, services, or advocacy regarding abortion care—even if they do so with separate funding sources. The Global Gag Rule will lead to more maternal deaths, more unintended pregnancies, and higher rates of unsafe abortion.Proposed cutting funds for the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program.The Trump budget proposes a $50 million reduction in funding for the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program, which works with organizations across the United States to implement evidence based, proven programming.Proposed defunding Planned Parenthood. President Trump’s health care bill, the AHCA, would defund Planned Parenthood, which served 2.5 million patients in 2014.Higher educationProposed deep cuts to programs that help make college more accessible and affordable for low-income students and students of color.President Trump’s budget proposed more than $5 billion in cuts to valuable programs, including the Pell Grant program and the work-study program, which provide needed funds to help low-income students afford the rising cost of college. The cuts also target important college-access programs—including TRIO and GEAR UP—that provide supports such as tutoring, mentoring, and research opportunities to low-income and first-generation students.Rescinded protections for student loan borrowers. On March 16, the Trump administration withdrew measures to protect struggling student loan borrowers and made repayment more difficult by allowing debt collectors to charge a 16 percent fee—even when the borrower agrees to make good on their debt within 60 days. On April 11, the Trump administration stripped away important measures that would hold student loan servicers accountable when their actions are not in the best interest of students. It has been well-documented that servicers sometimes place borrowers in repayment programs that could ultimately make it more difficult for them to repay their debt.Failed to help students when a critical resource for financial aid and loan repayment was shut down. In March 2017, with no advance warning, the IRS and U.S. Department of Education disabled a key web-based tool that helps millions of students apply for aid and repay their loans. Failure to notify students put financial aid applicants at risk of losing access to grant aid that helps pay for college and put student loan borrowers at risk of seeing their payments jump by hundreds of dollars.Endangered students by appointing for-profit college officials to top positions. Robert Eitel, senior counselor to Secretary of Education DeVos, joined the administration well before he even left his job at Bridgepoint Education—a for-profit college company facing multiple federal investigations. And Taylor Hansen, a former lobbyist for for-profit colleges—whose father’s student loan debt-collection company sued the Obama administration—served on the department’s “beachhead” team.Undercut students’ civil rights by naming skeptics to top civil rights positions. The nominee to serve as general counsel in the Department of Education, Carlos Muñiz, defended Florida State University against allegations that it protected a star quarterback from rape charges. And the new head of the Office for Civil Rights, Candice Jackson, has claimed she experienced discrimination for being white and called the women who accused President Trump of assault and harassment “fake victims.”K-12 educationProposed completely eliminating federal funding for after-school programs. In President Trump’s budget, the administration zeroed out the 21st Century Community Learning Centers program, which provides $1.2 billion to districts across the country for after-school programs that support students and working families. This funding serves more than 1.6 million students participating in these programs.Proposed completely eliminating federal funding to support teacher quality. In President Trump’s budget, the administration zeroed out Title II of the Every Student Succeeds Act, which provides $2.4 billion to states and districts for teacher recruitment, training, retention, and support. This cut translates to a loss of 40,000 teacher salaries.Nominated the highly unqualified and anti-public school Betsy DeVos as secretary of education. DeVos’s only experience with education is as a lobbyist and megadonor pushing private school voucher schemes in states across the country. Instead of working to support public schools and the students that attend these schools, she has called public education a “dead end.”Rescinded the Obama administration’s regulations that supported school accountability under the new Every Student Succeeds Act. Through the Congressional Review Act, Congress and President Trump eliminated key protections and guidance for states and districts to implement the law, leaving significant confusion at the state and local level. The Trump administration has also signaled that it will take a very lax enforcement stance with states, opening the door for states to ignore their responsibilities to protect vulnerable students.Rescinded the Obama administration’s regulations that supported improving teacher preparation programs. Through the Congressional Review Act, Congress and Trump eliminated requirements for states to make sure that teacher preparation programs are helping prospective teachers gain the skills needed to be successful in the classroom and support student learning. Without these regulations, states will continue to struggle to improve teacher preparation programs and support the most effective programs.Proposed cutting $9 billion from public education while spending $1.4 billion on school choice. This proposal includes harmful private school voucher schemes and the creation of a new $250 million federal program that will allow taxpayer dollars to flow to private schools, which are not accountable; can discriminate in admissions and discipline; and are not subject to basic monitoring, oversight, and civil rights laws.Proposed cutting crucial support for school reform efforts. By zeroing out support for the AmeriCorps program, President Trump would undercut many of the most successful education organizations—from KIPP Public Charter Schools, to Teach For America, to City Year—that have had positive effects on students across the country and rely on that program.JusticeNamed Jeff Sessions, a long-time opponent of civil rights, as attorney general, the top law enforcer in the nation. Sessions co-sponsored the First Amendment Defense Act, a draconian measure that prohibits the federal government from taking “discriminatory action” against any business or person that discriminates against LGBTQ people. The act aims to protect the right of all entities to refuse service to LGBTQ people based on two sets of religious beliefs: “(1) marriage is or should be recognized as the union of one man and one woman, or (2) sexual relations are properly reserved to such a marriage.” As a federal prosecutor in 1983, Sessions prosecuted a trio of voting rights activists for voter fraud. As the chief enforcer of the civil rights laws of the United States, it is almost impossible to imagine how he will now protect the very community for which he endorsed discrimination.Appointed Justice Neil Gorsuch—a judge with a long record of ruling against the rights of workers, women, and students with disabilities—to the Supreme Court. Justice Gorsuch will rule on fundamental constitutional issues—including civil rights, the role of money in politics, and reproductive rights. For example, he will soon vote on whether the Court should allow North Carolina’s 2013 voting bill—which a lower court said targeted black voters with “almost surgical precision”—to remain in effect.Pressured the Senate to enact the “nuclear option” to get his Supreme Court nominee confirmed. Nearly every other justice on the Court had bipartisan support and crossed the 60-vote threshold at some point during their confirmation process, but many senators objected to President Trump’s nominee. The nuclear option means Senate leaders can now confirm Trump’s ideologically driven judges with a simple majority.Undermined the legitimacy of the court system. As a candidate and as president, Trump has attacked judges whose rulings he does not like and undermined the legitimacy of these courts. He called a judge who ruled against his discriminatory Muslim ban a “so-called judge.” During the campaign, he said that a Mexican-American judge could not be impartial in a lawsuit against Trump due to his ethnicity. These attacks on the third branch of government undermine the founders’ separation of powers as well as the very rule of law.Nominated ideological extremists to federal courts. The Trump administration is already vetting conservative ideologues to appoint to federal courts. President Trump’s nominations, particularly for seats on the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, signal an aggressive push to bend the federal judiciary ideologically. Trump has well over 100 seats to fill—thanks to Senate obstruction during President Obama’s term—and Trump recently announced that the administration would no longer seek the recommendation from the nonpartisan American Bar Association.Proposed eliminating the Legal Services Corporation. Already scarce access to justice will be put even further out of reach for 60.6 million low-income Americans under President Trump’s proposal to eliminate the Legal Services Corporation—the nation’s main funding stream for civil legal services.Tried but failed to stop Baltimore police reform efforts. Attorney General Sessions asked a court at the last minute not to accept a consent decree that was supported by the Baltimore police commissioner, mayor, community members, and career Department of Justice attorneys. The federal court rejected Sessions’ motion, allowing needed police reforms that would build trust between the police and the communities they serve to proceed.Attempted to bring back the war on drugs. The outdated strategy was ineffective and caused long-term devastation to thousands of families. Attorney General Sessions is implementing a tough-on-crime approach that would increase federal prosecutions and long prison sentences even for low-level, nonviolent offenders. Even as the Trump administration pushes outdated law-and-order policies, Democratic and Republican governors are making progress on sentencing reform, drug treatment, and alternatives to incarceration.Supported outdated and ineffective criminal justice reforms that have a disproportionate impact on communities of color. Attorney General Sessions should be focusing on the need for police reform; supporting innovative crime-reduction strategies; and ensuring drug treatment and alternatives to incarceration are available. Yet, instead, he has ordered a review of current pattern and practice cases of police misconduct where evidence and a clear record has shown a police department has acted with systemic misconduct. He has also questioned decades of research and science rejecting a tough-on-crime approach.Reversed the Obama era Department of Justice’s order to stop contracting with private prison facilities. Private prisons create a perverse incentive to incarcerate more people since these companies are motivated to increase profit, which is generated only if there are more inmates filling their facilities. Private prisons that contracted with the Department of Justice were found by the department itself to be less efficient and have more issues with security and management.Racial justiceSupported economic policies that are detrimental to communities of color. Many of the budget cuts proposed by President Trump would cut key social service programs. For example, 41 percent of the 9 million Women, Infants, and Children, or WIC, recipients are people of color. The budget also eliminates the Minority Business Development Agency, which promotes business development for people of color—the fastest growing segment of the population.Supported education policies that do not support students of color. The Trump administration supports cuts to Pell Grants and tuition assistance programs as well as cuts to after-school programs that would affect 1 in 4 African American students. The administration also supports voucher programs that do not encourage the success of students of color.Pushed environmental policies that will negatively affect communities of color. As noted above, the EPA wants to eradicate programs dedicated to reducing exposure to lead paint, which disproportionately affects communities of color. The EPA is also cutting funding for the environmental justice office that had just been set up to specifically deal with lead, pollution, and other issues facing communities of color.LGBTQTurned a blind eye to illegal anti-transgender discrimination in schools. The Trump administration revoked Title IX guidance issued by the Department of Education clarifying schools’ long-standing obligations under federal civil rights law to treat transgender students equally and with dignity. Transgender students face pervasive harassment and discrimination in schools, impeding these students’ ability to learn. Nearly 1 in 6 out transgender K-12 students have been forced to leave school because of this harassment.Erased LGBTQ people from federal surveys, making it impossible to know if government programs serve them fairly. The Trump administration removed questions about LGBTQ people from key federal surveys about programs that serve seniors and people with disabilities, without which policymakers and advocates cannot ensure LGBTQ people have equal access to key government services such as Meals on Wheels. The administration also appears to have included—but then gone back and omitted—questions about LGBTQ people from the American Community Survey, an annual survey that gathers information about Americans’ educational attainment, housing, and health coverage.Appointed longtime opponents of LGBTQ rights—including members of anti-LGBTQ hate groups—to key administration positions. Many of President Trump’s appointees, including Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Secretary of Health and Human Services Tom Price, made their careers standing in the way of LGBTQ rights—and now, they’re in charge of agencies that enforce those very rights. The appointments get even more disturbing the closer you look: Trump tapped Ken Blackwell, a former fellow at an anti-LGBTQ hate group, as a domestic policy adviser; selected leaders of the hate group C-FAM for the president’s delegation to the United Nations; and appointed Roger Severino, a longtime opponent of transgender civil rights, to run the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights.Proposed slashing funding for research to cure HIV/AIDS. President Trump has proposed devastating cuts to health research, including $6 billion in cuts to the National Institutes of Health in the budget and a $50 million cut to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s HIV research and prevention programs. The administration has also pushed a $300 million cut to the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR—an extraordinarily successful program that provides lifesaving treatment to 11.5 million people worldwide and has broad bipartisan support.Barred refugees and asylum seekers fleeing anti-LGBTQ persecution from protection in the United States. President Trump’s refugee suspension blocked LGBTQ Syrian and Iraqi refugees from finding protection in the United States, leaving them stranded in countries where they are persecuted. His policy of detaining all immigrants who enter at the southern border and expanding the populations targeted for deportation traps LGBTQ asylum seekers in dangerous immigrant detention facilities and increases the risk that they will be wrongly deported to countries where their lives are at risk. The administration also decided to close the only dedicated transgender immigrant detention pod in the country, leaving transgender immigrants in detention at risk.National securityMade Americans less safe from the Islamic State, or IS. The anti-Muslim bigotry of the Trump administration makes every American less safe by helping IS and other terrorist groups recruit followers. As one IS commander in Afghanistan put it, the Trump administration’s “utter hate towards Muslims will make our job much easier because we can recruit thousands.” The original Muslim ban included Iraq, where Iraqi soldier fighting alongside U.S. forces against IS called it a “betrayal.”Made Americans more vulnerable to pandemic diseases such as Zika and Ebola. Massive cuts in aid, diplomacy, and health proposed in President Trump’s FY 2017 budget would end the Global Health Security account, which works to prevent, detect, and respond to infectious disease outbreaks around the world, including Ebola. In his proposed budget, Trump has also called for the elimination of funding for the Fogarty International Center, which supports global health research initiatives, including for infectious diseases research in developing countries.Undermined American jobs and security by ceding global leadership to Beijing. President Trump has taken no actions to achieve more balanced trade with China. He recklessly toyed with overturning nearly 40 years of official policy recognizing “one China” but backed down during his first call with the Chinese president, showing that his threats were hollow. Trump and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson claimed they would stop China from building on disputed islands in the South China Sea, but China proceeds to do what it wants, where it wants. Trump’s summit with President Xi Jinping at his Mar-a-Lago resort resulted in no progress on any difficult issues. Beijing sees Washington as hot air with little substance. Trump’s all talk, no action approach is encouraging repression over freedom and making authoritarian leaders confident that repression will be tolerated.Oversaw an increase in civilian deaths from U.S. military operations. After years of decline, civilian deaths from U.S. military operations have surged under Trump, destroying families, undermining strategic aims, and providing a propaganda boon to U.S. enemies. U.S. military spokesperson Col. Joseph Scrocca said “[More civilian casualties] is probably detrimental to the strength of our coalition. And that’s exactly what ISIS is trying to target right now.” Civilian deaths in Iraq and Syria have spiked in 2017, already far surpassing the total for all of 2016. Trump’s first major raid as president, in Yemen in January, was decided over dinner in the White House—far outside the regular process—and resulted in dozens of civilian deaths.Threatened national security and hurt the integrity of America’s democracy by an ongoing lack of transparency and refusal to disclose details about his finances and ties to Russia. Americans cannot know who President Trump might owe money or what obligations or commitment he and his team could have to Russia or other foreign powers. Trump’s refusal to condemn the Russian government’s interference in the 2016 elections; release his tax returns; step away from his business; and support an independent commission and special counsel to get to the bottom of Russia’s influence over the 2016 election are a green light to Russians and others who want to meddle in U.S. democracy. All Americans from all political parties are vulnerable when foreign influence, money, and hacking can run roughshod though America’s democratic institutions.This list is just a sample of the ways in which President Trump and his administration have already broken their promises to Americans and revealed their true priorities. As this list grows, real damage is being done to communities and working families across the nation. Trump should heed their calls to put the needs of ordinary Americans ahead of corporations and the wealthy.

This is gonna be a long answer as I know the country very well. I’ve pinned this answer because it’s come to cover multiple topics that I consider essential such as the Taiwan Strait issue, and I’ll keep updating it if need be. You can practically view this as an introduction of Taiwan that doesn’t simply only answer the question it’s supposed to. My motivation of developing this answer into a complex pack instead of just replying to the question alone, is that I’ve figured I wouldn’t be able to refute each and every lie and every single bit of fallacious information intentionally constructed that many Quorans that are up to no good present. Especially regarding Taiwan’s legal status. These Quorans are more often than not nationals of the People’s Republic of China, regardless where they live, study or work. Hence, I may as well just write a long answer that gives facts and truth. Therefore, you’ll be able to know such Quorans or the people alike are lying, if you happen to have read this answer beforehand.First things first, let us learn something about Taiwan a little bit before trying to answer the question. Taiwan, officially the Republic of China, is an island nation populated by about 23.5 million people, and one of the 5 permanent members of the United Nation Security Council that founded the UN until its quitting in 1971. Now, simply by knowing this, we already realise immediately that Taiwan’s unfortunate in the first place to begin with. Why? Well firstly, it has a terrible size of population. An ideal size of population is either smaller than 10 million people, so the country can rather easily grow economically as it has fewer people to feed, such as Singapore, Slovenia, Ireland, Israel, Sweden and Switzerland, or bigger than 40 million people, where the country acquires a domestic market large enough to support itself as an economic bonus to cultivate conglomerates despite having far more people to take care of than small nations. Taiwan, on the other hand, has an embarrassing population size – 23.5 million citizens, which means Taiwan gets neither the advantage of a small population nor of a large domestic market. There is no such thing big enough to be called a conglomerate in Taiwan – not even ASUS, HTC, Acer, TSMC or Foxconn as they’re just medium-sized companies at a larger scale, compared with real conglomerates such as those in Japan and South Korea. The population size of Seoul Capital Area is about 25 million people; as for Tokyo Metro (Greater Tokyo Area), the number is around 38 million. Both cities already larger than Taiwan, which is a state; so as you can see, our human resource pool is really small. Secondly, Taiwan’s truly tiny, and has literally zero valuable natural resources. Australia has a population of 24 million inhabitants, very much like Taiwan, yet it’s 214 times bigger than Taiwan in area dimension and owns quite a lot of natural resources. As a result, the embarrassing population size of Australia’s doesn’t affect the country much. Thirdly, Taiwan’s isolated, geographically and politically. Countries that are EU members usually develop pretty fast because it’s easy for them to acquire assistance of other EU members, financially and technologically. Imagine you’re a country sitting next or close to France or Germany – both are highly developed. In such a scenario, you should feel guilty if you manage not to develop quickly well. Unlike nations in the EU, Taiwan’s rejected by other countries due to the presence of the communist China. Taiwan’s not even an OECD member; in fact, Taiwan isn’t a member of most international organisations at all. Although based on international law, the government that Taiwan’s currently running under, namely the Republic of China (ROC), just like any other nations or political entities in today’s world, has never acquired the ownership of the island of Taiwan [Note: please navigate to ‘Additional Content’ section for further reading if you’re interested], including Penghu and the other Taiwanese isles, as the ROC is only simply being in charge of Taiwan under the name of ‘military mandate’ authorized by ‘General Order No.1’, a military order signed between the Allies and the Empire of Japan after WWII (hence it has nothing to do with the concept of ‘mandate’ written in the United Nation Charter), resulting in the communist China’s illegality to lay a claim on the ownership of Taiwan due to the ROC’s not even owning Taiwan itself, in any near future however, the Taiwanese will probably not amend their ROC Constitution to establish a government in a new name – for instance, ‘the Republic of Taiwan’ or something – to make use of the right called ‘self-determination’, because it’d rise an economic and political tide worldwide if Taiwan did so, and might cause harm. Self-determination is a rightful means by international law and the Charter of the United Nation for a people to establish a legitimate government of their own and to acquire the ownership of the territory in which they establish the government (in the case of Taiwan, the ‘territory’ refers to to the island of Taiwan and the other Taiwanese isles, and the ‘people’ refer to the people on them, all of which have been governed by the ROC since 1945 – an illegitimate government as the ROC doesn’t possess the ownership of any of these land). Based on international law and the law of the UN, the Taiwanese have absolute every right to implement self-determination to have the ROC evolve into an ROT (Republic of Taiwan), but it may come along with harm. Not to mention, despite the United States having made it clear that America agrees One-China-Policy, but objects to communist China’s claim on Taiwan, offering ‘Taiwan Relations Act’ (the entire content of ‘Taiwan Relations Act’ is a part of the law of United States), which states the United States will automatically acknowledge any successor to the current governing authorities on Taiwan, meaning an ROT succeeding the ROC will be immediately recognized by America, along with providing necessary assistance should a China-to-Taiwan invasion breakout, the U.S. yet will certainly not want Taiwan to take such an aggressive move when there’s still peace between the Strait. As a result, the establishment of a new government of Taiwan will be implemented only when a war between the Strait will occur; in other words, should China attack Taiwan, an ROT would be built. In consequence, until the day comes, Taiwan will always be rejected continuously by most international organisations. All of these, have negative impact on Taiwan’s development. Nevertheless, what’s fortunate is the Taiwanese are smart. They have the highest average IQ, which is 108, followed by the Singaporeans (107), the Chinese (107), the Hong Kongese (106), the South Koreans (106), the Japanese (105), the Finns (103) and the rest other 183 countries, according to the research done by Heiner Rindermann, a reputative German scientist specializing in this field, whose studies are considered far more reliable than Lynn and Vanhanen’s by other scientists, including Earl Hunt[1][2], who’s literally Einstein in the field of human and artificial intelligence. The Taiwanese also have the largest standard deviation (12.66) of intelligence among all East Asian populations according to Rindermann’s research, larger than Japan (12.6), China (11.89; Hong Kong and Macau included) and South Korea (11.61), also larger than France (12.39), Finland (10.93), Canada (11.38), Austria (12.51), Sweden (12.39), Iceland (12.36), Belgium (12.61), Denmark (12.55), Spain (12.1), Ireland (12.58), the Netherlands (11.31) and many other non-Asian nations. The conclusion drawn here being Taiwan’s a country that has nothing but pure brainpower; that’s the only bit of luckiness we can find in Taiwan’s miserable background. This has been very important.Now we have learnt some basic information about Taiwan. It’s time to answer the question: is Taiwan a developed country? Of course, it is.It's not easy at all to determine whether a nation’s developed or not, but there are still statistics which can help provide a more accurate estimation on the status of a country’s development.In New Taipei City. I don’t own this image.In the ‘70s, Taiwan was still an impoverished country where people weren’t even properly fed, yet within less than 3 decades, Taiwan quickly reached a developed status. Such can also be observed by looking at the average height of the Taiwanese. Imperial College London has conducted thus far the largest-scale investigation into average heights of adults of countries all over the world, and published their research on eLife, a prestigious academic journal in biomedical and life sciences, by eLife Sciences Publications. The research’s indicated that the Taiwanese average 174.5cm and 161.5cm for males and females respectively, both second only to the South Koreans (male: 174.9cm, female: 162.3cm) in Asia. You can read the full study here[3].Anyone would be a fool to think people’s cognitive abilities determine everything regarding a country’s development, yet it’d also be naïve to believe these two things have no relation. Heiner Rindermann’s studies on human intelligence have been considered far more reliable than those published by Lynn and Vanhanen. In 2007, a Rindermann’s study, titled ‘The g‐factor of International Cognitive Ability Comparisons: the Homogeneity of Results in PISA, TIMSS, PIRLS and IQ‐Tests Across Nations’ (you can obtain the full study here[4]), has investigated cognitive abilities (IQ) of people all over the globe, taking data from the results in PISA, TIMSS, PIRLS and pure IQ tests all into consideration. The conclusion’s indicated the Taiwanese have the highest average IQ at 108, followed by the Singaporeans (107) and the Chinese (107). The Taiwanese also have the largest standard deviation (SD) at 12.66 in East Asia, larger than the Japanese (12.6), the Chinese (11.89) and the South Koreans (11.61), also larger than the French (12.39) and the Danish (12.55). In the image above, the left bell curve belongs to the Taiwanese, and the one on the right belongs to a country (which should remain anonymous) that has one of the largest SD at 16.07. You can see pretty clearly that a large SD can compensate for a lower mean, which is why I believe understanding the IQ bell curve of a population can help make better policies for the country’s development. For example, if you’re in charge of governing the country on the right, you’d want to make sure that you do your best to make the talents stay instead of letting them migrate to the USA, or you’d be left with only a low average-IQ population, which would hinder the development of the country.Economy-wise, as of 2018 last forecast according to the database (updated in February, 2018) of the Directorate-General of Budget, a department of the Executive Yuan, Taiwan has its nominal GDP per capita at 25,893 USD. The Directorate-General of Budget doesn’t forecast PPP GDP per capita numbers, but based on its mathematical-economic models, the figure is about 53,720 USD. Outdated statistics, such as the IMF’s WEO database (updated in October, 2017), forecasted that Taiwan’s GDP per capita based on exchange rates (nominal) and purchasing-power parity (PPP) would be at $24,889 and $51,637 respectively. The IMF will update its database in mid to late April, and I expect the figures to be higher than those currently (as of February, 2018) from the Taiwanese Government in that the IMF uses slightly different mathematical-economic models from the Executive Yuan’s [2018/05/05 Update: so, the IMF’s updated its WEO database in April, predicting the numbers for Taiwan’s GDP per capita will be USD 25,977 (nominal) and USD 52,305 (PPP) respectively; I expect the figures to further grow higher as we get closer to the end of the year]. The IMF’s models usually end up giving higher final numbers of GDP per capita despite usually predicting slower growth than does the Directorate-General of Budget. This is of course not saying there’s no exception. GDP per capita figures from the IMF, whether higher or lower, the gap between them and those from the Executive Yuan usually lies between 10 to 150 USD of a range. Every year, major updates of the IMF’s WEO database are scheduled in April and September/October, which renew forecast for all economies, while minor updates, delivered in January and July, only renew 16 main economies, of which 4 are in Asia – Saudi Arabia, China, India and Japan. Anyway, the IMF or not, all sorts of economic statistics seem to suggest Taiwan’s GDP per capita figures are high enough to pass for a first-world economy while still being growing at a significantly faster pace - at 2-3% on average - than the older developed nations (as Taiwan’s quite new) who yield a growth rate of less than 1% averagely such as Japan, Germany, Italy, France and the UK.Taiwan’s GDP per capita (PPP) has been forecast at $52,305 for 2018 according to the IMF WEO Database last updated in April, 2018.Nominal GDP is greatly dependent on exchange rates, so weaker currencies (in comparison with the United State dollar) usually have an inevitable disadvantage converting to GDP under nominal terms. On the other hand, countries using stronger currencies, although not always, usually have prettier nominal GDP numbers even when in fact not being as competitive industrially, typical examples being Greece and Portugal, if it weren’t for their using Euro, having higher nominal value than USD, their nominal GDP would be much worse than where they’re now, considering both of them are industrially weak. The Big Mac Index (2017 data) has indicated Taiwan’s official currency (New Taiwan dollar) is the one most severely underestimated among all official currencies of East Asian countries, that the nominal value of NTD has to be 40.5% higher to meet its true value[5], whereas the other official currencies of East Asian nations have much smaller gaps between their nominal and true values - 19.9% for the Japanese yen, 4.3% for the South Korean won, and 27.3% for the Reminbi. In the past, the Taiwan Government has always played the economic game via a safe approach by keeping the exchange rates of NTD as low as possible in that Taiwan relies greatly on export, and believed if letting the currency naturally revaluate to reach its true value, the Taiwanese economy would shrink as it would be much more expensive to purchase Taiwanese goods for foreign customers, but now it’s been proven that’s actually wrong thinking. Ever since Ing-Wen Tsai and her administrations’ve taken over the leadership, Taiwan’s official currency has been undergoing revaluation and now (May, 2018) its nominal value’s been 10% higher than that the same month 2 years ago, at the same time Taiwan’s export is booming, no sign of shrinkage at all even when the global economy isn’t particularly good. In April 2018, the IMF’s predicted Taiwan’s GDP per capita (nominal) will be USD 25,977 (Taiwan’s nominal GDP per capita was $22,540 in 2016, and $21,888 back in 2013. Thank you so much, Mr Ma, I didn’t expect much from you to begin with), and I expect the figure to further grow higher as we get closer to the end of the year.This is a chart that I made according to the IMF WEO Database, updated in October 2018 (source: here[6]). Both lines represent GDP per capita of Taiwan from 2017 to 2023, but the red one is based on purchasing-power parity while the green one is based on exchange rates. The nominal GDP per capita forecast for 2018 dropped a little bit than in April due to USD appreciation in late September, but this should only be temporary and I think in the long run NTD will still be going through appreciation against USD. As you can see, Taiwan’s GDP per capita based on PPP is strikingly higher (basically more than double) than the nominal one and is still growing like crazy. This is rare for a developed economy like Taiwan. If the pattern continues, Taiwan’s gonna make it to the top 5 wealthiest nations in the world based on GDP per capita PPP by 2030.Currency appreciation is a double blade because while the nominal value of your currency goes up, you may lose competitiveness at the end for your products have become more expensive. But this is not saying appreciation should be avoided - the key is, has your industry been ready? Taiwan’s about to experience a fundamentally major change of industry (I’m referring to manufacturing, especially those that are technology-and-knowledge-intensive), and it has something to do with a new material - named ‘High-Entropy Alloys’[7][8]- that Taiwan’s invented along with the new areas it opens for humans to explore. These materials will overhaul mankind’s industrial development roadmap and have proven their great commercial value. This will bring directly economic benefit to Taiwan as Taiwan’s been the only holder of crucial patents of such materials. Other countries, also their companies, institutes and organsisations, including those even as prestigious as USA Air Force and NASA, can’t develop products using these materials without paying royalty to Taiwan. This is a complicated topic and so i’ll further introduce more about these materials, but a real detailed introduction won’t be possible because that would at least double the length of this answer when this answer’s already very long (I don't know if Quora has word limit for an answer but if there is, I may be the first person to hit that. What an achievement!). Anyway, my point here is - Taiwan, being the inventor and the only country that holds the crucial patents of novel materials that fundamentally upgrade industries such as aerospace, automobiles, defense, marine, energy and etc, and also being the only country that has the legal right to produce them for actual application, especially commercially, it’d be just like Taiwan’s become the only country that can provide petroleum. That’s how a currency gets to appreciate for as high as it could while most of the time the market simply can’t say ‘no!’. Appreciation is not a double blade anymore.Regarding education, health care, life expectancy and other aspects of overall development, the HDI of Taiwan was .882 back in 2014, which ranked between Finland and Italy. Crime rates are also very low - Taiwan's been well known amongst tourists and expatriates for being one of the safest countries in the world.According to data[9]from Executive Yuan, the Human Development Index (HDI) of Taiwan was 0.907 in 2017, classified as ‘very high’, ranking 21st globally. The picture shows Dahu Park, located in Taipei City.In Yilan. Not an image of mine.In terms of technology, numerous tier 1 class corporations are from Taiwan, such as TSMC, who is the global leader in the art of nanotechnology of IC manufacturing, and MediaTek, one of the few mobile phone processor designers that can compete along with Qualcomm and actually put Qualcomm at an unsettling edge at times. Let's also not forget HTC, ASUS, Acer, BenQ, Gigabyte, MSI, GIANT, Zinwell and many other famous Taiwanese brands. Taiwan is also known for its optical industry - chances are most of your mobile phones and digital devices that have a camera function are equipped with the plastic lenses from Largan. As for glass lenses, there is FZEROS, one of the very few vendors designing glass lenses for cinema and single lens reflex cameras along with the other brands, of which most are either from Germany or Japan. And if you’re into bikes, you’d certainly know SYM and Kymco for their 550 c.c products. As to automobiles, Luxgen is a relatively new car manufacturer, yet its cars have earned a nice market share with their turbo engines and high-tech equipment such as the eagle-view system. New cars powered by Luxgen’s turbo GDI (Gasoline Direct Injection) engines have been reported to hit the market in the near future while models powered by NA (Naturally Aspired) engines will be arriving at the market earlier - in the third or fourth quarter in 2017. Notice, I don’t own most of the images that I’ve used here.Kymco AK550 at an exhibition in Cologne, Germany, 2016.Kymco AK550 in motion.Kymco Xciting 400i ABS.Kymco CV2.Kymco SuperNEX, at EICMA (Milan Motorcycle Shows), November 2018.SYM T2, this isn’t a 550 c.c model.SYM T3.Two pictures of the SYM SB300 CR ABS. SYM and SANYANG (as printed on the engine) are the same company.PGO V2, a product of PGO, which is a main Taiwanese motorcycle brand along with Kymco and SYM. The PGO V2 is equipped with a PGO in-house engine, displacing 1,600 c.c.Luxgen U6 Turbo Eco Hyper, 1.8 L, equipped with a gasoline engine independently developed by Luxgen, horsepower 170 ps max, torque 26.1 kgm max. The same model released to the Chinese market is slightly different in that it’s smaller, equipped with a turbocharged French engine that is lower both in horsepower and torque. For whatever reason, since mid 2015, Luxgen’s stopped allowing its agent in China to sell any of its newer models equipped with a Luxgen engine, and this has been the case for the U6 Turbo Eco Hyper and U6 GT (picture below).Luxgen U6 GT, 1.8 L, equipped with the same Luxgen engine as U6 Turbo Eco Hyper’s, but having undergone improvement by Luxgen itself and Tomei (a Japanese company specializing in car engine modifications), horsepower 202 ps max, torque 32.6 kgm max. It will enter the market in November, 2017. Similar models (as in displacement and prices) of other brands, such as Honda CR-V, 1.8 L, horsepower 143 ps max, torque 17.5 kgm max, and TOYOTA RAV-4, 2.0 L, horsepower 146 ps max. The Chinese version of U6 GT uses a turbocharged 1.6 L French engine, maximum horsepower below 170 ps.Luxgen U6 GT220, 1.8 L, equipped with a more refined version of U6 GT’s engine, horsepower 222 ps max, torque 33.6 kgm max. It will enter the market in November, 2017, too. But it won’t be released to the Chinese market.A turbocharger is a device that increases the horsepower of an engine and is widely used in automobiles. How much a turbocharger can increase the horsepower of an engine is greatly dependent on how hot the heat that the turbocharger can endure. Most turbochargers that can take in exhausted gas of the engine at higher than 600°C shall easily increase the horsepower by at least 30% and at maximum 100%. As of now, the most heat-resistant turbocharger for automobile engines can sustain 800°C, which I believe is either German or Japanese technology for supercars, F1 racing cars and armoured vehicles (such as main battle tanks), yet now thanks to a new type of alloys named ‘HEA’, standing for ‘High-Entropy Alloys’ (or ‘HESA’ for its superalloy forms), introduced by Taiwanese scientists, the Taiwanese automobile industry is developing turbochargers that are expected to be able to sustain 950°C and far beyond (> 1,000°C).Luxgen’s cars don’t just come with powerful engines, but are also equipped with quite a few built-in useful high-tech features, such as the On-road AR View system (first picture) and HUD (second picture).Like almost every other automobile manufacturer, Luxgen has new products every year. While certainly we can look forward to seeing new cars from Luxgen later this year (2018), there’s a bigger plan for next year - Luxgen’s going to release its first more luxury model: a 2.0T automobile equipped with a Luxgen engine exporting 350 horsepower (picture below), to compete with high-class cars from other brands such as the BMW X4. The picture here was a concept released a few years ago and hence not the final product.The said engine developed by Luxgen for the brand’s new cars originally planned to launch in 2019. Luxgen has officially announced it in September 2018, but said actual production might be postponed to 2020, and the power of the engine would be slightly adjusted, but will still be well within 310-360 range of horsepower. Luxgen is a brand that is only 9 years old and has mostly only developed family cars thus far, but since it has specifically had partnership with companies such as Cosworth, an English firm founded in 1958, specialising in and only in development of F1 racing cars, rumour has it using Taiwan's advanced materials technology as an innate advantage, by acquiring experiences from partnering with companies that are more sophisticated in automobile development as they have longer history in the industry, Luxgen’s long-term plan is to ultimately see itself in the future a brand of supercars. You've got to admit Luxgen really grows so fast technologically.Luxgen URX, one of Luxgen’s new cars that will be launched this year (2019). Luxgen is a fairly new brand, but its cars are not cheap. Apparently, as Taiwan’s biggest domestic automobile manufacturer, Luxgen has adopted a strategy very different from that adopted by automobile manufacturers in other Asian countries – Japanese cars, Chinese cars and Korean cars, they all start from low prices when they are/were beginners in the automobile industry. On the contrary, Luxgen has skipped the low-end/mid-low-end markets since the beginning.The French media reported the URX would be the first Luxgen product to enter the European car market, and the premier country to launch would be France. This isn’t officially confirmed yet by the company, but if it’s true, it would be an opportunity for Luxgen considering this brand is young and not positioned as a budget vendor.Luxgen S3 EV+, a battery electric vehicle. Its propulsion system generates 150 kw of power, equaling 204 ps of horsepower, taking 7.8 seconds to reach 100 km per hour of speed from zero. It has 220 km of cruising range, and requires only 40 mins to charge to reach 80% full of the battery in rapid charging mode. In regular charging mode, a 6-hour charge is sufficient to reach 100% full of the battery. The S3 EV+ is Luxgen’s first car that completely and only relies on electricity.Luxgen U5 EV+, another battery electric vehicle of Luxgen’s, cruising range 360 km – 400 km (depending on the settings), and it takes only 50 mins to reach 80% full of the battery in rapid charging mode. It will be launched in 2019.Despite quite a few automobile manufacturers such as Honda and Hyundai having been investing in battery cars that rely on fuel batteries due to fuel batteries owning innate advantage over lithium batteries, leading to fuel battery cars easily having far longer cruising ranges than those equipped with lithium batteries, Luxgen shares very similar views with Tesla, both of which believe lithium battery cars are the way to go as fuel batteries are much more expensive and overall far less efficient for hydrogen acquisition not only consumes a considerable amount of energy, but is also inconvenient. All of Luxgen’s battery vehicles have been equipped with lithium batteries. Rumour has it that battery automobiles from Luxgen released in the near future will make use of SEI®, nano technology developed by ITRI (Industrial Technology Research Institute), one of the most direct outcomes being the cruising range gets doubled (300 km → 600 km), outperforming fuel battery cars.Gogoro, a Taiwanese brand of battery electric scooters.The RAC RACE-700, a bus that solely runs on electricity, developed by RAC (a Taiwanese company). The bus has 350 km of cruising range when it’s unloaded. When running at its maximum allowable weight of load (about 2,300 kg), with the air-conditioning on throughout the journey, the cruising range is still over 215 km, more than enough to meet the commercial requirement (150 – 180 km). Also, it only takes 2 hours to get the battery fully charged in rapid charging mode. As a result, you can see them busy transporting people in Taipei, Taoyuan, Hsinchu, Taichung, Tainan, Nantou and Pingtung. It’s also been exported to other countries since 2012, the first electric bus sold as an entire unit (instead of just parts or components) on global markets.ARTC’s autonomous systems, developed based on a Luxgen U6 Turbo Eco Hyper. ARTC’s autonomous technology is currently at Level 4, meaning it’s more than enough to meet commercial requirements in terms of safety and reliability, and the dev team plans to build Taiwan’s first autonomous bus in 2 years.Luxgen concept car. It features AI (Artificial Intelligence) and ARTC’s Level 4 Autonomous Systems, and is said to join the market in the future. The autonomous system can be divided into 6 levels (from Level Zero to Level 5) based on the autonomous capability according to SAE J3016 Standards. A Level 4 autonomous car can drive itself in almost all situations while maintaining safety and reliability, only one step away from Level 5, which indicates in no situation will the autonomous car need human control to assure security. The majority of commercial autonomous automobiles are at Level 3.So, well, as of September, 2018, it looks like Luxgen’s acquired autonomous technology developed by Acer (yeah, you heard me right) before teaming up with the ARTC. This is Luxgen’s first announced autonomous vehicle, Level 4. The base model is the Luxgen S3 EV+.Studio X-Gene is a Taiwanese company specialising in automobile design, which also includes the engineering. The automobile in the picture above is one of their works, at Shanghai International Automobile Industry Exhibition 2012.Credit of this picture goes to Nikkei Asian Review, which reported Studio X-Gene has teamed up with Acer to develop a brand of battery electric automobiles, whose logo is designed as an ‘X’. The lady in the picture is the founder of Studio X-Gene, and the man behind is her husband. This car here is named ‘Avant GT’, a first-generation electric car of their brand.A Studio X-Gene product at Shanghai International Automobile Industry Exhibition 2011.This futuristic-looking car is a product of Thunder Power, a Taiwan-based car manufacturer even newer than Luxgen. This picture was taken at a car exhibition in Frankfurt, 2015. It’s been reported that this car will hit the market in 2019.GIANT bicycle, I think it’s quite a famous brand.Largan is internationally the largest supplier of lens and camera module technology for digital devices, especially in the high-end field where Largan takes 75% of the global markets. Iphones in particular are known to be equipped with Largan’s lenses and camera modules.FZEROS 25mm M43 Cinema Lens.An Olympus camera equipped with an FZEROS cinema lens.A BenQ 4K Ultra HD HDR television. BenQ is the leading Taiwanese brand specializing in 3C products.BenQ 1080p DLP Home Theatre Projector. The same brand also offers 4K models, just a lot more expensive though.BenQ used to be a major brand of digital cameras, but has quit the market a few years ago.Vivitek is a major Taiwanese brand of consumer electronics, best known for its home cinema projectors. The model in the left picture is the HK2288, offering Ultra HD 4K resolution, 2,000 ANSI lumens and an extremely high contrast ratio (50,000:1), giving you extraordinary visual experience no matter you want to use it for movies, gaming, FIFA or NBA. The picture on the right is from the website of Vivitek.If home cinema projectors can’t satisfy you, Vivitek also has laser projectors for engineering applications. The Vivitek DU9800Z (left) is a laser projector very often used for events like the opening ceremony of a sport game held in the evening to create live 3D effect. You can also use it for home cinema purpose, and better, using more than one DU9800Z (the right picture) to project a dynamic and vivid scenery environment, like the picture below.I know some rich guys really have ‘home cinemas’ very similar to this. This was at the Vivitek booth at InfoComm USA last year (2018), not taken by me.If you’re one of those that have already invested in a scenery home cinema, why not invest just a little more to be granted marvelous acoustic experience? Usher is a major Taiwanese brand of speakers, the speaker set composed of two tall, elegant and refined speakers in the picture here is the Usher BE-10s, you can bring a whole new set of them home for just little bit over 16 grands. I love you if you do. The image here is from a website called ‘Prairie Audio Man Cave’.And don’t forget to include a Johnson (a Taiwanese brand) massager in your home cinema, they’re great, I promise! This particular massager in the picture is the Johnson J6800.Other than BenQ, CHIMEI is another major Taiwanese brand of household 3C products. The two pictures show CHIMEI 4K televisions (size of the one in the second picture is 75”. I have no idea how big the one in the first picture is), featuring quite a few CHIMEI’s top-notch display technology. Credit of the second picture goes to a website called ‘ifans林小旭’.AUO is the second largest supplier of TFT-LCD panels globally and belongs to BenQ. Taiwan, Japan and South Korea are the 3 iconic countries of LCD (liquid-crystal display) technology.InnoLux, along with AUO, is another Taiwanese company specialising in innovation of LCD technology and one of the largest suppliers of such technology internationally. Foxconn is the parent company of InnoLux.SHARP, the inventor of the original LCD technology, is undoubtedly the best and most advanced in the TFT-LCD industry, but owing to its inefficient management and marketing strategies, SHARP gradually developed into a bankrupt, leaving the Japanese government no option but to sell it. There were quite a few international corporations from multiple countries like Taiwan, America, South Korea and even Japan itself that were willing to take over a bankrupt SHARP as SHARP was really technologically top-notch, more advanced than InnoLux, AUO, Sony, Toshiba, Samsung, LG and every other company specialising in LCD products. The bid ended with Taiwan acquiring SHARP - now SHARP belongs to Foxconn and is profitable again.A Foxconn branch in the US.Darwin is a company specialising in materials technology of semiconductor, and is thus far (2018) one of the only three companies in the world that has developed mature FMM (Fine Metal Masks) technology. FMMs are the most crucial materials and process (deposition) required in OLED (Organic Light-Emitting Diode) development, especially for OLED TV panels, which have much larger dimensions than those of OLED panels for handsets. Other than Darwin, the other two companies that supply FMMs to OLED panel manufacturers are DNP (Japan) and TOPPAN (Japan).Not just a major supplier of LCD technology internationally, InnoLux is also the leading company in development and innovation of AM Mini LED technology. AM Mini LED offers superior visual quality to that of OLED yet with a much lower price, and hence is believed to be able to boot OLED out of the market in the near future, especially for products that have large displays such as televisions.SAMPO, TECO, TATUNG, SANLUX and KOLIN are five of the major Taiwan-based brands of household appliances, but they mostly focus on domestic markets (I don’t think they even care about foreign markets at all). If you’re Taiwanese, you almost certainly grew up with their products. The picture is from SAMPO’s website, and hence that’s a SAMPO refrigerator.A SAMPO bake oven. This isn’t advertisement, but the model is KZ-SD35W, you know … just if you’re curious (hehehe).HTC VIVE, something you crave if you're a gamer.HTC VIVE Focus Plus, 615 ppi, the highest in the VR headset market when it gets launched (April 2019), superior to the Oculus Rift (461 ppi), HTC VIVE (448 ppi) and PlayStation VR (386 ppi).7 Miracles, the first VR movie in human history, produced by Panogramma and Film Production Consultants, published by VIVE STUDIOS, and has won an award at Raindance Film Festival. This movie is 70 minute long, filmed in 8K definition quality, and features full 360-degree viewing. You can now purchase it in Google Play Store (iOS version will be released in the future) and enjoy it on HTC devices. The future of the movie industry is here. The future of the movie industry is to put the audience in the movie.HTC U11, featuring Edge Sense technology, different from anything you’ve seen before.The front of the HTC U11. I believe everyone’s got his/her own preferences for smartphones and there’s nothing wrong with it, but let’s get rid of all the personal ‘likes’ or ‘dislikes’ here - with all the reviews available on the Internet along with all those performance comparison tests (display, speed, camera, audio, speaker, gaming, battery life and etc) among different brands, I think it’s very safe to say that overall and objectively HTC U11 is currently (late 2017) the most superior Android smartphone out there.Time flies, 12 months has passed since the launch of the HTC U11 and I’m updating information in August, 2018: now we have the HTC U12 Plus (picture above). My first smartphone was an HTC One (M8), and that phone was goddamn classic. HTC reached the top in the Android world with its early models of the One series. Ah, I still remember people calling HTC ‘king of Android’, good old days weren’t they? Call me a fanboy, I’ve only owned smartphones from HTC and Apple.Like the U11 series, the U12 series also offers an option of translucence.HTC One M8, released quite a few years ago, various handset critics and reviews entitled HTC ‘king of Android’ for it. This smartphone was a gift from God.HTC Exodus 1, the first smartphone built based on blockchain technology. Blockchain technology is said to be the savior of people who want absolute zero censorship on the Internet and is believed to be able to crush national censors. So as a result, HTC has no plan to put this phone on the Chinese market. Honestly, I think even if a phone like this actually got permission to enter the Chinese market, the Chinese government would simply just use a different way to censor, like forcing users of blockchain phones to register with government-issued IDs. The price tag of HTC Exodus 1 says 950 USD (equivalent to 0.15 BTC/4.78 ETH), as of October 2018.HTC introducing blockchain technology in the smartphone industry is a risky move because developing blockchain phones is expensive, and blockchian tech is too novel a concept that is also too technical for people to even bother trying to understand what the hell it is. However, the market seems to have recognised the value of blockchain phones because the HTC Exodus 1 has sold well. In April, HTC has announced that a second HTC blockchain smartphone will be introduced later this year. The phone will be named ‘Exodus 2’, and will be HTC’s flagship handset for 2019. This picture above was a concept released last year by a website called ‘Science&Knowledge’ for the HTC U12.I don’t know if HTC has any plans of launching foldable smartphones in the near future, but certainly this technology is already available from other major R&D institutes in the country even if HTC itself hasn’t put much emphasis on development of foldable devices. The image above demonstrates foldable OLED screens developed by ITRI years ago. Personally, I don’t think foldable smartphones are going to be mainstream devices any time soon because I believe related technologies won’t mature in 5 years, probably not even in 10 years since this isn’t just about the screen, but also about the whole of the hardware. Foldable communication devices from whichever brands – Apple, Samsung, Oppo, Xiaomi – whatever, for a very long time, may not be able to get rid of this clumsy and embarrassing feel that they have. 5 years from now, smartphone manufacturers will still be making the same kind of ‘foldable smartphones’ that is essentially just a very small tablet that you can bend into a big thick brick which just happens to have a tiny screen on it. But, it’s an interesting idea and worth paying attention to observing how the trends will develop.The round piece is an OLED display. The image containing six pictures above demonstrates InnoLux’s cutting-edge technology to turn OLED display into a small, thin, flexible bit like a piece of paper. You can abuse it like how the person does in these pictures, and the display will still function flawlessly. The full video is available here[10].At an exhibition of display technology in 2017, AUO has introduced a foldable OLED screen (picture on the left), what’s unique about it is unlike most other fragile foldable OLED displays the world has seen, AUO’s foldable OLED display is built using the company’s own patented plastics-based materials, and hence very difficult to break. The picture on the right has featured AUO’s advanced display technology to develop OLED screens that are almost bezel-less – the bezel is only as thick as 0.4mm, making the OLED display look like a piece of fine glass. I fetched these two pictures from this YouTube video[11].Using more advanced materials, AUO’s foldable OLED display isn’t just hard to break. It’s also much more durable as it’s able to fold up to a million times, which means even if you fold an AUO OLED screen 200 times a day, it will still be able to work flawlessly for more than 10 years.This is Motorola’s first foldable smartphone, named RAZR V4, ready to ship this year (2019). This smartphone uses AUO’s foldable OLED display as its 6-inch primary screen.AUO’s taken circular display technology to the next level by introducing the world’s first true circle OLED display. A ‘true’ circle is mathematical and geometrical, and in engineering’s terms, it means the display has much slimmer salient corners compared to a circle display that isn’t a ‘true’ circle. True circle displays enable development of products with smoother and more flexible design.It looks like a piece of real paper put in a real sealed bag that is transparent, but actually this entire thing including the sealed bag is a display - it’s a flexible solar powered e-paper developed by AUO.Another Taiwan’s cutting-edge display technology, a transparent OLED display developed by AUO, at a major tech exhibition in 2018. The display has 68% of transparency, the highest ever in the world. You can watch the full video here[12].AUO's 4K display panel for smartphones. A lot of people may feel it's just pointless to have a 4K resolution screen on a phone since you won't actually notice much difference between definition of 2K and 4K for a display panel that small (about 6 inches at most), but when you put the phones in a smartphone VR headset (like the picture below) to watch videos in VR, it's actually going to make a hell lot of difference. 4K resolution on a 5 - 6 inch panel turns out a ppi figure larger than 700 (whereas 2K is usually 450 - 550 ppi at best), making the graphics finally start to look smooth and the definition start to look great in the VR mode, bringing superb immersion. If you're interested in VR entertainment but not much a gamer, you don't need something pricey like the HTC Vive. Instead, an inexpensive yet great smartphone VR headset will be good enough for VR movies/TV series/videos, but you'll also want to have a smartphone that has a 4K panel for more fabulous experience.Photontree is a Taiwanese brand of smartphone VR headsets. The company of Photontree has bought the design from Google, so the body of Photontree is too made of cardboard, but Photontree uses its own patent lenses (pic below), selling for about 35 USD. Unlike lenses in smartphone VR headsets from other brands, Photontree's lenses alone can enhance visual quality without changing the resolution. Photontree doesn't use any chips and electronics as it really is just a pair of lenses plus a piece of cardboard, as a result this simple product may not be ideal for using interactive media like video games, but it's great for watching any types of videos (including 360-degree vids). Photontree can hold smartphones up to 6 inches, watching high-definition VR videos on a 4K 6 inch smartphone in Photontree with a nice pair of headphones is just like having your own mobile IMAX.Photontree’s lenses (left). I obtained the image from Photontree’s website.Linpus, a computer operational system developed by a Taiwanese software company of the same name – LINPUS. Linpus OS is based on Fedora Linux, which is an open-source model, and hence there’s no copyright or license issue. Linpus is mostly used by Acer laptops. Taiwan’s computer expertise is mostly in the hardware sectors, but that’s not saying we don’t have finely profitable software industries.One of Trend Micro’s most famous products – Trend Micro Maximum Security. Trend Micro’s the largest Taiwanese company that specializes in computer security technology of the consumer market, offering products both for households and enterprises.The Gate of Firmament, a PC/PS4/Xbox One video game receiving favourable reviews. It was originally released in 2015 as the last title of Softstar’s ‘Xuan-Yuan Sword’ series. I’m not a gamer myself but you can buy it on Steam. Softstar’s confirmed the next title of the series will be made with Unreal Engine 4, which according to some gamer friends of mine, is exciting news that could almost bring them orgasm.Successor to The Gate of Firmament, currently in development, release date scheduled in 2019, and will be released on PC/PS4/Xbox One. This is an early leak of in-game graphics.Softstar’s one of the largest Taiwanese video game companies (actually, probably the largest), and has had a long history of making video games. The picture here is ‘Tun Town’, an RPG released on PC in 1998, and was a huge success. Now there are Android/ios editions you can buy on your smartphone.A couple of screenshots of ‘Devotion’, a first-person psychological horror video game released very recently (February 2019), developed by Red Candle Games, given a score of 9.8 out of 10 by IGN, with various game critics remarking ‘a match for the Silent Hill series’.Transcend is a major brand of digital products, offering well-built and high-quality hard disks, memory flash cards, multimedia players, GPS systems, dashboard cameras, etc.A Gigabyte GeForce GTX TITAN Black graphics card.This laptop is the MSI GT83 TITAN 8RG. The only thing about it being a laptop is that it looks like a laptop. In fact, this thing is so powerful that I don’t know what it is. Be careful, it can ruin your life. If you’re considering buying your children laptops, don’t give them this. This thing will make them skip breakfasts, lunches, dinners, school, birthday parties, sleep and everything. You give them this, you take away their lives. I don’t own this image.An Acer Aspire E 15 laptop.The Acer Predator 21 X, making the MSI GT83 TITAN 8RG look like a MacBook out of a MacBook in terms of performance.You know what it means when in your spare time you are a PC gamer who when at work is a hard-working employee or employer? It means you should reward yourself with a luxurious computer monitor. The Acer XR341CK is an advanced, curved, 34-inch, UltraWide QHD monitor. I fetched this picture here from a YouTube video titled ‘Acer XR341CK - Perfection in a monitor?’[13].ASUS ZenBook, you aren’t gonna tell me you don’t know this brand.ASUS ROG MAXIMUS X APEX, price tag says 400 bucks, one of the most top-notch ASUS motherboards that can turn your mediocre computer into a beast, or your beast into a NASA-class one; PC MASTER RACE.As you must know, ASUS is also a smartphone maker. I don’t know about other countries, but in Taiwan, ASUS smartphones are usually in the top 3 (market share). In the picture is an ASUS Zenfone 5Z.ASUS is known for its devices that offer the users superb gaming and visual experience. These are ASUS ROG phones, a series different from the ASUS Zenfones.An ASUS Zenwatch 3, using Google Android Wear. I know you want one.ASUS Zenbo, a home robot, probably one of the very first household robots that can move around by itself. It has some very useful functions. For example, if somebody or something opens your window from the outside when that window is supposed to be close, Zenbo's face will turn alert and inform you that it's possible you may have an intruder. You can also remote-control Zenbo to check the house around when you aren't home or when you've got children to take care of.Pepper is a robot designed by SoftBank and built with Foxconn’s technology.The AI and robot industry is currently among the cynosures of Taiwan’s development roadmap for the next 5-10 years, and so a lot of investment has been going into this field. The three pictures above show a robot (apparently, based on Einstein) developed by a team from a research university (NTU) in Taiwan. This robot is specifically designed to mimic human emotions and facial expressions. What do you think *he* saw?Dr Aja Huang (黃士傑), who after obtaining his doctor’s degree in information engineering from NTNU (台師大), has been acquired by Deepmind (a British company specialising in AI development, now belonging to Google) and become a core engineer in the AlphaGo project. He has designed the most part of AlphaGo, and has been regarded pretty much as the sole creator of this extremely advanced AI system, which has repeatedly, and more often than not, defeated the best Go professionals from Taiwan, Japan, South Korea and China, the first time that AI has defeated human masterminds overwhelmingly. For a very long time, Deepmind didn’t even allow the media to have any contact with him, but soon after the company figured it’d be inevitable for him to go public as AlphaGo gained more popularity, he had become a public figure, and had been invited for speeches, interviews, even movies (picture below).A documentary film on Dr Huang (the person on the left) and AlphaGo, now available on Netflix. The person on the right is Sedol Lee, a Go professional of 9 dan rank from South Korea. Lee has been one of those that AlphaGo has defeated.Dr Huang and his AlphaGo, along with the poster of the documentary film on Netflix, remind me so much of this very popular Japanese anime ‘Hikaru no Go’ (ヒカルの碁) back when I was a high school student. The biggest difference is that Hikaru Shindo didn’t create Fujiwara Sai while Dr Huang did create AlphaGo.Beseye is a company specialising in home security and AI technologies. One of the company’s most famous products is an award-winning webcam system (picture at the top). The webcams themselves can be put anywhere, on the table, or even attached to the wall or underneath the ceiling. The system utilises AI which learns over time by acquainting itself with the environment under its jurisdiction, therefore it’s much more efficient and precise in detecting anomalies, being able to provide early prevention. In fact this product is so advanced that it’s even been used in industry as it can actualise people counting, hot spot analysis, traffic and queue mapping, etc.TSMC wafer production.TSMC seems to be light-years ahead of its competitors.The 3 nm fab of TSMC’s is set to be located in Tainan, Taiwan, and the construction of the fab will start after (environmental) impact assessment is finished in 2018. This is the first 3 nm fab ever to be built in the world, ahead of Intel and the other non-fabless semiconductor companies.VIA QuadCore E C4650 Processor, released in 2015. VIA is a Taiwanese fabless IC company designing CPUs (Central Processing Units), GPUs (Graphics Processing Units) and other computer chipsets. I’ve got to admit when it comes to computer chipset designing, Taiwan isn’t as competitive as America (and basically only America since other countries are pure garbage compared with Taiwan in this area. What I mean by ‘this area’ is ‘consumer markets of computer chipsets’, a battleground way tougher to survive for computer IC-designing companies than other chipset markets because consumer markets don’t allow core cluster. So while China puts more than 40,000 units of its homemade CPUs clustered to manage to build one of the fastest supercomputers in the world, the homegrown CPUs of China’s have zero competitiveness in consumer markets where core cluster just isn’t possible) because it’s a heavily capital-draining industry where Taiwanese companies simply can’t compete on a dollar-for-dollar basis, along with the fact that when VIA entered CPU markets as a novice, Intel and AMD were already titans, which makes the situation even worse (some even say it’s an awful decision of VIA’s to step in the CPU arena in the first place), yet VIA’s still got something to offer. VIA’s chips aim at getting the most work done with the lowest clock speed and raw power possible, and they’ve been doing it pretty well, so people that may initially expect VIA chips to be inexpensive would usually be surprised to find they’re kinda pricey. If you’re only a casual gamer or aren’t a gamer at all, VIA’s processors should be ideal for you. Take the C4650 as an example, it is powerful enough to smoothly run ‘Ashes of Singularity: Escalation’ in directx12 (as opposed to older directx11). ‘Ashes of Singularity: Escalation’ is a beautiful real-time strategy game, a videogame genre where the CPU plays a much more crucial role than the GPU as demanding calculation is required, especially for a game like ‘Ashes of Singularity: Escalation’ featuring massive battle scale. Some say VIA’s x86 processor technologies are from Intel, and hence VIA has to obtain the license from Intel to continue its business. This is a statement that is only half correct – the x86 processor technologies of VIA are completely VIA’s and have nothing to do with Intel. The only reason VIA’s paying money to acquire license from Intel is because being the first IC-designing company realizing the x86 architectures, the latter’s managed to make x86 processor tech its own property by building one of the best lawyer teams specialising in patent laws, leading to all the other processor vendors – including AMD (whose x86 technologies, just like VIA’s, have nothing to do with Intel) - having to continue their processor business under Intel’s license. Over time, most of these companies have died out due to not being competitive enough. Intel can stop authorising VIA and AMD to have them go out the x86 processor market. It hasn’t done so only because the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) will settle charges of anticompetitive conduct against it. As a result, chances are the license contracts between Intel and VIA/AMD will continuously be renewed once expired because Intel’s forced to. So while Intel prays VIA and AMD will slowly get themselves killed just like all those CPU vendors that were once a part of the market who now are nowhere to be found, VIA and AMD however, have survived. Thus here we are, the only 3 firms designing x86 processors in the world: VIA, AMD and Intel – yes, yes, I know there’s this Zhaoxin, a Shanghai-based company producing x86 chips and crushing all the other PRC’s domestic CPU institutes and vendors that can only do clustered processors (supercomputers, eh), but Zhaoxin’s VIA’s company, founded by VIA and a state-owned investment firm in 2013. All the x86 products of Zhaoxin’s are based on VIA technologies, and can only sell under the brand name of VIA on markets out of China. VIA’s releasing a new processor based on 16 nm technology in 2018, which according to the report, will outperform AMD FX 8370 and rival Intel Core i5-6600.Following the KX-6000 released (tape out) last year, the KX-7000 is planned to tape out this year. If there’s anything good about the PRC’s government, it would be that they have the desire to spend their money and sometimes that benefits Taiwanese companies. VIA’s processors are (now) produced in China, but the IP is all from VIA, whose global headquarter and R&D centre are located in New Taipei City. The joint business between VIA and that state-owned investment Chinese company – which results in a Zhaoxin – has slowly brought VIA’s computer processor business back to life. VIA’s never stopped researching and investing in the computer processor technologies, but the company just isn’t resourceful enough to turn their design into actual (and reasonably priced) products and put up a fight against Intel and AMD in the more demanding gaming market. Zhaoxin conveniently lowers tape out/production costs for VIA and also helps doing marketing. The KX-7000 is said to aim at rivaling the last generation processors from AMD, but the price will be lower. That sounds pretty promising actually. As a consumer, I’d say more competition in the market is always welcome. The image here is a VIA Nano X2 L4050, released like almost a decade ago.VIA S3 Chrome 540 GTX, released in 2009, one of VIA’s GPUs. Just as VIA’s CPUs can’t rival Intel’s and AMD’s, its GPUs aren’t as competitive as NVIDIA’s (though the founder of NVIDIA, Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), who’s also the current president and CEO of NVIDIA, is Taiwanese) and ATI’s either, but the fact that VIA’s chipset products are still selling quite well for prices that are far from being ‘inexpensive’ or ‘cheap’ should mean something. If you are only a casual gamer (or, not a gamer at all), the 540 GTX should be a nice choice, and if someday you happen to be in a more hardcore gamer mode, the 540 GTX will still be able to run a game like ‘Alice: Madness Returns’ (a very popular horror game, rating a 9 out of 10 in Steam, and it has favourable graphics) smoothly.UMC (United Microelectronics Corporation) is a major semiconductor company internationally, also the first Taiwanese IC company to have independently developed its own x86 architecture for computer processors in the ‘90s (whereas VIA is a different case because VIA acquired basic x86 IP from Cyrix, an American company that went bankrupt). But UMC didn’t survive Intel’s patent war. These are the technology companies that have once developed their own x86 architecture for computer processors but lost to Intel’s patent attorneys: UMC (Taiwan), NEC (Japan), Fujitsu (Japan), OKI (Japan), Siemens (Germany), STM (France & Italy), C&T (America), Intersil (America), IBM (America), IDT (America), TI (America) and Transmeta (America).When people think of Foxconn, what comes to their mind may be a corporation that does only manufacturing, yet in fact Foxconn’s also an innovative company. The picture above shows the sockets of a CPU. They may look insignificant, but are actually quite important in that they determine the amount of electric signals flowing between the motherboard and the CPU. In other words, they play the ultimate role in charge of the communication between the processor and the other chipsets on the board. Foxconn owns more than 1,000 crucial patents of processor sockets, way more than any other companies in the industry, and as a result, processor-designing companies, including Intel, have to be authorised by Foxconn in this regard.Winbond is a major Taiwanese IC company, specialising in Dynamic RAM, Static RAM, microcontrollers, and personal computer ICs. Being one of the very few semiconductor companies that actually have their own patented root technologies of DRAM developed from scratch, it’s also the second largest supplier of serial flash memory chips globally.MTK Helio X30, launched in early 2017, MediaTek’s last X series chipset for smartphones. The result of Antutu Benchmark has suggested the Helio X30 is on the same level with Qualcomm Snapdragon 821. MTK’s products aren’t the best, but considering MediaTek’s just one medium-sized firm and the capital amount of Qualcomm’s is 93 times bigger than that of MediaTek’s to begin with, I’d say fair enough. MediaTek’s chips are more power-saving and don’t heat up as much as those from Qualcomm.MTK’s going to release Helio P80 and P90, which outperform Helio X30 in almost each and every arena (surprising, because the P serious is supposed to be mainstream chips while the X series aims at flagship phones), and are believed to have been huge threats to Qualcomm. The picture here isn’t the actual Helio P80/P90 but an illustration.The M70 will be MTK’s first chip to support 5G, and is expected to ship in the second half of 2019.SERCOMM is one of the largest Taiwanese companies specialising in development of information and communications technology, also a major supplier of internet connection equipment globally. SERCOMM’s products have now extended into the field of 5G.Thunder Tiger is a major Taiwanese brand of drones, the model in the picture here is the CX-180. The thing about Thunder Tiger’s drones is that all their core components and technologies (GPS chips and multi-signal searching/tracking, image transmitting, gyroscopes, etc) are from Taiwan.We’re still very far from the day when the robots that we make will be advanced enough that they can physically put up a fight against themselves and for us to watch them fight like watching UFC games, but actually, we already have this kind of robots - just much smaller, and you have to control them. The Super Anthony is a fighter humanoid robot, a product of a Taiwanese company (LimitlessIQ), and is crazy popular among fighting robot players all over the world because it’s quick, agile and deadly to its opponents. A Super Anthony can be a perfect Christmas gift for children or teenagers interested in robotics and computer languages (Super Anthonies can be coded to learn new moves, and you can also create your own moves for them), but it’s a little bit expensive, about USD 1,100.Two Super Anthonies battling each other. Players are allowed to ‘decorate’ and ‘arm’ their robots with additional accessories (as you can see, the two Super Anthonies in the picture here look different) in the game with permission. This picture is from LimitlessIQ’s website.Brilliant work done by a fighting robot player who is apparently a fan of the Super Anthony.The Super Anthony 2.0, released just last year (2018), a few hundred bucks more expensive than the first generation, but also more powerful.Gigo, a major plastic construction toy brand (founded in 1976) from Taiwan, also the largest domestic brand to split the market with the Danish Lego. Smart Machines and Future Car are two of Gigo’s most popular boxsets.Gigo’s products are very well designed and have high build-quality. They’re safe and fun to play with, very ideal for children to explore imagination and creativity.The SG 100 Cloud Computer, a space computer independently developed by various Taiwanese research institutes. It beats other space computers developed by Germany, France and Japan respectively in both performance and reliability, and has been the only qualified computer sent by NASA to one of the international space stations to run as the station’s brain in April this year (2017). Apart from this, Taiwan’s currently developing the central computer and AI system for NASA’s unmanned space vehicle that is scheduled to land on the moon in search of water in 2020.Ever wonder how products are made? It can be simplified in this way: build raw components first, and then assemble them into larger components, and then integrate these larger components. This applies to most human-made stuff one can see on the planet, be it a car, a smartphone, a computer, a television or a cargo ship. But how is a component made? In most cases, ever since the British industrial revolution took place hundred years ago, they have been made by machines. Such machines are called ‘machine tools’ and come in all shapes and sizes. A machine tool can be a robotic arm that does a welding job or a truck-sized, oven-looking thing that turns a piece of metal into turbine blades used in a turbocharged car engine. That's why the machines tools are also called ‘mother of all machines’ because they are the pillars of the modern human civilisation when it comes to industrial production. Hence, it's very important for a country to have the capability to build machine tools on its own, otherwise the industry of such a country will be heavily dependent on the nations from which it imports machine tools. Whether a nation can build higher-end machine tools or not is a strong indicator reflected by such a nation’s technological development. Most (well actually, all) developing countries, including China, India, Brazil, Mexico and Turkey, despite having solid industrial productivity, are greatly dependent on economies which are the homes of machine tools. In other words, developing countries can produce goods, but cannot produce (or independently produce) equipment that is adopted to produce goods. That's one of the many ways developed nations make money from the developing ones. Taiwan is the fourth largest machine tool exporter in the world[14], and the second largest by per capita[15].Man setting up a Hartford machine tool, a Taiwanese brand. Modern machine tools are controlled by their specific computers. There’re at least thousands of machine tool manufacturers in the world and only 6 of them can build the computer that controls a machine tool. Hartford is one of the capable ones (picture below).The computer Hartford’s developed for its own machine tools.The computer controlling a higher-end machine tool, which doesn't look all that impressive yet requires more brains, capital and time to build than a super computer or a sports car. This thing alone costs more than half the price of an entire higher-end machine tool charged at 200,000 dollars at minimum. It’s expensive because it’s high-tech and the spirit of a higher-end machine tool. Just imagine, how do you make a robotic arm moving at a speed of 2 metres per second stop at exactly the same point every time it's required to stop without even a mismatch of 0.1 μm (the diameter of a hair is about 50 μm)? Think about it.The machine on the left is a computer controlling a 5-axis machine tool. 5-axis machine tools are at the peak of the pyramid of the entire machine tool industry because they’re the most technologically demanding ones to build, exclusively used in industries of aviation, aerospace and ultra-precision optics (satellites, for example), but when compared to the difficulty of building a computer that controls a 5-axis machine tool, manufacturing a 5-axis machine tool is only a piece of cake. Taiwan, Germany, Japan, America and Italy are the only 5 competitive countries exporting computers controlling 5-axis machine tools. 5-axis machine tools and their computers are controlled items because they’re necessary in military industry. For instance, nothing but a 5-axis machine tool can produce the compressor of a turbofan engine – unless you want to do it by hand like how men in the ancient time did. That being said, an aero compressor not built by machines is doomed to failure.Inside a Goodway machine tool. Goodway is a Taiwanese brand of machine tools, but like most machine tool brands in the world, Goodway hasn’t developed its own controllers. Instead, Goodway machine tools are equipped with controllers from either ITRI (工業技術研究院) or controller manufacturers (such as Heidenhain and Fanuc) depending on what coding systems their clients use. A Goodway turning centre (a type of machine tools) using ITRI’s 5-axis controller developed for high-end industries (most typically, aerospace) can easily cost at least USD 400,000. Only a handful of countries have the capability of independently developing high-end machine tools, and Taiwan is one of them.FEELER is the largest Taiwan-based machine tool company, and the third largest globally[16]. This company has the second highest market value internationally in the industry of machine tools developed for the aerospace industry[17]. The U800 (one of the two machine tools in this picture), no bigger than a regular van and equipped with FEELER’s own controller, is worth USD 340,000.AMS (whose parent company is CHMER, founded in Taichung in the 1970s) is the largest Taiwanese company specialising in development of spark machining equipment, a type of machine tools. AMS’s products have been massively used in the aerospace industry for turbine blade machining (picture below).This picture is from this YouTube video[18], demonstrating AMS’s product (model: AD5L AMS) machining cooling holes on turbine blades. Any kind of machining on an aero turbine blade is very difficult because the blade is made of materials that have very high strength, what makes it worse is turbine blade machining requires high precision, as you can see these holes are pretty small, clean-cut and have well-defined edges. It’s a tremendous challenge technologically to apply such high-precision machining to an aero turbine blade without causing damage around the machined areas (such as breakage or tearing/wearing along edges of these holes). Taiwan and Japan have been the only two countries in Asia that can do this.Aero turbine blades may have been the most difficult objects to produce in all manufacturing industries in that they require all top-notch level technologies in materials engineering, casting (as they have to grow in single-crystal formation) and machining (drilling holes and air channels to build a cooling system inside the blades), and Taiwan is one of the very few countries that have all of these capabilities. The blade in the image above is produced by Rolls-Royce.Taiwan’s machine tools are able to produce items that require subnanometre (smaller than nanometre) positional accuracy, which is a cutting-edge technology that only America, Germany and Japan have successfully developed other than Taiwan[19]. The picture above is from a news story on two Taiwanese scientists’ wining an award at Tokyo Nanotech Exhibition & Conference 2016. How much us humans have progressed industrially since the industrial revelation is just incredible.A robotic arm developed by Foxbot, which is Foxconn’s own brand of industrial robots. Foxconn is the world's largest provider of electronics manufacturing services and the fourth largest information technology company by revenue[20]. This Taiwanese company is this big worldwide because it has its own core technologies and develops its own critical equipment, enabling it to fulfill manufacturing requirements for goods from connectors to high-quality consumer luxuries such as iPhones.Terry Gao, founder of Foxconn. (Terry, Terry, I mean seriously, your companies have contributed a lot to Taiwan and I think in whichever countries it’s all very difficult to find a person that doesn’t use a single thing produced by your companies. And seriously, I respect you when you’re a businessman and an engineer, but I can’t trust you when you’re a president. I mean don’t be ridiculous, just stick to business and manufacturing and forget about the whole presidency thing, what do you say?)This is a mask aligner produced by a Taiwanese company manufacturing the critical equipment for the IT industry. A mask aligner is where the IC wafer is built.In the picture above is a camera of a stepper developed by the Taiwanese IC equipment industry. A stepper is the most expensive critical equipment used in the semiconductor industry, and is literally the synonym of cutting-edge ultra-precision optics technology. The camera of a stepper is the most difficult core stepper component to build. I’m not certain how many countries have their own domestic stepper manufacturers (I’m only referring to manufacturers that can independently develop steppers, so SMEE – a PRC’s state-owned company based in Shanghai - is ruled out as it has to import its cameras from Germany), but if I remember correctly, only Taiwan, Japan, America and the Netherlands provide steppers for the semiconductor industry worldwide. Well, however, the American one has been bought by the Dutch one - ASML (picture below).An ASML stepper, the Dutch should be proud of it.ASML Taiwan branch in New Taipei City. Other than the headquarter located in Veldhoven (the Netherlands), the Taiwan branch of ASML is one of the four ASML branches (two of the other three are in America, located in California and Illinois respectively. The other one is in Shanghai or Beijin) that are in charge of both R&D and manufacturing, just like the headquarter. The other branches and offices in some 13 countries all focus on only one sector. For instance, the Pyoengtaek branch in South Korea is a manufacturing-only location.A stepper at a smaller size built by a Taiwanese IC equipment manufacturer.HMI is a Taiwanese company specialising in front end equipment (FEE) for the semiconductor industry. Developing front end equipment has to meet the highest technological thresholds out of all critical equipment used in the semiconductor industry; front end equipment includes, for example, steppers, etch systems and electrons beam inspection systems. HMI is globally the largest supplier of electrons beam inspection systems and has the highest market value, occupying about 80% of the market, way bigger than its competitors based in America (Applied Materials Inc and KLA-Tenor Corporation) and Japan (Hitachi). In 2016, ASML paid billion USD to buy HMI for the latter’s high technological value, just like what ASML did with the American company Cymer. HMI is still essentially a Taiwanese company as it is in Hsinchu and recruits Taiwanese talents, but it now has a parent company. The image here is an HMI e-beam inspection system.What's more, you may be surprised to find out Taiwan is a powerhouse in terms of military technologies. Taiwan is one of the 6 nations on the planet that can design and build turbofan engines on their own, with the other 5 being the US, UK, Russia, France and Japan. What makes building turbofan engines so technically demanding is the heat that the engine generates when operating. In order to build functioning turbofan engines, a country has to be able to produce alloy materials that can remain strong and resistant to deformation along with oxygenic corrosion under high pressure, high centrifugal force, and a temperature of higher than 1,000 °C. Alloys of the kind are called ‘superalloys’, regarded as strategic materials and how they are made are technologies kept classified from country to country. Metals that are non-superalloys either melt before the heat reaches 800 °C or become incredibly weak and soft after 900 °C no matter how high their melting points may be. This is why China still has to import turbofan engines from Russia despite its having built quite a few fighter jets for some 10 - 15 years already, because it is not within China’s industrial capacity to produce superalloys and thus leads to failed attempts to build functioning homemade turbofan engines. Superalloys for aviation are mainly used to build the turbine blades in the rotating high-pressure turbine of the engine, and these blades are the sole reason why turbofan engines are way more difficult to build than any other kinds of engines humans have invented - including rocket engines that are powerful enough to send space shuttles. There isn't any blade in a rocket engine, as a rocket engine is basically just a powerful nozzle producing thrust, and thus materials ideal for building a rocket engine don't have to endure a crazy centrifugal force or any other major forces; instead, all they have to do is to be able to survive a high temperature for roughly only 15 minutes because rocket engines are only for single use; their missions are finely completed as long as the rocket propelled by the engine can send the space shuttle high enough to escape gravity in 15 minutes after launch, and then the rocket along with its engine will be separated from the shuttle, falling into the sea, becoming complete waste (it can remain partially reusable if it’s an RLS (Reusable Launch System), but will still need rebuilding if intended to go for a second run; so reusable or not, the very nature of rocket engines is still ‘single use’ because partial or complete reconstruction of the engine is inevitable after a launch mission). As a result, any materials that won't melt for at least 15 minutes under a high temperature can do the job; it doesn't have to be superalloys. On the contrary, it would be purely ridiculous if a turbofan engine dies in about 15 minutes after startup. A functioning turbofan engine, unless FOD (Foreign Object Damage; such as a flying bird that gets sucked into the engine and causes internal damage) occurs, should be able to survive a high temperature without any need of repair for at least 10 years, not 15 minutes. Aside from rocket engines, it’s worth mentioning that a lot of people can’t distinguish between turbofan engines and turbojet engines, both of which belong to the jet engine family. Turbojet engines, similar to rocket engines, are only for single use; those of them that aren’t for single use have very short lifespan, which isn’t too much different from being ‘single use’ from the perspectives of aviation and military industry. Also, turbojet engines consume significantly way more fuel than turbofan engines. Although turbojet engines were the main propelling systems adopted by aircraft in the WWII era, they have been completely displaced by turbofan engines ever since technologies of turbofan engines became mature. Turbojet engines are low technology compared with turbofan ones. Plenty of countries that can build turbojet engines, aren’t capable of building turbofan engines, while there isn’t one single nation that has the capability to build turbofan engines, not being able to build turbojet ones. Turbofan engines are simply technologically a whole lot more demanding to develop for they require top-notch alloy materials to reach long lifespan. This is where superalloys come into play. Currently, the species of superalloys for turbofan engines have had 6 generations. The newer the generation, the higher the temperature that can be sustained. The higher the temperature, the larger the thrust, also the longer the engine can hold before a necessarily overhaul maintenance. The first generation of superalloys, developed in America, has a maximum durable temperature of 975 °C. The second generation is at 1,000 °C. A maximum durable temperature of 1,050 °C marks the third generation. The fourth generation can sustain 1,080 °C. The fifth generation is able to handle 1,100 °C. Finally, the last generation - sixth, being the most superior heat-resistant alloy us humans have made thus far, is capable of taking a maximum temperature of 1,150 °C. Now, a new superalloy, ‘HESA’ (High-Entropy Superalloy), has been introduced, named and designed by a group of Taiwanese scientists. HESA is expected to exceed the sixth superalloy generation. The improvement of the maximum durable temperature from generation to generation may seem too small to be significant, but in fact the overall performance and lifespan of the turbofan engine can progress significantly even with a mere 25 °C elevation. In the meantime, many more applications of HESA are being studied, such as its potential to build a technologically newer generation of nuclear reactors - more efficient, powerful and safer. In addition to metallurgy, Taiwan’s advanced IT industry has also ended up successful in independently developing the airborne AESA (Active Electronically Scanned Array) radar, something just like the turbofan engine that only a small number of countries (US, UK, Russia, France, Italy, Germany, Sweden, Israel, Japan and Taiwan, the whole list as of late 2016) are capable of building. The airborne AESA radar is amongst the requirements for the 5th gen jet fighter. The Chinese so-called ‘5th gen fighter jet’ J-20 has no AESA radar as the J-20 has never been proven to actually have any AESA systems; instead it uses what we can confirm China has - the PESA (Passive Electronically Scan Array) radar, which unlike the AESA radar, whose subtle, multi-directional electric signals blend in the environment perfectly, is a huge give-away radiating unnaturally strong, one-directional electric signals that help enemy radar systems and fighter jets locate it. One of the advantages that a fifth gen fighter jet has over a fourth gen fighter jet when battling one-on-one lies in the fact that the former uses an AESA radar system while the latter adopts whatever radar that isn't of the AESA system, resulting in the former’s being able to locate the latter with ease while the latter could neither locate the former nor be warned by its own radar system that it's been locked by the former already. Hence, the airborne AESA radar system is very crucial as it not only outperforms any other kind of radar systems, but it also is one of the main contributions to stealth. No AESA radar, no stealth. South Korea is developing 5th gen jet fighters and planning to directly employ engines from General Electric, but has kinda halted the project after the US rejected offering any help with the AESA technology. Now the Koreans are working with the French in the hope of not having to severely postpone the scheme [Update: in July 2017, Korea's made public that it has successfully developed the AESA radar, with the technological assistance of Israel and France]. In Taiwan, 5th gen jet fighters are scheduled to develop from 2018 - 2028. The NCSIST (National Chung-Shan Institute of Science & Technology) is working on new turbofan engines at a much larger size than the current ones (F125 Turbofan Engine), while both stealth and AESA technologies are already available domestically.A turbine blade made of the Inconel Alloy 718, an advanced superalloy (not sure about which generation it is) that is widely used to build the turbine blades in GE (General Electric) turbofan engines. Aero turbine blades require surgically precise casting and machining technology as you can see there’re a couple of rows of small cooling holes on the surface of the blade, along with a curved air channel beautifully put in the blade (picture C). All of these would not be possible without advanced casting and machining technologies because regular casting/machining doesn’t allow such detailed design. The material itself, Inconel Alloy 718, is even more technologically demanding than the casting. Such a small and thin turbine blade (not bigger than an iPhone 6) made with cutting-edge casting and material technologies, costs more than 10,000 dollars. Three of them can buy you a Benz car.Where the red arrow points at is the turbine section of a turbofan engine, and the blades are coloured blue.Dr Jin-Wei Yeh (葉均蔚), ‘Father of HESA’, who is the man introducing HESA and HEA (the non-superalloy forms of HESA) to the world. Dr Jin-Wei Yeh is a professor at National Tsing Hua University. According to the news where Dr Yeh was inquired by journalists about the applications of HEA/HESA, to which he replied ‘for example, turbine blades and components [used in turbofan engines] having a maximum durable temperature of heat higher than 1,150 °C, which will in return improve the efficiency of the engine by 4%’ (the original text in Mandarin: 例如可耐攝氏1150度C以上、效率再提升4％噴射引擎葉片及零件)[21], we can deduce the exact maximum durable temperature of turbine blades made of HEA/HESA. To increase the thermal efficiency of the turbine of a turbofan engine by 1%, the maximum durable temperature of the turbine blades has to increase by 40 °C. Hence, the maximum durable temperature of HEA/HESA turbine blades is about 1,310 °C, which is 160 °C higher than the sixth gen single-crystal superalloy’s. Taiwan's in the world-leading position in HEA/HESA research.This picture is fetched from the website of NIMS (National Institute for Materials Science), a Japanese organisation located in Tsukuba, Japan. NIMS aims at researching and developing materials that are resistant to heat, along with other features such as high resistance both to forces and corrosion. It is the institute where the fifth and sixth generation of superalloys were born. Since Dr Jin-Wei Yeh (right) introduced HESA, NIMS has been working with him and his team, aiming at developing high-entropy superalloys that exceed the current sixth gen nickel-based single-crystal superalloy (高温用高エントロピー合金の開発). In this picture, the second man from the left, Dr Hideyuki Murakami(村上秀之), represented NIMS’ Advanced High Temperature Materials Division (先進高温材料ユニットは). This picture was shot at National Tsing Hua University in Hsinchu, Taiwan.Dr Yeh’s latest publication, titled ‘Breakthrough Applications of High-Entropy Materials’[22], included in Journal of Materials Research (JMR) released in October 2018, a prestigious academic journal published by Cambridge University Press, has indicated that it is probable that temperature capability of HESA turbine blades can achieve 1,400 °C based on current theories, nearly 100 °C higher than (my) original speculation at 1,310 °C.The Japanese XF9-1 turbofan engine, currently under development. It uses turbine blades made of the sixth generation nickel-based single-crystal superalloy named TMS-238, with a maximum durable temperature at 1,150 °C of heat (translating to about 1,800 °C at the outlet of the combustion chamber). The engine is expected to have 15 tons of maximum thrust, which puts it on about the same level with the engine of the F-22’s (picture below). For the homegrown 5th gen fighter jet, Taiwan’s currently developing turbine blades made of HESA, whose maximum durable temperate of heat is significantly higher than TMS-238’s, and thus the temperate at the outlet of the combustion chamber should be able to climb beyond 1,800 °C. This has made me (a military fan) be eager to know what we can achieve considering our materials are more advanced than those the XF9-1 uses.The F-22 fighter jet, one of the most advanced 5th gen fighter jets on Earth.Turbine blades made of HEA, developed not by Dr Yeh’s team but by another research university (NTU) in Taiwan. These were of the very first HEA turbine blades developed years ago (in the early 2010s, and thus not as advanced as the ones that Dr Yeh's team is currently developing), classified under the same generation as nickel-based single-crystal turbine blades used in turbofan engines such as the CFM56-5 (picture below). Taiwan is one of the only 6 countries (Taiwan, USA, UK, France, Russia, Japan) in the world that have their own patented turbine blade materials technology. Other countries either directly import turbine blades from them or manufacture turbine blades under their licenses.The CFM56-5 turbofan engine.The Airbus 340 is equipped with four CFM56-5.A turbine blade made of the SRR99, a patented nickel-based single-crystal superalloy developed by the UK. Turbine blades made of the SRR99 are used in the RB199 turbofan engine (picture below).The RB199 turbofan engine, employed by the British Tornado GR4 (picture below).The Tornado GR4, one of the most famous in-service combat aircraft, equipped with two RB199.Turbine blade made of the AM3, a nickel-based single-crystal superalloy developed by France, used in the M88 turbofan engine (picture below).The M88 turbofan engine, powering the Dassault Rafale fighter jet (pic below).The Dassault Rafale, France’s pride.Turbine blades made of the ЖС32, Russia’s nickel-based single-crystal superalloy. You can find them in turbofan engines such as the AL-31 (pic below).The AL-31 turbofan engine, adopted by the Su-30 (pic below).The Su-30, one of the finest Russian fighter jets.Turbine section of the EJ200 turbofan engine (pic below). The blades are made of the CMSX-4, a nickel-based single-crystal superalloy developed by America.The EJ200 turbofan engine, powering the Eurofigher Typhoon (pic below).The Eurofighter Typhoon, together with the Dassault Rafale, they’re called ‘the two guardians of Europe’.The F135 turbofan engine, developed by Pratt & Whitney, using turbine blades made of the CMSX-10, an American superalloy. The fighter jet F-35 (pic below) is equipped with the F135.This is the Fat-35 – I mean, the F-35.The XF5–1, a medium-sized turbofan engine, using turbine blades made of the TMS-162, a Japan’s nickel-based single-crystal superalloy. This engine’s thrust-to-weight ratio is as high as 10, which means if it gets resized to be as large as the M88 or EJ200, it will easily produce much larger thrust than they do. The XF5–1 powers the X Shinshin (picture below).The Japanese X Shinshin, not a combat aircraft intended to go in service but as a tech demonstrator before building a real homegrown next-gen fighter jet.HEAs have also been found to have great potential for being used as the structural materials of the fourth generation nuclear reactor. The fourth generation nuclear reactor is still an experimental concept (all the current so-called ‘fourth gen’ nuclear reactors in operation are experimental, and none of them meets the textbook definition of ‘fourth gen’ as the temperature and pressure at the cores of these reactors are too low owing to material problems), and one of the major differences between the fourth gen and the third gen nuclear reactors is the significant increase of heat along with a considerably higher volume of operational radiation, which inflicts way more severe damage on the materials and hence more advanced structural alloys are in demand. There hadn’t been any candidate material for building a true (namely, “non-experimental”) fourth generation nuclear reactor until research from National Tsing Hua University discovered multiple refractory high-entropy alloys were ideal for such desire. Apart from Taiwan’s HEA research for developing fourth generation nuclear reactor structural materials, only America, France and Japan can produce structural materials for the third generation of nuclear reactors although more than 3 countries have sufficient knowledge to design the reactor. China and South Korea being good examples - they can design the third gen reactor, but can’t produce the crucial materials required to build the core.Nuclear fusion has long been the ultimate dream to generate power to the mankind, however it’s yet to be realised owing to manifold obstacles. As of now, the most reliable approach to induce controllable nuclear fusion is to build a Tokamak reactor (the picture above), a structure that looks like a hollowed doughnut, and offer a high-power input of energy to trigger the fusion of the atoms of deuterium and tritium, a manner in which deuterium and tritium atoms will be able to overcome Coulomb’s Law to fuse, resulting in not only a powerful energy output but also heat at a temperature higher than 100,000,000 °C, so hot that no known materials can stand. As a result, scientists have figured out a way to restrain the atoms only to fuse in the very middle area separated by invisible wall of vacuum from the physical walls of the structure (aka ‘First Wall’). One major problem on the way of realising controllable nuclear fusion is there haven’t been any materials suitable enough to build the walls of the reactor because despite being protected by the vacuum layer surrounding the area where the fusion takes place, the heat that the walls have to endure is still higher than 1,000 °C, along with deadly irradiation that results in high-speed neutrons drilling micro-holes in the walls, where alpha particles get trapped and directly lead to the collapse of the materials starting from microstructural level as alpha particles are quite destructively penetrating. Currently, all the experimental reactors of nuclear fusion are made of either ceramics or carborundum – both aren’t ideal as they have their own drawbacks that can’t be ignored. Nevertheless, the birth of HEAs has brought hope for realising electricity generated by nuclear fusion. Research institutes in multiple countries, including Oak Ridge National Laboratory, have reported positively about HEAs being the candidate materials to build nuclear fusion reactors. In fact, some scientists have argued HEAs can be THE materials of nuclear fusion reactors.What metal materials look like under a microscope. As you can see, on microstructural level, metals are composed of grains, defined by what are called grain boundaries. The high-speed alpha particles generated during nuclear fusion can effortlessly penetrate the boundaries among grains, leading to materials’ breakage along grain boundaries, and then gradually the said materials will collapse, completely die. HEAs are the only known metals that can survive this.The superconductor is a material that possesses the ability to float in the air without any propelling systems when certain temperature is reached. Such a property is called ‘diamagnetism’. While it sounds pretty cool and futuristic, there are a lot of problems when it comes to practical use of the superconductor. The two biggest ones are its cost and the energy it consumes. Superconductors are expensive materials. Also, to reach the state of diamagnetism, the temperature of the material has to be kept far below -200 °C, which requires a tremendous amount of energy (it consumes a lot more energy to keep something at a lower temperature than at a higher temperature. Think of your refrigerator and air conditioner as examples as they consume way more energy than any of your other household appliances) and very unpractical. Apart from the cost and energy consumption issues, it's also very difficult to maintain something at an extremely low temperature to begin with as it'll need constant and infinite supply of liquid nitrogen, which then arises storage problems since it needs specific equipment and settings. As a result, scientists have been studying the so-called ‘high-temperature superconductor’ (HTS), but the temperature the HTS requires to reach diamagnetism is as well below -70 °C. However, HEA/HESA have been discovered to potentially possess diamagnetism at room temperature or higher temperatures, which scientists find intriguing because it means someday we may be able to build the first real UFO or similar floating vehicles in human history. Just as Dr Yeh said, ‘in 10 – 15 years, we’ll have Nobel laureates from the field of HEA/HESA’.The history of human civilisation speaks the history of materials. Contrasting with our cave-dwelling ancestors who knew nothing better than stones and rocks, or residents in the Renaissance era that took glass and refined iron for the world, our knowledge’s progressed greatly to an extent to allow us to develop some of the most advanced crucial materials used in the most high-end fields – such as ceramic matrix composites (aerospace, aviation, energy, military, ultra-precision machining), refractory alloys (energy, ultra-precision machining), magnetocaloric materials (aerospace, aviation, military, medicine and critical medical equipment), and superalloys (aerospace, aviation, energy, military). As of late 2017, multiple types of high-entropy materials have been developed – including HEC (high-entropy ceramics), HERA (high-entropy refractory alloys), HEAMM (high-entropy magnetocaloric materials) and HESA - in an attempt to offer alternative materials in their own relevant fields. Studies thus far have suggested in the future it’s highly possible these high-entropy materials will completely displace their conventional counterparts in the same fields judging by the fact they’ve had incredibly high performance and exhibited plenty favourable properties despite being so young.This is the best way I can think of to help people understand the significance of Dr Yeh’s achievement. In this picture, you see an iceberg. While a small part of the iceberg is on the surface, a much larger part of it is underneath. Now imagine the iceberg as a whole represents the space of materials science (just metaphorically all right). Well then, the small part on the surface represents ‘non-high-entropy materials’ whilst ‘high-entropy materials’ is the large part underwater. Before Dr Yeh introduced to the world high-entropy materials, what materials scientists’d been studying was just that small part (and all the materials we’ve been using - steel, semiconductors, superalloys, titanium alloys, glass, gold, ceramics, anything - are all from that small part). Dr Yeh’s achievement means a fundamental theory of materials science is flawed, which unfortunately no other materials scientist ever doubted. This is also a possible reason that some materials existing in theory have yet to be found in real-life - because scientists have been looking into the wrong place! Such as room-temperature superconductors, all mathematical and physics models indicate they exist, but scientists’ve been studying superconductors for more than a century to find no sign of their existence. Hey, it can be that they’re underwater! It’s highly possible room-temperature superconductors are high-entropy materials. Now many major countries, including America, Japan, Germany, France, Britain and even China, have started researching high-entropy materials, and a lot of prestigious institutes are involved, like Oak Ridge National Laboratory, NASA, Air Force Research Laboratory (USA), NIMS, German Engineering Materials Science Centre, etc. High-entropy materials are notoriously difficult to make, though. Dr Yeh’s developed methods to produce high-entropy materials of both good quality and quantity (development of the methods took him 10 years due to great difficulty), and I believe he and his team have patented the methods. This is partially why Taiwan has an edge on other countries in this field. As far as I know, thus far Taiwan’s been the only country that has been able to actually develop products with high-entropy materials. Other countries are still in the laboratory stage owing to quality/quantity problems.Scientists say high-entropy materials are novel materials of the 21st century. What they really mean is high-entropy materials are materials of the future. So, my human fellows, welcome to the future. I sincerely believe Dr Yeh should enroll in the Nobel Prize competition and compete for the Prize in Chemistry or Physics.These are Nobel laureates that were of nationality of the ROC when they obtained the prizes. From left to right (top): Pearl Sydenstricker Buck (Prize in Literature, obtained in 1938), Chen-Ning Yang (Prize in Physics, obtained in 1957), Tsung-Dao Lee (Prize in Physics, obtained in 1957). From left to right (bottom): Chao-Chung Ting (Prize in Physics, obtained in 1976), Yuan-Tseh Lee (Prize in Chemistry, obtained in 1986). The bottom right one is Jin-Wei Yeh, the guy we’ve been talking about. Well, he isn’t a Nobel laureate yet but I really hope to see him end up one.On campus of National Tsing Hua University, where Research Centre of High-Entropy Materials locates, dedicated to develop high-entropy materials, including room-temperature superconductors. Taiwan is small, but can still have an opportunity to make one giant leap for mankind.The WEF (World Economic Forum) has overhauled their approaches to evaluate competitiveness of nations, and in their The Global Competitiveness Report 2018[23], on the assessment of ‘innovation capability’, where most countries have performed poorly or not done as well as they do on the other assessments in the same report, Taiwan, America, Germany and Switzerland have been the only four countries classified as ‘Super Innovators’, each given a score higher than 80 out of 100 (the global median score is 36. The assessment of ‘innovation capability’ has the lowest global median score among all assessments). I take this as a sign indicating Taiwan innately has a better pool of talents considering Taiwan only spends 3.16% of its GDP in the R&D sectors, lower than Japan (3.29%) and South Korea (4.23%), and though higher than China (2.07%) in percentage terms, the absolute amount of money thrown into R&D is – goes without saying - far lower. According to the WEF, Taiwan’s overall competitiveness has ranked fourth in Asia (including Oceania), only behind Singapore, Japan and Hong Kong.Many people don’t truly understand that science and technology are two different things, and that most of the time the former never automatically translates into the latter. Science is theoretical and abstract, while technology is practical and more material. Between science and technology, there’s a gap. Only by filling the gap will the former be able to translate into the other. What is the fundamental cause that makes a developing country be technologically inferior to a developed country, provided both of them are scientifically on the same level just about equally (the developing country can even produce more scientists and send more students to top universities than the developed one)? The fundamental cause lies in the discrepancy of their ability to fill the ‘gap’. The developed country has a way to fill the gap while the developing one doesn’t, and hence, the developed country can translate its scientific knowledge into actual technology while the developing one has to import. What is ‘the way’ to fill the gap, then? It is materials engineering, the key to translate science that exists on paper into actual stuff. The picture above introduces eight individuals. The countries that they come from represent the eight most technologically advanced states in the world. Most of them developed quickly in materials engineering owing to war. In order to survive or conquer, they had to invent some of the most advanced weapons at the time, and to achieve that, they made great effort to develop materials that could turn concept and ideas into actual weaponry. Now long after WWII, we’re living in a world that is sort-of-reasonably peaceful, yet does this fact even slightly influence their dominance? No. Most of their dominance simply has shifted from ‘military’ to ‘industry’, but never faded away. If you opened up a Skoda engine, which is an automobile brand from Czech Republic, you would learn the design is completely Skoda’s, and that the knowledge is Skoda’s, but chances are the core parts – such as the crankshaft – are made of German materials for German materials are much stronger, being able to tolerate more friction and heat. These materials simply make the engine more reliable and more powerful, yet a great portion of the cost of such a Skoda engine will be due to them. In other words, the German materials directly determine not only the quality of the Skoda engine, but also for how much the engine has to be sold to make up for the cost. Or we can simply put it this way: Germany has a say in Czech’s automobile industry. It isn’t like Skoda didn’t try to invent something equally good to replace German materials. It was just Skoda found out what it invented would simply, at the end of the day, turn out to be either noticeably inferior to its German counterparts or already another German invention patented some 10-20 years ago. This is called ‘patent blockage’, how a country industrialised pre-WWII maintains the upper hand technologically, by patenting as many things as possible, using the chance when countries industrialised post-WWII were still in poverty. This is worldwide phenomenon. China and South Korea have full knowledge to design 3rd gen nuclear reactors, but the crucial materials used to build the core are imported from GE and HITACHI. It really is just as simple as this - materials from countries industrialised pre-WWII, translate science on paper into actual technology. It is the discrepancy of the ability to fill the ‘gap’ between science and technology that makes the fundamental difference between a developed country and a developing one, or between a developed country industrialised pre-WWII and one experiencing industrialisation much later. It is good that Taiwan’s effort put in materials engineering has started to pay off, that Taiwan’s been a game-changer by introducing high-entropy materials. Such materials will be a fundamental breakthrough for current turbine systems as nickel-based superalloys have reached their limit. They’re also revolutionary for any industries requiring parts and components that can work in extreme environments – these will cover most of the aerospace industry, the energy industry, the marine industry, the defense industry, the petrochemical industry, and so on. Restrained by its own size, Taiwan naturally has more limitation in areas that need a lot of capital investment, like, Taiwan is too small a country to be economically capable of building a commercial 4th gen nuclear reactor in any near future (and, nuclear energy’s sorta not welcome here, either, for now at least) – for instance, a fast breeder reactor would easily cost more than 5 billion USD, and it’s only experimental. But by being a patent holder of the crucial materials required to build the cores of such reactors, Taiwan will still put itself at the ultimate top of the food chain. Innovation is not when you make a bendable smartphone. It is when your invention directly decides how mankind will develop their civilisation for the future, just like the Wright brothers with their Wright Flyer 115 years ago.Due to more sophisticated materials technology developed for warfare, countries industrialised pre-WWII are usually much more advanced than those pro-WWII in industries where parts and components have to work in extreme environments. In the image above is the Korean K9 Thunder (sold to Norway), a howitzer powered by an MTU diesel engine. MTU is a German company. Unlike civilian automobiles, armour vehicles require much more horsepower as they’re much heavier, but producing such big power, the engine will generate more heat and forces (like, stronger friction and collision between parts), and therefore the parts have to be made of materials that can survive in such brutal working environment. This is the reason that despite having produced quite some diesel cars already, South Korea still isn’t able to build a military diesel engine as materials used to build parts in civilian diesel engines simply can’t survive in a military one. Utilising high-entropy alloys, Taiwan’s ITRI (工業技術研究院) is developing propelling systems for marine military vehicles – diesel.As you can see in this picture, the core (that thing that looks like a metal rubbish bin) of a modern naval reactor (post-1980) is much smaller than one for a nuclear power plant, which is a bad thing because at such a small size, it wouldn’t be able to produce enough power to propel a military ship. However, America’s figured out a way to overcome this problem by simply allowing the core to have more neutrons colliding with more uranium-235. Yet this is something easy in theory but actually very difficult to do in reality as it would generate much more irradiation than a modern 3rd gen nuclear power plant - density-wise. What materials are you going to use to build the core? They can be easily damaged. It took America a little while to invent materials that are more irradiation-resisting than those used to build the core for a 3rd gen nuclear power plant. I think I’ve mentioned above that Taiwan’s developed high-entropy alloys that can sustain irradiation level of a non-experimental 4th generation nuclear core, which means, theoretically, Taiwan would have a high chance succeeding in developing a naval reactor if Taiwan had the money and the need. Ships powered by naval reactors are usually of blue-water navy, and Taiwan doesn’t need that. Green-water navy will do.The most crucial parts in any turbine systems are the turbine blades as they have to sustain a high temperature, along with a large centrifugal force especially when the rotor reaches around its maximum rotating speed. Thus far, turbine blades are made of nickel-based superalloys for they can maintain high strength even at a high temperature, but nickel-based superalloys have reached their limit in turbine applications. This has something to do with the simple fact that while the most advanced nickel-based material can help elevate the temperature at the outlet of combustion chamber up to 1,800 °C, no nickel-based materials can directly sustain a turbine higher than 1,455 °C because that’s the melting point of nickel. High-entropy superalloys, like nickel-based superalloys, can maintain high strength in a high-temperature environment, yet unlike nickel-based superalloys, so far their possible highest melting points have been reported to be beyond 1,726 °C. High-entropy superalloys should be able to help develop turbofan engines for fighter jets of future generations.Thus far, SiC matrix composites have been the materials that come closest to high-entropy materials in terms of potential for turbine applications. It’s pretty impressive actually, because I remember a few years back CMCs still had brittleness problem and now the industry has overcome it. Current heat capability of SiC matrix composites is at about 1,300 °C, and engineers in the aerospace industry have been working hard on trying to elevate it up to 1,482 °C[24] (which seems to be the limit), while in the meantime, studies have found refractory high-entropy alloys (RHEAs) that remain strong at 1,600 °C, such as this study[25] from Air Force Research Laboratory (USA).Ultra-High Temperature Ceramics (UHTC) are poor at retaining strength against major forces in a high-temperature environment, but they’re the most heat-resisting materials that humans have invented if we simply look at their melting points, and are tough enough to bear a strong drag as long as the temperature is below their melting points. So while you can’t use UHTC to build a turbine blade - which has to endure a large centrifugal force, you can use them to build space shuttles or any space vehicles that just have to penetrate the atmosphere of a planet. Space vehicles designed to penetrate the atmosphere are mainly made of UHTC, whose melting point is about 3,100 °C. That’s good enough to penetrate most planets and the Earth, where atmospheres aren’t thick enough to have the heat accumulating around a penetrating vehicle rise beyond 3,000 °C (in fact, most planets we have discovered have thinner atmospheres than the Earth). Now High-Entropy Ultra-High Temperature Ceramics (High-Entropy UHTC) are under development, with a projection of the melting point to be much higher than 4,000 °C, hopefully to replace hafnium carbide (hfc) as the known most heat-resisting materials. And unlike hfc, High-Entropy UHTC will have much better resistance to oxidation, which is a favourable property because that means we’ll be able to build space vehicles that not only can safely penetrate planets having layered and much thicker atmospheres composed of large portions of oxygen, but can also last long on such planets provided they offer an oxygen-abundant natural environment. Planets like this can be habitable.High temperature isn’t the only enemy of metals. In fact, something completely opposite can also cause great damage to metal materials – low temperature. Metals, when put in an environment colder than -50 °C, they start to become harder, but the strength will reduce. At around -90 °C, metal materials lose pretty much all their strength already, which means they become brittle and can be easily broken or cracked no matter how hard they are, making them completely useless materials. However, high-entropy alloys have something uncommon, that some of them actually obtain more strength as the temperature goes down. There have been high-entropy alloys reported to have good strength even at a temperature as low as -196 °C[26]. That’s not absolute zero but you get the idea – just incredible.As a planet that barely any warmth from the sun can reach, the surface of Saturn at the lowest temperature is about -173 °C. This means high-entropy alloys will be reliable and long-lasting metal materials if someday humans happen to want to build something on Saturn or planets that have similar environments to Saturn’s.Nuclear fusion requires a zero-resistance environment for electrons to move, but thus far, a zero-resistance environment for electrons won’t happen unless the temperature is kept at -273.15 °C – that’s absolute zero (so a part of a fusion reactor is very cold, while the other parts are very hot. Hmm, this reminds me of one of my exes), which can damage the metal materials used to build the cold part. This just adds one more technical problem to overcome for humans’ stone-aged fusion technology. Other than having high resistance to heat and irradiation, one thing about high-entropy alloys for their potential to be used as the structural materials of nuclear fusion reactors is that - just as I’ve mentioned - some of them have been found to gain more strength as the temperature goes down below -50 °C. They don’t simply maintain good strength at low temperature. Instead, they actually become stronger for it.Machine tools are the pillars of manufacturing as most artifacts are produced by them, for instance, in this picture you see a drill and a compressor blade (supposed to be made of titanium. Note, a compressor blade is NOT a turbine blade). The drill is a part of the machine tool, and the blade is made by it, called the ‘target item’. The most important quality about a machine tool is its precision, which directly determines such a machine tool’s value. The precision of a machine tool is basically determined by two things. One is the controller (computer) that controls it. The other is the materials used to build the machine tool itself. But it’s mostly the latter that determines the precision. Take the drill as an example. The drill, working at 2,000 rpm (revolutions per minute), when it’s machining the target item, there’s going to be a lot of heat generated on the surface of the drill and the target item owing to friction between them. This will lead to thermal expansion both of the drill and the target, causing minor distortion, which becomes a precision problem (‘loss of precision’). Precision loss can be only temporary or permanent. So far, cutting fluid (picture below) is used by all machine tool manufacturers to prevent thermal expansion, but this method has a few serious drawbacks. A better and fundamental way to improve precision will be to directly change the materials of the drill. But this is difficult as most metal materials are quite sensitive to thermal change. Yet, high-entropy alloys are found to have much lower coefficients of thermal expansion in comparison with other metals, and hence based on high-entropy alloys, the Taiwanese machine tool industry’s developing machines that will no longer need cutting fluid.This is a German machine tool, but the liquid isn’t beer mixed with blueberries. It’s cutting fluid, and the main function of it is to remove heat remained on the surface of the parts to prevent precision loss due to thermal expansion. One major problem using cutting fluid is that although it’s managed to deactivate thermal expansion, the fluid itself can contaminate the target item. This is a very serious issue for industries that have high demand for material purity and cleanness such as optics and aerospace. Germany (and maybe also Japan) has developed very expensive machine tools that ‘almost’ don’t need such fluid, which means they still do, just only minimum. These machine tools are mainly used in fields requiring ultra-high precision like development of spy satellites and some weaponry. As Taiwan’s developing machine tools that can completely get rid of cutting fluid, using high-entropy alloys, soon we will be taking market from Germany.Other than the machine tool industry, another industry greatly relying on materials to maintain high precision is the semiconductor industry. As you can see, there’s a piece of wafer in the picture above, and apparently it’s not used yet as it looks completely blank like a mirror. When it’s used, it’ll look like the picture below.ICs (integrated circuits) are printed on wafers and give them a colourful appearance. Every square represents a circuit diagram. They look like maps of small towns, don’t you think?To better explain why the semiconductor industry relies on materials to maintain or even achieve higher precision (7 nm, and now TSMC’s going down to 3 nm! Blimey!), let’s look at the picture here. The blue part, or the ‘floor’, is the wafer. The ICs, with their structures and logic, which give them functions, are built (printed/projected) on it, just like a building. We’re talking about nanometre, so everything is very small. Now, heat exists, in the environment, everywhere. When it gets higher, the environment results in a higher temperature. When it gets lower, the environment results in a lower temperature. Heat is always getting higher or lower, which means substances are constantly influenced by environmental temperature. So they expand and shrink due to thermal expansion, all the time, and never stop. Sometimes, the changes in their sizes are significant enough for us to observe (mostly you hear them, like your wardrobe makes sound of cracks shortly after you turn on the air-conditioning. Well, that’s because it shrank). But most of the time, you won’t notice the effect that thermal change imposes upon the substances around you because they’re too insignificant. Yet, for IC manufacturing, we’re talking about nanometre, so any changes in the size of the wafer where the ICs are built will be significant. A 1/10000 °C fluctuation of environmental temperature is more than enough to cause significant change to the size of the wafer, to an extent that it can destroy the ICs built upon it. What’s worse is that thermal change doesn’t just come from the environment. The machines (steppers, mask aligners and etc) that print the ICs on the wafer, or the machines that hold the wafer, generate heat too, and so their own temperatures constantly change as well. These all cause expansion and shrinkage of the wafer. How on earth are you going to build the ICs - something that is structured so complicated and demands the highest possible precision - on a wafer that is constantly doing some nanometric earthquakes and stretches? The wafer is never static. This can cause precision loss, meaning basically the whole ICs on the wafer are ruined, resulting in poor yield rates, which are exactly what have failed Globalfoundries, Intel and all those non-Taiwanese IC manufacturers. Therefore, wafers are usually made of materials insensitive to thermal change, and the higher the precision, the more insensitive to thermal change the wafers will have to be (thermal expansion isn’t the only single factor contributing to poor yield rates, but it’s one of the most significant ones, and basically all these factors – thermal expansion or not – have been directly related to semiconductor manufacturers’ capabilities in materials technology). No one can beat TSMC on this.I think many people probably have heard that due to physical constraint, the highest precision that the semiconductor industry can achieve would be just 3 nm, anything smaller isn’t achievable. There’re many possible theories to this, one of which is thermal expansion of the integrated circuits themselves caused by electron activity in them. I’m no expert, but I’m pretty sure there has been research that attempts to develop high-entropy semiconductors in light of high-entropy materials’ extreme insensitivity to thermal change.In June 2018, the ECCT (European Chamber of Commerce Taiwan) hosted a Premium Event lunch with guest speaker Dr Morris Chang, Founder of TSMC. The theories on physical constraint regarding nanometre manufacturing of IC were first heard in 2015, and it turned out TSMC has had major breakthrough. At the lunch, Dr Chang said that he was confident that TSMC would successfully produce the next generation of 5 nm microchips by 2020, 3 nm by 2022 or 2023 and 2 nm by 2025[27].The semiconductor industry can be divided into two domains, one being the design sector, the other being the manufacturing sector. America, the country that Intel, AMD and Qualcomm call home, is the sole leading country in the design sector, with Taiwan being a remote second as Taiwan’s VIA (a computer CPU/GPU designer. One of the only three in the whole world) and MediaTek are apparently not in the same league as those from America. In the manufacturing sector, where the design on paper is built into real stuff that you can use, the sole leading country is Taiwan, the only country that has had the technological capability to touch anything smaller than 7 nm process, while other countries still struggle with poor yield rates, a critical problem most likely caused by their lower capability in a fundamental science – materials engineering. The technological gap between TSMC and all the other IC manufacturers from any parts of the globe only becomes more obvious and much bigger as computer technology progresses into smaller process year after year. Even America has surrendered, who’s next?At VLSI Symposium 2019 held in Kyoto, TSMC (left) has introduced its first self-designed computer chip[28] (the picture on the right is the chip’s layout), based on 7 nm process. The chip’s highest clock rate is 4 GHz. We don’t know whether this chip is supposed to be a technological demonstrator to show TSMC has the capabilities of designing high-performance computer chips, or this is a sign that likely suggests it’s possible TSMC may enter the chip-designing business in the future. What we know is this chip is designed for HPC (high performance computing), not for the consumer markets.Taiwan cares a lot about every move of TSMC. In the picture above is ITRI (Industrial Technology Research Institute), which has maintained close partnership with TSMC since 1987. When TSMC was about to decide where to locate its 3 nm fabs and when everyone was guessing, ITRI commented that TSMC would be much more careful choosing the location out of the whole world for its 3 nm fabs than for, say, 7 nm or 5 nm fabs, because 3 nm was on a completely different level as 3 nm was only a step away from the field of QC (Quantum Computing), the ultimate area of computer technology. ITRI said TSMC would only choose a place that it thought had the most potential for QC development, and stated TSMC might not even use silicon anymore. Instead, TSMC would use different materials in development of QC. Dr Morris Chang was the president of ITRI from 1985 to 1988.Quantum computers probably need 10 more years to get mature, but it’s certain that the quantum computer will be the next stage of mankind’s computer technologies. Taiwan is already one of the leading countries in computer technologies of this generation, so there’s no point not to continue this advantageous position of ours in the next generation. Taiwan’s plan for quantum computers is to introduce mature products/processes in 10 years. TSMC is in.High-entropy alloys have high hardness, and therefore will benefit industries that appreciate such a property. In the image above is a Challenger 2, a British main battle tank employing the 2nd generation of chobham armour. Chobham armour is developed by America and has been the known hardest armour for any battle vehicles – at 714 HV. Various high-entropy alloys that can be used in the defense industry have been reported to have greater hardness. For one, a high-entropy alloy consisting of Fe, Ni, Cr, Mn and Si has its hardness measured at 945 HV.High-entropy alloys are materials born to survive in extreme environment in that they are not only highly resistant to heat and irradiation, but also to corrosion and pressure. The picture here shows the landscape of Venus, whose natural environment can’t be more deadly to any known life as the average temperature is as high as 450 °C, along with 9000 kpa of atmospheric pressure, which is 90 times greater than the Earth’s, combining with acid rain every now and then. The Venera 13, a probe landing on Venus in 1982, managed to maintain operational for roughly 127 minutes, and then died. There have been various light-weighted (and hence ideal as structural materials of aerospace vehicles) high-entropy alloys reported to show potential to survive in such an alien and extreme environment.If we don’t take into consideration the other mechanical properties of high-entropy alloys, instead we simply look at their ability to sustain pressure, then thus far, the reported strongest high-entropy alloy against pressure has been developed by US Forces, at yield strength of 5,900 Mpa. The Seawolf-class submarine (as in the picture here) is made of HY-130, an America-developed metal material highly resistant to pressure, which being at yield strength of 900 Mpa, is capable of surviving 9,000 times that of the Earth’s atmospheric pressure. But HY-130 is too heavy to have applications in aerospace.The German Type 214 is made of HY-100, at yield strength of 690 Mpa. The Germans most likely developed HY-100 themselves, but since Americans are the inventor and patent holder of the HY series materials, Germany still has to pay royalty to America.In the picture above is an experimental fast breeder reactor under construction, and the big metal hollow cylinder in the middle of the pic is its core. Fast breeder reactors are a type of the 4th generation nuclear reactor. Taiwan’s developed high-entropy alloys suitable to be used as the structural materials of the 4th generation nuclear core for their extremely high resistance to irradiation.Earlier this month (April, 2019), it’s been reported that material scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory have discovered a tungsten-based high-entropy alloy that has exhibited incredibly high resistance to radiation that the world has never seen before. The research team believes this alloy can be ideal for building the interiors of magnetic fusion reactors. The report has described this high-entropy alloy’s ability to resist radiation as ‘unprecedented’ and said ‘it defies radiation’. You can take a brief look at this study here[29] if you are interested.High-entropy alloys are superconductors. As I’ve said before, superconductors exhibit diamagnetism only when their temperatures are kept far below -100 °C, usually below -200 °C. This is because at such a low temperature, superconductors lose the kinetic energy of everything inside them, and hence electrons will encounter little to no resistance (which is usually caused by kinetic energy) moving through them when they’re dead-cold. Such an extremely low level of electrical resistance triggers diamagnetism to happen. High-entropy alloys have been discovered to maintain low kinetic energy internally even at higher temperatures as long as pressurization is applied to them. A research team from Tokyo Metropolitan University[30] has found the temperatures for their superconductors to activate diamagnetism rise simply owing to addition of layered high-entropy alloys. According to the team, the rise in temperature isn’t much, but significant enough to measure. This is incredible, that simply adding one or two layers of something could directly cause the temperature triggering diamagnetism to rise. As for Taiwan, one thing I’m sure is that there’re research teams studying high-entropy superconductors, and their ultimate goal is to develop room-temperature superconductors – so that we will be able to build flying saucers – and of course - to win a Nobel Prize. Never should we forget what Dr Yeh’s said: ‘in 10 – 15 years, we’ll have Nobel laureates from the field of HEA/HESA’ (original words in Mandarin: 在未來10至15年之內，高熵領域將可望產生諾貝爾獎得主).The red arrow points out a very interesting comment, it has me recall what Dr Yeh said back in June 2 years ago when he was interviewed by journalists: ‘now that we have lighter and more heat-resisting high-entropy alloys and superconductors, we’ll be able to develop aircraft similar to flying saucers someday’ (original words in Mandarin: 有了更輕、耐高溫的高熵合金以及超導材料，有一天我們也能造出類似飛碟的碟型飛行器).High-entropy superconductors have attractive magnetic properties, and are considered candidate materials for development of more advanced magnetic applications. When it comes to magnetic materials, one important quality to look for is the strength of the magnetic fields that the materials are capable of forming. Human technology based on magnetic superconductors relies greatly on the strength of the formed magnetic fields, such as maglev systems and particle accelerators in that they need a powerful magnetic field to reach high speed. The Earth itself is a giant magnet, generating 0.25 - 0.65 G (Gaus) of magnetic field when measured on the ground.A Japan’s maglev system, using magnetic superconductors capable of generating 1 G of magnetic field maximum.The famous Large Hadron Collider (LHC), a particle accelerator located in Europe, crossing the border between France and Switzerland, producing antimatter by having high-speed particles collide with each other. To accelerate the particles to reach a speed near the speed of light, the LHC uses magnetic superconductors generating 83,300 G of magnetic field maximum, which is one of the reasons that the entire set is underground in case people living in that area start reporting alien phenomenon (‘all my electronic stuff acted weirdly all of a sudden, and the clock even stopped!’) Every time the LHC is initiated and operated. One of Dr Yeh’s graduated students has developed a high-entropy magnetic superconductor that can form 90,000 G of magnetic field. Bear in mind that high-entropy materials are still quite young in history of materials science, so I’m very confident we’ll find something even better as more scientists join this field.One thing you have to understand about metals is that if they’re strong, they are heavy too, and so using the same analogy, it’s not difficult for anyone to realise that if a metal is light-weighted, it is weak. Yet, high-entropy alloys are very alien metal materials as if they were not from the Earth in that while they have higher strength and hardness, they’re much lighter than their non-high-entropy counterparts. This is because of a fundamental mechanical property of high-entropy alloys: very low density. Such a property of high-entropy alloys will benefit greatly any industries that need strong parts and components but can’t tolerate even just a few more pounds added as side effect.Now I’m going to talk about the most important property of high-entropy alloys. Sure, high-entropy alloys may have high strength, high hardness, great resistance to heat and pressure, and can survive in an environment that is dangerously corrosive and has deadly volume of irradiation that can easily destroy any other metals, but none of these will matter if high-entropy alloys are expensive materials. Us humans have never lacked of new materials that exhibit one or even more favourable properties that high-entropy alloys have, yet most of these materials never go into industry from laboratory stage due to one simple reason: high costs. Nobody is going to use a material – no matter how good it is – if at the end of the day the profit shrinks because of using it, or simply because the costs are too high for the budget to support. However, thanks to having very low density, high-entropy alloys are much cheaper than their non-high-entropy counterparts. For instance, a turbine blade made of high-entropy superalloys can easily be 25% - 50% cheaper than one made of nickel-based single-crystal superalloys of the same generation. What does this mean? It means gold (money).High-entropy alloys and high-entropy materials have a wide range of applications, from industries that require parts and components to work in extreme environment, such as aerospace, automobile, defense, energy, to industries that demand high precision, such as machining and semiconductor, and even extend to what people see in daily life, such as culinary appliances, construction and sports. These will all bring economic benefit to Taiwan, the national origin of high-entropy materials.The Babylonians, a once prosperous people that created majestic civilisation, when encountered the Hittites, who used weapons made of iron, a material that the Babylonians didn’t have the knowledge of making as they could only produce bronze ware, an inferior material, the Babylonians resulted in total annihilation.This picture was shot at EVERGREEN (a Taiwanese Airline), but it’s EGAT – a subsidiary of EVERGREEN’s – being responsible for the airplane in the picture. EGAT’s one of the largest companies specializing in aircraft maintenance and modifications in the world. The airplane here is an EGAT-modified Boeing 747, renamed as Boeing 747-400 LCF, also known as ‘Boeing 747 Dreamlifter’, a wide-body cargo aircraft used to transport airplanes. This shows the capability of Taiwan’s aviation engineering industry.An illustration showing how exactly the Dreamlifter does its job, as you can see, a fuselage segment of an airplane – being the ‘cargo’ of the Dreamlifter’s – is stuffed into the Dreamlifter while the Dreamlifter is wide open. The ‘cargo’ here is supposed to be a segment of a Boeing 787.Turbofan engine F125 (aka TFE1042–70), developed by the AIDC (Taiwan) and Honeywell (US) in the ‘80s, with its IPR (Intellectual Property Right) owned by both companies.It would be disrespectful to learn Taiwan’s history of F125 development without introducing this scientist - Dr Wen-Hsing Huang (黃文星). Dr Huang went to America to pursue his studies of materials engineering and obtained his master’s and doctor’s from University of Pittsburgh after graduating from NCKU (成大). He briefly joined NCSIST after going back to Taiwan in the ‘90s, during which he helped the research team successfully develop Taiwan’s first nickel-based single-crystal superalloy[31] that could be used to build turbine blades (picture below) on a par with those in the F125, the core technology that America refused to transfer in development of the engine. He made Taiwan become one of the handful countries in the world - and one of the two in Asia - that could independently develop turbofan engines, which still remains the same today. He was productive and had won many prizes. On May 13, 2017, his body and separated right arm were found lying on the ground near the building of the department of materials engineering by a student who was about to head home from NCKU in the evening[32], the university he had taught at for years. He developed depression in his later years and took his own life that day, jumping to his death.The image above is fetched from NCSIST’s website. It’s a turbine blade made of the nickel-based single-crystal superalloy that Dr Huang and the team under his leadership developed in the ‘90s. These blades have been used in the F125 ever since.Four pictures of the Indigenous Defense Fighter (exhibiting 2 different kinds of painting - airshow and regular). The Indigenous Defense Fighter is commonly known as the IDF, the first 4th gen fighter jet Taiwan’s built cooperating with the US in the ‘80s. Due to its aerodynamic design, the IDF has much lower RCS (the lower the better) compared with most other mainstream 4th gen fighter jets, and plays a very crucial role in the Taiwanese Air force because it’s the only fighter jet we’ve got that can carry air-to-surface cruise missiles (picture below) while neither the F-16 nor Mirage 2000 can as both the US and France wouldn’t sell weapons that are attack-oriented to us. There’s a project to upgrade the IDF by equipping it with homegrown airborne AESA radar, which will redefine the IDF as a 4.5th gen fighter jet much like the F-16V (do notice, different countries have their own numeric naming systems of fighter jet generation. A 4th gen fighter jet in America and Western Europe is called a 3rd gen jet in Russia and China. As for Taiwan, we call the America/Western Europe 4th gen ‘2nd gen’, and the 5th gen ‘3rd gen’. Hence the IDF is a 4th gen fighter jet based on US definition, a 3rd gen fighter jet based on Russia definition, and a 2nd gen one according to us).The homegrown Wan-Chien Air-to-Surface Cruise Missile (there’s a serial code that reads WJI-7E-002 on it), with an operational range of 200 km, mainly aimed at terminating the runways of enemy airports to destruct the enemy’s capability of air force. The Wan-Chien Air-to-Surface Cruise Missile is a kind of cluster munitions, a weapon type that is banned internationally but quite a few countries don’t bother, which includes the US itself. The Wan-Chien Air-to-Surface Cruise Missile cannot be carried by the F-16 or Mirage 2000 because the missile and the vehicle are of two incompatible systems – which means if we wanted to equip the F-16 or Mirage 2000 with this missile, we would have to ask the US and France for F-16’s and Mirage 2000’s source code.The homegrown Tien-Chien II Air-to-Air Missile, with a speed of 4 Mach and an operational range of more than 100 km (enhanced version), carried by the IDF. Together with the Wan-Chien Air-to-Surface Missile, it makes the IDF the only true multi-role fighter jet in the Taiwanese Air Force.The advanced trainer XAT-5, currently in development by the NCSIST and AIDC. The first flight is scheduled in June, 2020. Development of the XAT-5 means a lot to the Taiwanese aerospace industry for it is the first time that Taiwan has completely by itself been in charge of the structural and aerodynamic design of a manned high-performance military aircraft. So far, Taiwan and Japan have been the only 2 countries that can independently develop manned military aircraft (4th generation and after) in Asia. It’s been officially confirmed that the XAT-5 will be able to launch air-to-air and air-to-ground missiles, in other words, not a pure trainer.The M-346 Master, an Italy-designed advanced trainer powered by the Honeywell F-124 turbofan engine. Instead of domestically developing an advanced trainer, Taiwan originally considered buying the M-346 as the M-346 had been the best-sold advanced trainer worldwide and great for its role, and as Taiwan’s one of the two national origins of the F125 turbofan engine, there’d be no logistical difficulties (learning curves) at all for Taiwan to maintain or repair an aircraft powered by the F-124, a technologically downgraded version of the F125. Not only that, Leonardo S.p.A (developer of the M-346) had also done its best to please Taiwan as Leonardo S.p.A agreed all the terms that Taiwan proposed (including locally-manufacturing for the core parts, not just assembly), along with offering a very nice price (almost dirt-cheap) for the M-346 itself, much cheaper than how much the same aircraft was sold for to Poland, Singapore and Israel. This was because Leonardo S.p.A was well aware that Taiwan could just independently develop an advanced trainer itself and hence for Taiwan the M-346 wasn’t necessarily an option if not cheap and the terms not being ‘customer-friendly’ enough. Anyway, at the end of the day, quite unfortunately for Leonardo S.p.A that despite its having been pleasing this potential buyer in every way possible, Taiwan still decided to domestically develop what it needed - so there it is, the XAT-5. In comparison with the M-346, the XAT-5 has clearly more characteristics of a fighter jet in that the XAT-5 is longer, thinner, slimmer, sharper and more pointy like a spear while the M-346 is shorter, thicker, fatter and rounder, which already makes a difference between them - the XAT-5 is supersonic while the M-346 is not.As Taiwan’s very advanced in materials technology, the XAT-5 has been officially confirmed to massively employ the newest generation of AIDC’s composite materials, which is the main reason that despite the XAT-5, like most trainers, will not be equipped with afterburners, it can still obtain a velocity beyond 1 Mach at its top speed in that AIDC’s composite materials make the XAT-5 very light-weighted. Contrasting with the XAT-5, the M-346 can only reach 0.85 Mach at its top speed. Do notice, top speed isn’t cruise speed because no aircraft cruise at top speed. The picture above isn’t from AIDC.The advanced trainer AT-3 MAX, one of the two design (the other being the XAT-5) proposed by the NCSIST and AIDC for Taiwan’s next-gen homegrown advanced trainer. As you can see, the AT-3 MAX appears more like a typical trainer than does the XAT-5 in that like the M-346, the AT-3 MAX is short, thick, fat and round. The competition among the AT-3 MAX, XAT-5 and M-346 ended with the ROC Air Force favouring the XAT-5.September 23, 2019, the first fresh-off-the-production-line XAT-5 was unveiled. First flight scheduled for June 2020.Turbofan engine ‘Kun-Peng’, developed by the NCSIST in the 90′s, used by cruise missiles and the UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle). Turbofan engines for cruise missiles and the UAVs are metallurgically more difficult to build than the ones for fighter jets because the former generates a higher temperature due to a much higher compression ratio caused by the engine’s smaller size. Taiwan’s one of the two Asian nations (the other being Japan) that are advanced enough in materials science to be able to domestically develop turbofan engines.Because most countries don’t formally have a diplomatic relation with Taiwan, I mean - well, with the ROC, which means Taiwan, I mean - well, the ROC, isn’t recognised by most states as a state, Taiwan’s never going to sell arms except for individual weapons downgraded to be civilian versions (and renamed, for instance, the T91 Assault Rifle, picture below). But there’re still a couple of countries that are interested in Taiwan’s defense technology. One example is Turkey. Turkey was willing to pay a large sum of money for Taiwan to transfer technology of turbofan engines.The T91 Assault Rifle. It’s been sold to America but downgraded to fit civilian use and renamed as ‘Wolf A1’. If you’re in America and want a nice rifle, check it out - but do make sure the gun barrel is made in Taiwan because there’re YouTube reviews that said those made in America for this gun are crap.What’s in the picture above is the homegrown thrust vectoring nozzle developed by the NCSIST. It has 60° of vertical angle range, 30° of horizontal angle range, and the working speed is 45° per second. ‘What’s a thrust vectoring nozzle’ you may ask. Well it’s a nozzle installed at the end of the engine of a missile or a manned aircraft. ‘And what’s so special about it’ you may wonder. Well it’s special because it can emit the thrust at different angles, and hence the VTOL (Vertical Take-Off and Landing) or STOL (Short Take-Off and Landing) can be implemented. The VTOL or STOL is one of the requirements of the fifth gen fighter jet, along with the AESA radar, radar wave-absorbing materials and low RCS aerodynamic structure. The thrust vectoring nozzle requires very advanced material technology as the nozzle has to tolerate heat even higher than that in the combustion chamber of the engine. Again, there’re only two countries that have successfully developed this technology in Asia - Taiwan and Japan.This picture is fetched from NCSIST’s website. It’s a thin, square plate with greyish coating. The coating is the cynosure here – it’s radar wave-absorbing materials. This thing has always been very mystic ever since the very beginning of the spread of the rumour regarding some Taiwanese scientists who worked for the Government of the United States in the defense department developing stealth technology coming back in Taiwan and joining the NCSIST. Rumour has it this material has been tested with the AT-TC-3 Trainer (picture below) and the result has been tremendous, and then a couple of years later there’s this picture above on NCSIST’s website – what does this all mean? No one can say for sure.The AT-TC-3 Trainer, Taiwan’s very first homegrown manned aircraft using the turbofan engine.Conceptual art of the homegrown next-gen fighter jet of Taiwan’s, unofficially called the ADF (Advanced Defense Fighter). This isn’t the actual design but depiction by fans. As you can see, it to a degree resembles the design of the Boeing X-32 (picture below) as the weapon bays are put aside for the inlet to be right in the middle beneath the fuselage, yet unlike the Boeing X-32, the ADF will be powered by two engines (this is officially confirmed), just like the F-22. Based on the reports so far, the engines will use turbine blades made of High-Entropy Superalloys, superior to the last generation of nickel-based single-crystal superalloys, and be equipped with the thrust vectoring nozzle mentioned above, all homegrown. The fuselage has also been confirmed to massively adopt AIDC’s composite materials, and be equipped with homegrown AESA radar made of GaN, with the whole body of the aircraft coated with NCSIST’s radar wave-absorbing materials. The ROC Airforce has said they need 130 units of the ADF in total, and the project has officially started.The Boeing X-32, a 5th-gen combat aircraft.‘Teng-Yun’ the large-size Attack UAV developed by the NCSIST, capable of carrying missiles.This engine above is the J85-GE-21, most famously known for powering the F-5 fighter jet family. Taiwan used to be a main F-5 operator, but now these jets are considered outdated by the ROC military and only 23 units of them are currently in service in Taiwan. Instead of scrapping the J85-GE-21, the military has decided to make better use of it – they want to reverse-engineer it and develop a more refined version, with new materials and technology. The military didn’t say what they wanted to do with the new version of the J85-GE-21, so a lot of people are guessing. Some say the new J85 will power new missiles, but well that’s too large don’t they think? If Taiwan were to develop missiles that big, I’d certainly wonder what’s in the warhead. Other people say maybe the new J85 is for a new UAV, which actually sounds more convincing to me.The RQ-4 Global Hawk, largest UAV developed by the US, powered by a single engine whose thrust is slightly larger than two J85 combined. If the ROC military plans to develop a new UAV equipped with a ‘more advanced’ J85, the new UAV may not necessarily be as large as the Global Hawk, but will definitely be much larger than the Teng-Yun.The airborne AESA radar developed by the NCSIST, with the material’s being GaAs (gallium arsenide) and the power of each individual T/R Module’s being at 12w. A fighter jet usually has 800 - 1,500 modules depending on how large the jet is, and thus the peak power of the whole AESA radar is summed up at 9.6 - 18kw. Just the other day, the NCSIST has made public its technology of GaN (gallium nitride) materials that will elevate the power of each individual T/R Module up to 50 - 100w or more has matured and can replace the GaAs if required[33]. The T/R Module power determines everything regarding the capability of the AESA radar. Japan, despite being able to build the AESA radar on its own, the power of Japan’s homegrown GaAs T/R Module each is as low as 2–3w, and only rises up to 6w when displaced by its homegrown GaN T/R Module. Taiwan, Japan and the US are the only three nations thus far that can build the AESA radar with GaN materials while the other nations that have homegrown AESA radar still encounter technical issues.Founded in late 2018 and located in Hsinchu, Tron Future Tech is a spin-off company from National Chiao Tung University (NCTU), specialising in development of AESA radar systems, including the most advanced airborne AESA radar full solutions for the 5th generation fighter jets. The main research teams of the company are from NCTU and NCSIST. Now being an administrative institution (行政法人), NCSIST is no longer a pure government agency, meaning as long as the Government permits, NCSIST can export its own defense technology, which is usually developed together with research teams from top universities in Taiwan, namely NTU (台大), NTHU (清大), NCTU (交大) and NCKU (成大). Tron Future Tech offers both GaAs and GaN AESA radar technology, each T/R Module being capable of generating from low as 0.01w up to high as 100w of power, covering from civilian applications up to the most lethal military use, which I believe as of now the only other country that possibly has the same capability is the United States. An AESA radar system this powerful (100w per T/R Module) would enable a modern fighter jet to slaughter fighter jets of the 4th generation (including 4.0 – 4.99) in an aero battle, and make hostile real 5th generation jets such as the F-35 and F-22 much less dangerous in that it can reduce their stealth ability. I’ve recently learnt that other than Indonesia, some South Asian/Southeast Asian countries are also conceiving programmes for development of the 5th generation fighter jets, and apparently NCSIST sees the market.Another fan-made design of Taiwan’s homegrown next-gen fighter jet. Apparently this was made before the ROC Air Force officially confirmed a part of the specification of the jet because in this design, the jet only has one engine whereas the military has said the jet will be twin-engine. Thus far, according to the military and NCSIST, we can be certain that the jet will have an AESA system, stealth coating, low RCS appearance and two large engines equipped with 2-D thrust vectoring nozzles (-30° ~ +30° vertical, -15° ~ +15° horizontal, 45° per second. Prototype of the nozzle was developed by NCKU (成大) and handed to NCSIST in 2011 for the prototype to be further polished), but we don’t know if the jet will have a weapon bay. A weapon bay isn’t high-tech, yet while it can significantly reduce the RCS of the jet, it also adds up a lot of weight, reducing maneuverability, so it’ll make sense for a 5th gen fighter jet to have a weapon bay only when the jet has high TWR (thrust-to-weight ratio) engine(s). The military hasn’t confirmed whether a weapon bay will be a part of the design or not.Reliable sources said the homegrown next-gen fighters may have delta wings or a variant of delta wings. Delta-wing planes that are currently or were once in service, for example, the F-16XL (the one highlighted in the pic in the top-left corner), concord (top-right), and Eurofighter Typhoon (bottom). Some proposed concepts for future fighters also adopt delta wings, such as the Boeing F/A-XX (pic below), a 6th-generation fighter, the whole plane itself is giant delta wings.Both of the Boeing F/A-XX (left) and the Franco-German next-gen fighter (right) are delta-wing aircraft.The two images above are from a video recording the testing of the F125. The testing as well as the development of the engine was done at AIDC, in the 1980s. The TWR of a turbofan engine is highly correlated with the temperature at turbine inlet, the higher the temperature, the higher the TWR. There are two ways to achieve a high temperature at inlet of the turbine – one is to use aerodynamic mechanism of the engine itself to cool down the blades to increase heat durability, which is a technology that the US excels at, with the UK being a remote second and every other country far behind, the other is to build the blades with more advanced materials (superalloys), which is what Japan excels at, leaving both the US and Europe far behind. Advancing in research and development of high-entropy materials, Taiwan is in the process of surpassing Japan as the one leading country in metallurgy, hence hopefully, combining with the knowhow and experience that Taiwan has acquired developing the F125 (with the US) and the Kung-Peng (independently), this will make developing a high TWR turbofan engine possible, enabling Taiwan’s new jet to have a weapon bay, leading to extremely low RCS values. According to ‘Academic and Research Programme for National Defense Technology’ (國防科技學術研究計畫) released by Ministry of National Defense (國防部) and Ministry of Science and Technology (科技部), the military will be testing HESA turbine blades designed to be on a par with the nickel-based single-crystal superalloy turbine blades used in the turbofan engine F119 this year (2019).The military has confirmed that for development of the homegrown 5th generation fighter jet, a new base serving as the aerospace research and development centre will be established and located in Chiayi County, a geographical midpoint between Taoyuan City (where NCSIST is located) and Kaohsiung City (where AIDC’s department responsible for engine development is in). The picture here shows the Taiwan booth at Japan International Aerospace Exhibition 2018. AIDC is a major supplier of critical parts for the turbofan engine Trent 7000 and the only Asian supplier for the MRJ (Mitsubishi SpaceJet)[34][35].Turbofan engine F119, the F-22 is equipped with two of them.The weapon bay of the F-22.The F125 has a TWR of 7.02, which is pretty standard for a turbofan engine developed in the ‘80s. The highest temperature at inlet of the turbine is 1,482K (1,209°C). The TWR of a turbofan engine can increase by 10% for roughly every 100K elevation at turbine inlet. With heat capability between 1,310°C – 1,400°C, HESA turbine blades are expected to allow 2,178K (1,905°C) – 2,464K (2,191°C) of temperature maximum at inlet of the turbine, and thus without even improving the structural design of the F125 for better engine aerodynamics, simply by using HESA turbine blades to increase heat durability, the TWR of the engine would be able to reach 11.9 - 13.91, larger than the F119 (10) and F135 (11.47). It does seem doable for Taiwan’s homegrown next generation fighter jet to have an internal weapon bay.The heat capability of a turbine blade is three things combined: the materials of the blade, the cooling system of the blade, and the TBC (thermal barrier coating) on the blade. For example, a turbine blade made of 6th gen nickel-based single-crystal superalloy TMS-238 can bear 1,150°C. With the cooling holes and tunnels in such a TMS-238 turbine blade, 250°C more durability against heat is also guaranteed. Then the TBC on the blade provides 400°C more protection against heat. So in total, this turbine blade made of TMS-238 would allow 1,800°C (TMS-238 + cooling system + TBC) at turbine inlet.This is not a bowl of milk or white gel. It’s Al2O3, a TBC material developed by NCSIST. The material is ‘sprayed’ onto the blade via plasma spraying or similar methods. Image from NCSIST’s website.Strictly speaking, TBC is a two-layer material (the TGO layer is something that inevitably grows itself due to the extreme working environment in the engine, so I don’t count it a third layer), one layer called “bondcoat”, the other is the ceramics itself. The bondcoat layer is in charge of preventing the base material of the blade from becoming corroded and oxidised. Research has found high-entropy materials to be promising for more advanced bondcoat applications.Fifth gen fighter jet F-22′s AN/APG-77 AESA radar, a Northrop Grumman’s product. Each individual T/R Module has 12 w of power.The Inconel Alloy 800H, a type of superalloys developed by the SMC (Special Metals Corporation), an American company. It can sustain 982 °C of heat, and while not strong enough to endure forces (so you can’t use it to build turbochargers or aero turbine blades as both are rotating components, which generate forces, especially the latter - the speed at the tip of a rotating aero turbine blade is almost sonic, generating a centrifugal force so large that it’s deadly destructive to any materials that aren’t strong enough), it is excellent in corrosion resistance. Hence the Inconel Alloy 800H is widely adopted as the material to build the critical equipment - chemical reactors, used in petroleum, energy, and many other heavy industries. As of now, Taiwan, America, Germany and Japan are responsible for the production of Inconel Alloy 800H of the entire world because they’re the only four countries that know how to manufacture it.A petroleum chemical reactor under construction.Other than metallurgy, Taiwan’s also advanced in materials science where no metal is concerned. The picture above is not hairs but carbon fibers. Carbon fibers, as the name suggests, are fibers made of carbon. They’re very strong – 10 times greater than the strength of steel, and light – only one fifth the weight of the same amount of stainless steel, and what’s more important is carbon fibers, just like superalloys, are highly resistant to heat. Therefore they’re widely used in industries of aviation, aerospace, and of course military. Carbon fibers can be classified as three types – low-end, mid-end and high-end. How we determine the types of carbon fibers is by measuring their modulus (unit: GPa), the higher the modulus, the higher the class. Low- and mid-end carbon fibers range between 227-241 GPa and 276-345 GPa respectively, while high-end carbon fibers are well above 345 GPa. The production of carbon fibers is very technically demanding and as a result only 5 nations are capable of manufacturing them. Most carbon fibers manufacturers in the world aim at low- and mid-end markets, producing carbon fibers that are appreciated by sport and automobile industries. On the contrary, high-end carbon fibers, being strategic materials as they are basically used exclusively in aviation, aerospace and military – for example, the making of advanced nuclear warheads and hypersonic aircraft (missiles flying at above 5 Mach included), are controlled items worldwide, but the good news is high-end carbon fibers are extremely difficult to produce. Carbon fibers were invented by the Japanese, so it’s not surprising the Japanese possess the knowledge required to produce high-end carbon fibers. Other than the Japanese, the Taiwanese are the other people that have the know-how regarding how to produce high-end carbon fibers. Thus far, Taiwan and Japan are the only two countries on the surface of this planet that can manufacture carbon fibers having a modulus greater than 345 GPa, while the other carbon fibers manufacturers (Germany, France and America) are still in the low/mid ranges.High-end carbon fibers with a modulus of 380 GPa, only Formosa Plastics Corporation (Taiwan)[36], Toray (Japan), Toho (Japan) and Mitsubishi (Japan) can produce. Tairyfil is the brand name of Formosa Plastics Corporation’s carbon fibers.The new headquarter of Formosa Plastics Corporation, in Neihu District, Taipei. Formosa Plastics Corporation is one of the largest chemistry companies in Taiwan, specialising not only in development of plastics or plastics-based materials/substances.This is a Lamborghini car named Sesto Elemento, one of the most expensive automobiles made of carbon fibers.Half of a Boeing 787 is made of high-end carbon fibers.The image above is a Wankel engine independently developed by NCSIST. Wankel engines are favourable in many aspects in that they can produce large power even at a small size, take the engine here for instance, it displaces 260 c.c., which is one sixth that of a regular 1,500 c.c. Car engine’s, yet it has 42 horsepower of output, which is about one third the same regular 1,500 c.c. Car engine’s power. Wankel engines are difficult to develop due to high demand for materials and precision of parts, particularly the latter. I’m not aware of any Asian countries having independently developed (meaning, not under licenses or technological transfer) any Wankel engines except Taiwan and Japan. Japan (Mazda) actually obtained licenses from Germany to produce Wankel engines in the beginning in the ‘60s, but it then successfully developed its own patents decades after and now no longer needs licenses. Taiwan is a different case as Taiwan started all from scratch. The NCSIST developed Wankel engines for UAVs and powered exoskeletons.As you can see, in comparison with a typically small-sized engine also developed for powered exoskeletons by an American company (I think it’s Raytheon), NCSIST’s Wankel engine is slightly heavier, but it also has larger power, which would make up for the extra weight and actually result in a lighter engine for a soldier to carry.A powered exoskeleton developed by Raytheon. The engine is usually on the back, but you can’t see it from this angle. Many countries have plans to develop military powered exoskeletons. Nevertheless, thus far only a few of them have been able to successfully develop small yet powerful engines, the most crucial technology that developing a powered exoskeleton requires. There would be nothing difficult about development of a military exoskeleton if a military exoskeleton didn’t need to be powered by a small beast, but then an exoskeleton without a source of power is only a burden.A powered exoskeleton named ‘HAL’ developed by Cyberdyne, a Japanese company. Instead of using an engine, it uses a motor as the supply of power, causing its slowness and generally weaker bearing for force, but it should still be fine because HAL is for medical use, not military.NCSIST’s Wankel products are transferrable items, meaning private sectors can obtain the technology from NCSIST as long as they are willing to pay. The image above is a product from AeroJones Aviation, a Taiwanese company specialising in light sport aircraft development except the engine. As far as I know, AeroJones Aviation produces the engines under licenses from Germany. All AeroJones’ aircraft use piston engines, but maybe someday the company would consider Wankel engines to develop new products like the Diamond DA20 (picture below).The Diamond DA20, a famous European light sport aircraft that has variant models, of which some are powered by Wankel engines. Anyway, AeroJones or Diamond, their products have nothing to do with ordinary people like you and me because they’re toys only for the rich, meh.Taiwan’s advanced military technology was also discernible from what happened in 2016 - one stupid soldier accidentally launched a missile. It was a domestically built supersonic anti-ship missile named ‘Hsiung-Feng III’.Hsiung-Feng III Anti-Ship Missile, this picture was taken years before the accident.It hit a fishing boat. A single fishing boat, in a large open area where no other ships were seen. The missile could have gone straight into the ocean since there was no set target for it (as it was launched accidentally), yet, it hit a fishing boat. What this represented was the missile was highly precise in that unlike military ships, fishing boats would only have very minimal RCS (Radar Cross-Section) to be detected, nevertheless the missile was capable of detecting the boat no matter how minimal this tiny lonely boat’s RCS was, and took it for an enemy vehicle. The missile didn't explode because fishing boats were too light to trigger an explosion (a safety design in case the missile hits anything that isn’t a military vehicle or building; military units, due to their armour, armament load and structural design for defense purposes, are much heavier than civilian ones, and therefore the collision between a military unit and the missile is strong enough to result in an explosion). It would have been a different story had what was hit been a military ship.A typical RCS diagram.The Tuo Chiang-Class Stealth Corvette, being in commission since 2014. This picture (as well as the 78 pictures following this one) is irrelevant to the missile accident but I find the Tuo Chiang-Class Stealth Corvette a good example as to show the capability of the Taiwanese shipbuilding industry - what Taiwan’s always been good at. The Tuo Chiang-Class Stealth Corvette carries 16 missiles - the most heavily armed corvette in the world - of which 8 are the Hsiung-Feng III Anti-Ship Missiles, the other 8 being the Hsiung-Feng II Anti-Ship Missiles. It’s also equipped with an OTO Melara 76 MM Gun and the Phalanx CIWS to defend itself with, being able to lock and counterattack enemy anti-ship missiles from 10 km away. It’s fast, travelling at a speed of 43.7knots per hour, equaling 81 km per hour. It’s light, displacing only 502 tons, which means it can berth at any harbours - even shallow ones - this is very important as deep military harbours are usually among the first targets to be destroyed in the first couple of hours in war. It’s stealthy, as it has very little RCS - a couple of months ago one fishing boat coming back home in the evening ran into an older type of ships from the Tuo Chiang warship family (picture below) and the captain of the fishing boat claimed there was nothing on the radar. Dangerous, fast, light and stealthy – raptors.The Kuang Hua VI-Class Missile Boat, a stealth ship from the Tuo Chiang warship family, which the radar system of a fishing boat failed to detect and resulted in a collision accident in 2017[37]. The prototype of this ship was launched in 2003.Model of the diesel submarine planned to build from 2017 to 2025. The fleet will comprise 8 submarines, displacing 3,000 tons each. The blueprint design of the submarines has been finished while the details take a little bit longer - they won’t be set until December, 2019. The lead ship is scheduled to enter commission in 2024, and 2025 for the entire fleet. Each of the submarines will cost 1.3 billion dollars at maximum – a number that would be too low if major technological transfer were involved, considering each of Australia’s new diesel submarines in the same class with Taiwan’s costs 2.9 billion dollars under major technological transfer of France. So it’s pretty clear Taiwan’s new submarines will be mostly homegrown (on a component-to-component basis), with the design and integration of submarine engineering being the only thing we have to acquire assistance from other countries as we have never built any large underwater vehicles before. Fortunately, submarines are the only weapon Taiwan needs other nations’ assistance among all the ongoing projects of Taiwan’s homegrown military vehicles. The most difficult part about building a modern submarine - if not taking its internal design into consideration - is the frontal part of the submarine in that the frontal part of a submarine has to be extremely precise in terms of its shape, calculated by the supercomputer in order to distribute water pressure surgically evenly, or the sea water will either break in the submarine starting from the frontal part, or slowly lead the submarine to deformation as time goes by. To achieve such precisely even pressure distribution, sophisticated welding technology is required as one tiny air bubble caused by unsophisticated welding in the steel used to build the frontal part of a submarine, is enough to ruin the entire pressure distribution setting. To this day, there’re only a few countries that can build the frontal part of the submarine, most of which are the G7 members, while the other submarine operators such as India simply have to ship the frontal parts of submarines from them. Taiwan however, is one non-G7 member that has successfully developed this technology, which I think is called HWD Welding (not sure though). On the contrary, it has costed South Korea billion dollars to acquire the said technology from the Germans (South Korea’s current submarines in commission are all German submarines manufactured in South Korea under Germany’s license. For example, the KSS-II Submarines are exactly the German Type 214 Submarines) whilst submarines of the PRC’s also have their Soviet root.What you’re looking at is STOBA, an advanced and revolutionary material developed by the ITRI (Industrial Technology Research Institute) to prevent lithium batteries from burning. Lithium batteries are a very powerful and efficient independent source of electricity, hence are ideal for being used as the electric propulsion system of the diesel engines in submarines - if only they were not that dangerous, as they can become quite unstable and readily to burn (and then of course, explode) at any moment when not controlled well. In fact, there’ve been a couple of aircraft accidents caused by lithium batteries. But we’re talking about diesel submarines here, currently, there have been three propulsion systems – the AIP (Air-Independent Propulsion), the lead-acid battery, and the lithium battery. Lithium batteries are light-weighted, generating energy 4 times more powerful than that of lead-acid batteries’, therefore the vehicle (submarine) can move very fast. Also, lithium batteries allow the vehicle to stay underwater much longer than the other two propulsion systems, increasing the vehicle’s survival rates and stealthiness, yet they’re too dangerous to have any modern submarines in operation really use them. The other two propulsion systems, in comparison with lithium batteries, are inferior except they're a lot safer, having been put to use for a long history. The AIP has very limited power, causing the submarine to move extremely slowly, and unlike batteries that are quiet for all eternity, a working AIP system has a lot of noises while sound waves can travel for a long distance in water, which in return reduces survival rates of the submarine. As to lead-acid batteries, while they generate a lot more energy than the AIP (so the vehicle can be faster), they are quite heavy, significantly adding extra weight to the vehicle, and like lithium batteries, they too do explode (but a lot easier to prevent than infamous lithium batteries). So diesel submarines usually have both the AIP and lead-acid batteries working together, with the number of lead-acid batteries cut in half, thus the vehicle will be faster than when exclusively using the AIP, at the same time being lighter than when only using lead-acid batteries (to a full number), Japanese submarines being a very good example. Luckily, thanks to STOBA, we can now use lithium batteries safely. The Japanese have acquired authority (by paying, of course) from the ITRI to manufacture lithium batteries using STOBA under ITRI’s license, and it’s been reported the new submarines that Japan’s currently building will only adopt lithium batteries, completely abandoning the AIP and lead-acid battery technologies that Japanese submarines have been relying on for more than a decade. Taiwan’s new submarines have been confirmed to employ lithium batteries as well. Taiwan, Japan and Germany are the 3 best known countries for advanced battery technology. Despite Japan's and Germany’s being better experienced than Taiwan overall as they both have longer history of battery technology development, they’ve never been able to reduce the probability of a burning or exploding lithium battery down to an absolute zero, nothing like STOBA. Dr Yoshio Nishi (西美緒), known as ‘Father of Lithium Batteries’, a Japanese scientist working in the fields of electrical engineering and materials science, currently a professor at Stanford University, recalled how he felt when introduced to STOBA for the first time, ‘I’ve never seen anything like that before,’ he said, then went on to describe his feeling by citing A.K Clarke’s law: ‘any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic’.In January 2019, a part of the design of Taiwan’s homegrown submarines has been officially confirmed. The submarine will adopt an X-shape tail and a front that has a curved top but a flat bottom. This kind of design is unusual as only a few submarines have similar appearance, but this design has been proven to be superb for stealth. The flat bottom of the front is for housing a much larger and more advanced sonar system than one that a submarine having a curved bottom would use. As of now, the submarines that resemble the most to Taiwan’s homegrown submarines in development is the Japanese Sōryū-class submarines (the picture here). Both Taiwan and Japan are island states, with similar oceanic environments and naval defense strategies, so that’s understandable.Spain is traditionally known as a country having high naval strength. The Spanish Isaac Peral class submarines adopt a design that is more conservative and common, because as you can see, the front of the Isaac Peral class submarine is curved both top and bottom, and the tail is cross-shaped. This design has been proven to be very reliable.The hulls of Taiwan’s submarines will be constructed by MRY (銘榮元公司), using CSC’s (a Taiwanese steel corporation) HSLA-80 high yield strength steel. The steel has been tested and reported to be able to sustain hydrostatic pressure equaling that at 900 metres underwater. The actual number of the submarine’s depth capability will be smaller due to inevitable change in the mechanical properties of the steel during the making of the hull, but will still be good enough for diesel submarines.March 2019, the military has confirmed that NCSIST is developing an underwater vertical launch system for Taiwan’s homegrown submarines, but the lead ship (the first one) won’t be equipped with it. The image above features the SMX Ocean, a French concept for a new generation of diesel submarines.A vertical launch system allows a submarine to strike targets on land, which clearly shows Taiwan’s defense strategy has been changing to a more offensive approach, instead of putting emphasis on almost pure self-defense. The picture here is the Chien Lung-class submarine, one of Taiwan’s submarines currently in service, since the 1980s.Taiwan used to have a plan of building a submarine base in Hualien County in the early 2000s, but it wasn’t executed because at the end Taiwan decided to postpone expanding the submarine fleet. Nearly two decades later, now new submarines have been under development, and hence it’s foreseeable that the plan of building a submarine base will be back on the table.A submarine base is a navy base specifically designed for submarines for stealth purpose and offers the submarines it houses a quick access to deepwater. A couple of nautical miles away from the east coast of Taiwan lie two main trenches on the west part of the Pacific, both easily more than five thousand metres deep. What can be better?From a strategic point of view, Taiwan is sort of lucky to be geographically located in a place that not only can directly control the maritime trade routes between East Asia and other parts of the world, but is also guaranteed direct access to deep water (the Pacific Ocean). Look at those countries on Asia: the Korean Peninsula is blocked by the Japanese islands/archipelagos, and China is blocked by the island of Taiwan, Japan’s southern archipelagos (and there’s a US base) and the Philippines while the entire Southeast Asia is also grounded in the small pool of the South China Sea except Myanmar (has direct access to the Indian Ocean), Thailand (the same as Myanmar) and Indonesia. Basically, most of Asia is blocked by the first island chain, meaning military ships (submarines included) from countries on Asia, when entering the Pacific Ocean, can’t avoid detection of the sonar systems of the countries that consist of the first island chain – therefore, everyone knows what these ships are doing. This is the main reason that China desires for Taiwan because there hasn’t been a modern great power or superpower that has no direct access to an ocean. Sure, the PLN is one of the strongest navies in the world, but being unable to access the Pacific Ocean privately would always make it a handicapped force no matter how strong it is. Slowly as we progress into the era of the 2020s, with the geographical conditions and technological capabilities that Taiwan has, along with the economy of Taiwan that will eventually grow beyond $80,000 (PPP) and $40,000 (exchange rates) per capita, also with the growing military strength of Taiwan considered, Taiwan will eventually become a state very similar to the G7 countries in terms of essential qualities, what’s hindering Taiwan will be only quantity – landmass and population.TECO is one of the most major home appliance brands based in Taiwan, offering wide selection of washing machines, air conditioners, refrigerators, TV and etc for ordinary consumers like you and me, but few people - even the Taiwanese themselves - know that TECO has never been just a company that sells home appliances in the first place. TECO has been, in nature and since the very beginning, a corporation that designs and develops heavy electric equipment for the energy and various other heavy industries, including shipbuilding, several decades before stepping into the home appliance markets. The homegrown submarines of Taiwan’s have been confirmed to employ electric equipment from TECO as parts of their propulsion systems, similar to what’s shown in the picture below.A large motor developed by TECO for the shipbuilding and energy industries.TECO Texas branch and some of the employees.Similar to TECO, TATUNG’s also a major Taiwanese home appliance brand and is especially known for its kitchen products, but again, few people - yeah, even the Taiwanese themselves - know that TATUNG, like TECO, has never been just a company that sells home products. TATUNG’s in fact a developer and manufacturer of heavy electric equipment used in the energy and heavy industries (picture below).TATUNG heavy electric equipment used in a power plant operated by Taiwan Power Company (台灣電力公司).The amphibious transport dock (bigger one) currently under development, scheduled to be in commission in 2021. We need amphibious transport docks because we have to guard our islands in South China Sea from threats from countries such as Vietnam and China, and amphibious transport docks help project the land forces (tanks, mainly) from Taiwan onto any of our other islands.The ACS (Advanced Combat System) Destroyer scheduled to build after 2020, displacing 9,000-10,000 tons. They are the Taiwanese homegrown equivalents to the American ACS (Aegis Combat System) vehicles, equipped with the Hai-Gong III, Hsiung-Feng II, Hsiung-Feng III missiles and the Sea Oryx Missile System, along with an OTO Melara 76 MM Gun. It has been confirmed by the NCSIST yesterday (20/06/2017) that the AESA radar system employed by the Advanced Combat System Destroyer will adopt homegrown GaN T/R Modules (mentioned above) with the core battle system’s being NCSIST’s OACCS (Open Architecture Command Control System), the Taiwanese Aegis system.A glimpse at a corner of a working OACCS.The Sea Oryx Missile System.The missile frigates planned to build from 2019 to 2021, each displacing 5,000 tons. The fleet will comprise 15 missile frigates. Taiwan currently has 22 frigates and we want more.Many people don’t know, that at the Maritime & Defense Expo held in Kaohsiung, September 2018, the ROC Navy confirmed to actually have a plan of developing amphibious landing helicopter dock ships (or more commonly referred to as ‘helicopter carriers’) for the future, displacing 22,000 tons, slightly larger than the Japanese JS Izumo (picture below). The JS Izumo is called a ‘destroyer’, but is actually more like a helicopter carrier, displacing 19,500 tons. Note, when we talk about the sizes of ships, we refer to their ‘standard tons’, not the tons when they’re fully loaded.The JS Izumo. Japan’s going to modify it into an aircraft carrier.Tian-Gong III Anti-Tactical Ballistic Missile, with an operational range of 200 km and an interception altitude of 70 km (enhanced version), travelling at a speed more than 4 times faster than the sound (the general consensus is 5–7 Mach). It has been tested successfully via the Seaborne Hot Vertical Launching System developed by the NCSIST (picture below) and the ACS destroyers have been confirmed to be equipped with it. The Tian-Gong III Anti-Tactical Ballistic Missile is basically, the Taiwanese homegrown equivalent to the American Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD), whose interception altitude is known to be beyond 40 km.The Seaborne Tian-Gong III Anti-Tactical Ballistic Missile, aka the ‘Hai-Gong III’. It’s a seaborne vertically launched missile that starts (ignites) its engine right in the launch cell (which is vertically buried in the ship, under the decks. On the other hand, a seaborne non-vertical launching system has the launch cell completely exposed on the decks) when fired – hence ‘hot’ launch, as opposed to ‘cold’ launch (picture below) – an approach where the engine of the missile starts only after the missile is pushed out of the launch cell by compressed air at room-temperature. The significance of the seaborne hot vertical launching system is that it’s much lighter in weight and smaller in size compared with the cold one, in return allowing the ship to be equipped with a significantly larger number of missiles and armament. Also, hot launch is much faster, and has smaller RT (Reaction Time), increasing the survival rates of the ship. Yet a seaborne hot vertical launching system is difficult to develop in that it requires, again, advanced materials technologies, to build the heat-resistant inner walls of the launch cell, or the entire ship will start to burn as soon as the missiles get fired owing to the launch cells’ ultrahigh temperature under the decks. Let me tell you how many countries have their own homegrown seaborne hot vertical launching system as of late 2017: Taiwan, America and France. The entire Asia except Taiwan relies on America’s seaborne hot vertical launching system, and as the second most powerful military powerhouse, Russia hasn’t successfully developed a seaborne hot vertical launching system, still using the cold one. China, has claimed to have developed the hot one, but so far there’s no evidence that supports its claim – no launch tests, no video proof, no exhibit – nothing, as a result, the most prestigious non-governmental source of military intelligence – Jane’s Information Group – remains skeptical and doesn’t buy it, as the hard evidence says only that China relies on the seaborne cold vertical launching system. Military is a science, not a religion where faith and belief work, so any claims without evidence are really only claims.The Seaborne Tien-Chien II Missile, aka the ‘Hai-Chien II’, a vertically launched missile, cold.I originally didn’t want to introduce this missile because we barely know anything about it, but I think it should still deserve a place. This is the Hsiung-Feng IIE Cruise Missile (‘HF2E’ for short), operational range 1,500 km max (600 km minimum), maximum speed 0.85 Mach, propelled by a turbofan engine. It’s one of the two homegrown medium-ranged cruise missiles of Taiwan’s - the other being the Yun-Feng Cruise Missile. The HF2E is land-based, but it can also be seaborne, launched by water vehicles. It was in 2013 that the HF2E had been for the first time officially confirmed by the Government to have been deployed (sources have said the estimated number of unit lies between 500 and 1,000). Other than these, everything else about this missile has never been known to the public.This is um … the Yun-Feng Cruise Missile. I originally didn’t want to bring this missile up, either, as we know even less about it than we do about the HF2E. The Yun-Feng Cruise Missile is supersonic (4–5 Mach), propelled by a ramjet engine, maximum operational range 2,000 km (1,200 km minimum). Initially, it was about to go into production in 2014, but in order to befriend China, Ying-Jeou Ma cancelled the (production) project. Now another party’s in power, and multiple sources’ve said this missile has been under production, yet the Government has neither confirmed nor denied it.The eleven images above are fetched from a video filming the most recent launch test (December, 2018) of a new missile developed by NCSIST (I know I can simply put the video here, but I prefer pictures for consistency). It hasn’t been officially confirmed what kind of missiles this is, NCSIST’s been very low-key on this – some say it’s a new long-ranged missile (ICBMs), while others say it’s the Yun-Feng cruise missile revealed to the public for the first time. I personally think this is a new type of Tian-Gong anti-tactical ballistic missile, based on the fact that my ATC colleagues in Taiwan told me they were informed of airspace closure of that area that day, with the height for restriction being unlimited. They heard it was a surface-to-air missile, whose range was beyond the Kármán line (the boundary between the space and the atmosphere of the Earth), even possibly more than 150 km. If so, that’s beyond the interception capability of THAAD. NCSIST hasn’t officially confirmed anything yet, but one thing many people probably would all agree: countries near Taiwan geographically really should be glad Taiwan’s freaking small and isn’t interested in invading anybody.In January 2019, the missile launch test in December last year has been confirmed to be a new type of the Tian-Gong missile. This new type of the Tian-Gong missile can intercept up to the Kármán line. Thus far, only Taiwan, America and Russia have been successful in independently developing an anti-tactical ballistic missile system that is this capable (for example, the USA has THAAD, and Russia has the S-400 Triumph). The picture here is a Tian-Gong II missile.The truck in the picture is a homegrown Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS) called Thunderbolt 2000, able to fire multiple kinds of weaponries, one of which is the Ching-Yun FAE, an explosive that can also be carried by the IDF and F-16. The Ching-Yun FAE, when exploding, heats up the air up to 2,500 °C within 50 square kilometres of range in a few seconds, burning everything and sparing no life in the area. Due to its cruelty, Taiwan, the developer of such a weapon, will not use it unless Taiwan’s invaded (basically, by the People’s Republic of China) militarily and treated with the same or more horrendous cruelty while international force of justice is not available to impose sanction against the invader (basically, the People’s Republic of China). Us the Taiwanese people are friendly and hospitable in general (in East Asia, overall, we are probably the nicest fellows to foreigners – no matter where you’re from, exception being if you’re a loud-mouthed PRC nationalist that goes on about your fantasy of ‘reunification’, ‘liberating the island of Taiwan’ or ‘killing all the Taiwanese because all we want is just the island not people’ EVEN to our faces), and we don’t go around threatening other countries. The Ching-Yun FAE is the last resort for us to self-defend - considering we’ve got no nuke - when our lives are at risk and when our homes are to be taken, but given that we’re in such a tough situation, we would still consider using the Ching-Yun FAE an immoral act. Therefore, we will NOT make use of it unless the UN/NATO/US-Japan Alliance gives us no proper aids after the invader has committed war crime first – otherwise we would be no better than the savage invader and its barbaric, nationalistic people who know neither human rights nor law.The YM Window Cargo Ship, largest ship Taiwan’s built, displacing 145,136 tons. The displacement of the largest aircraft carrier in the world thus far is 106,300 tons.I know this one looks like a photoshoped picture, but no, it is real-life. Meet the MV Blue Marlin, a ship-shipping ship (I like how it sounds) designed and built by CSBC, a Taiwanese shipbuilding company, back in 1999. The buyer of MV Blue Marlin was a Dutch firm. I saw the ship once, the year it was built, and I was completely in awe. It was the second time I’d been thoroughly moved by modern engineering of extraordinary things, the first time being when I had my first encounter with a Boeing airplane.MV Blue Marlin can also do this.Or this, I’m not sure if you’ve noticed, but that’s actually an aircraft carrier being shipped.An Ocean Alexander yacht. Ocean Alexander’s a Taiwanese brand of yachts. Taiwan’s the fourth largest yacht exporter in the world, following Italy, the Netherlands and America.Two pictures of the interior of an Ocean Alexander yacht.The T91 CQC Battle Rifle, designed and developed by the AVDC (Armoured Vehicle Development Centre, a division of Ministry of National Defense R.O.C.).The Kestrel Anti-armour Rocket, a homegrown rocket that can penetrate most armour vehicles including amphibious tanks, with the only exception being main battle tanks (of the third generation). This convenient and light-weighted individual weapon was developed back in the 1990s when the PLA still had no possibility of being technologically capable of landing any main battle tanks on shore of Taiwan for lacking vessels that could transport such heavy armour vehicles, but things had changed ever since. So Taiwan’s developing something much bigger like the American FGM-148 Javelin (picture below).The soldier on the right is carrying an FGM-148 Javelin, you can see how much bigger it is in comparison with the Kestrel anti-armour rocket. This picture is from Google Images, I think they’re Israeli.The homegrown CM-32 Black Bear (middle, with a tank gun as you can see. The tank gun is also homegrown) and two CM-32 Cloud Leopards. The Cloud Leopard has been in production while a newer type of the Black Bear that features more advanced defense technology and design is being developed. Its prototype will be present at the military & defense exhibition in Taipei, in August, 2017. The Black Bear in this picture is the older type.A closer look at the CM-32 Cloud Leopard. Its main armament is a 30 mm chain gun. The Cloud Leopard had a scandal, that its prototype completely met the designated performance without any problems, yet when went into production with more mature technology and design, the first couple of models of the Cloud Leopards had serious defects in that their chassis - supposed to be one of the strongest parts for hardness - and some other parts of the vehicle, cracked. It turned out that the manufacturer in charge of producing these parts used steel from China for dirt-cheap costs to replace the expensive yet high-quality steel produced by CSC (a Taiwanese steel company). The people responsible ended up in jail for it was illegal.Headquarter of CSC, Kaohsiung.CSC is one of the very handful steel companies in the world that can produce A-286, a superalloy that is widely used to build components of jet engines.The prototype of a newly branched CM-32 Cloud Leopard (unofficially named ‘Cloud Leopard II’). Its future design is to be a self-propelled 120 mm mortar. The ITRI has redesigned the chassis and suspension system of the older type of the CM-32 Mortar to bring the new one.Two pictures of the Cloud Leopard II being tested in the field. In December 2017, it’s been reported the design of the 120 mm mortar’s almost completed and the vehicle’s about to go into production.December 2018, it’s been confirmed that a new type of the Cloud Leopard has been under development (which is then unofficially called ‘Cloud Leopard III’ by many people), whose prototype will attend the military & defense exhibition in Taipei, 2019. Again, the chassis and suspension system have been completely redesigned because the military plans to equip it with larger guns. In the image above, the one closest to the camera is an unarmed type II, the others are type I equipped with chain guns.It’s reported that the army wants 120 mm mortars that have armoured turrets, and hence the homegrown mortars developed based on the Cloud Leopard are going in that direction. The picture here features the Finnish Patria AMOS, a typical 120 mm mortar equipped with an armoured turret.The largest gun that Taiwan has developed independently, a homegrown 155 mm howitzer, using a truck as the vessel. This picture was taken at Taipei military & defense exhibition, 2007. The ROC military has said they have a plan for equipping type III of the Cloud Leopard with 155 mm howitzers – but, the gun will be smaller than the one in the picture here, of course.The CM-12 Brave Tiger Main Battle Tank, an AVDC-modified version of the American M48A3 in the 80′s. The main armament of the CM-12’s is a Taiwanese homegrown 105 mm tank gun, whose original design is from the British L7 105 mm tank gun. The CM-12’s firing system, developed by the NCSIST and considered as advanced as that of the M1 Abrams’ (picture below), is the only thing of the CM-12 that isn’t considered outdated as of today’s standards. Both the CM-12’s tank gun and armour are already no good for helping the tank survive in the battleground setting after 2010, and despite the NCSIST’s having successfully developed reactive armour that outperforms the French GIAT armour for the CM-12, the result’s suggested it is too much of a burden for CM-12’s old engine. Hence, the AVDC is planning to develop new tanks equipped with homegrown 120 mm tank guns along with more modern engines if the budget agrees.The M1 Abrams.A picture of the diesel engine recently developed by a Taiwanese diesel engine manufacturer named Yung-Yeh (永葉. Belonging to Da-Yeh Group (大葉集團)). Da-Yeh used to be a car manufacturer a very long time ago, and it’s good that it hasn’t forgot how to build critical parts of vehicles, returning to the car market not as an automobile manufacturer but as a builder of homegrown advanced diesel engines. This engine has displacement of 2.5 liters, compression ratio being 17.5:1, and 141 horsepower maximum (diesel engines are known to have much smaller horsepower than gas engines at the same size, but they’re still favoured when it comes to larger vehicles such as buses or tanks because they consume much less oil than the gas ones). A modern tank engine usually displaces more than 40 liters since physics says the larger the displacement the larger the horsepower, hence it’s reasonable to expect when this diesel engine is resized to have displacement of that a tank engine normally has, like 45-48 liters or something (for ships and underwater vehicles, the displacement is usually even larger – 50 liters at minimum), the output of its horsepower should at least hit 1,500 or so, enough to propel a modern tank like the German Leopard II. We really need to build new tanks and Yung-Yeh’s diesel engines will do. By the way, so far China is still incapable of independently developing any diesel engines. The engines of the Chinese main battle tanks (ZTZ99 series) are directly from MTU (a German diesel engine manufacturer) with minor Chinese modification under MTU’s license. Actually, all of the engines put in PRC’s so-called ‘homegrown’ military vehicles - be the vehicles tanks, ships, submarines, aircraft or whatever, are all foreign.ESR (Electro Slag Remelting) steel casted by GMTC, a leading Taiwanese corporation specializing in special steel and alloys. GMTC’s technologically on a par with German and Japanese special steel manufacturers and has surpassed them in many areas. In fact, GMTC is the only qualified supplier of special steel for Boeing in Asia. Special steel is nothing like the conventional steel used in construction or regular civilian fields. Instead, it’s almost exclusively employed in aerospace and military. The barrel of a tank gun can only be made of ESR steel (a kind of special steel) that can endure 550 – 650 MPa of explosive pressure. GMTC’s ESR steel is able to sustain up to 1,170 MPa of explosive pressure[38] and hence shall be ideal for the making of tank guns of 120 mm or even larger caliber. It really is only a matter of budget of how much money the army is willing to put to investing in a homegrown main battle tank.Inside the barrel of the German Rh-120 tank gun (120 mm), made of ESR steel that can endure 585 MPa of explosive pressure. The Rh-120 tank gun is employed by the Leopard II, and also used by the Korean K2 main battle tank. The Koreans haven’t been able to cast ESR steel strong enough to independently develop a 120 mm tank gun. This is one of the reasons that GMTC’s products are dominant on Korean special steel market and in shipbuilding industry there when it comes to crucial materials for marine use.The Leopard II, with a turbocharged diesel engine displacing 48 liters, 1,500 horsepower maximum.The Formosat-5, the recently launched Taiwanese optical remote sensing satellite, completely homegrown, with high definition imaging capabilities that despite the Formosat-5 travels at an altitude 700 - 800 km above the surface of the Earth, it can see clearly anything that has 2 metres of length on the ground. Only a handful of countries can domestically design and build optical remote sensing satellite. In fact, among the 12 countries that possess the ability to launch satellites - the UK, America, France, Russia, Japan, Israel, Ukraine, South Korea, India, China, Iran and North Korea, only 5 of them can independently develop optical remote sensing satellites providing high definition imagining functions. It’s been reported though, that Formosa-5′s camera lenses built using cutting-edge optics technology might have been damaged by the rocket due to vibration during the launch, causing imaging defect of the satellite, which is a shame.Ground Control Centre of NSPO (National Space Organization). NSPO’s developing new satellites having even better optical remote sensing capability than the Formosat-5. They’re developing satellites whose resolution will be as high as 0.35 metres (aka, 35 cm), using Taiwan’s CMOS (Complementary Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor) technology – ah, materials technology, again.The HTTP-3 rocket, developed by a small team mostly made up of college students. The HTTP-3 is a hybrid-propellant rocket, technologically more advanced than the solid-propellant rocket or liquid-propellant rocket. The HTTP-3 is completely homegrown, including the engine that has 4 tons of maximum thrust. This is incredible, considering how small the team is and has very limited resources, especially financially - yeah, the Taiwanese Government doesn’t give a fuck about the team because it can’t, owing to America’s strong objection to Taiwan’s developing any launch vehicles as launch vehicles share the same technology with intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM). This is why the Government of Taiwan’s never managed to develop any rockets big enough to carry satellites because if a country can build launch vehicles to transport satellites, it’s a piece of cake for such a country to develop ICBMs, and in the case of Taiwan, being able to develop ICBMs will worry America for putting China on edge. The HTTP-3 is scheduled to launch in Taiwan between 2018 and 2020, and will carry a satellite (America has no excuse to stick its nose into this as the entire plan isn't governmental). Taiwan’s going to be the first country where a civilian organization launches satellites before the Government does (which probably never will) in human history. In comparison to the incredible progress made by such a small, mostly made-up-of-undergraduates team intentionally neglected by the Government and hence receiving literally no national support, the resourceful KARI (Korea Aerospace Research Institute), a governmental agency, had to obtain the technological assistance of Russia to build the second stage of Korea’s solid-propellant rocket, which had 8 tons of maximum thrust, and to leave the first stage completely to Russia due to technological incapability.The HTTP-3 team, the whole team.This man is Dr Chun-Liang Lin, NSPO director. As of October 2018, Taiwan’s had some breakthrough negotiating with America, that America has eventually said ‘alright!’ when Taiwan hopes it to turn a blind eye to Taiwan’s homegrown launch vehicle development. Below is information whose credibility directly goes to NSPO: ‘our main space programme, which is a 43-year long term plan, started from 1991. In the first 15 years, we have developed crucial rocket technology and been able to design satellites with technological assistence of other countries and core parts from them. From 2006 to 2018, the second part of the programme, we have come to be able to independently develop advanced satellites, all homegrown. And starting from Juanuary 2019 to 2034, the last 15 years of the programme, our goal is to further advance in our technology of satellites and launch vehicles, and eventually develop ourselves into a launch-service provider, that we’re going to help private sectors and space-researching insitutes launch their satellites and space vehicles, including those whose destination is an extraterrestrial planet’.The HAPITH-I is a rocket developed by a Taiwan-based aerospace manufacturer and space transportation services company, TiSPACE. This rocket has 150 kg of payload, originally scheduled to launch in Taitung on the 27th December, but has been postponed due to concern raised from the locals. TiSPACE is a private and thus far the only Taiwanese space transportation services company. This company partially works with the government and has deep intellectual connections with some of the most prestigious Taiwanese academies. Following the HAPITH-I, TiSPACE’s second rocket currently under development, named HAPITH-V, is planned to launch in the near future. The HAPITH-V has 390 kg of payload, about the same as the Brazilian rocket VLS-1 (pic below), and is able to transport a regular weather satellite like the Formosat-7.The Brazilian rocket VLS-1, 380 kg of payload.The Formosat-7, a Taiwanese weather satellite, launched by SpaceX in June 2019.It’s mostly NSPO that is in charge of development of Taiwan’s aerospace technology, but other major research institutes also have some significant contribution at times. The picture above was shot on the campus of Academia Sinica, the national academy of the country. Academia Sinica’s research covers a wide range of fields. Last year, it was reported that Academia Sinica’s department of electrical engineering, working with a team from National Chiao Tung University (or NTHU, I don’t remember), successfully developed technology that could precisely control the release and de-release of electromagnetic radiation within a very short span of time: 0.00000000000000001 second, yeah, “10^-18 second”. To better understand the concept of “10^-18 second”, it takes the light roughly 1.3 second to circle the Earth, and in “10^-18 second”, the light can only go for as far as 0.0000029979 cm. According to theory of relativity, this leads to potential development of very powerful laser.A solar sail is a type of spacecraft propelled by radiation pressure, but since radiation pressure from natural sources such as the sun is too small, it’d take years for the solar sail to reach a high speed. Now scientists have proposed a different method to propel solar sails - by using artificial source of radiation pressure, ideally laser - they mean the very powerful kind. Theoretically, a solar sail propelled by a couple of GW of laser would be able to reach one fifth of the speed of light, taking 25 mins to reach Mars from the Earth. That’s the most feasible way we have to travel interstellarly as of now before room-temperature superconductors are developed to make mass production of antimatter possible.As the national academy, Academia Sinica naturally grants membership almost only to those of the best reputation academically. The person in the picture here is Dr Yuan-Tseh Lee, a Nobel laureate for chemistry. He grew up in Hsinchu, studied at NTU for his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees (I know some people may not like him for his political stance, but that’s irrelevant here).Dr Shing-Tung Yau, also a member of Academia Sinica, a Fields medalist. He has dual nationality (ROC & USA), been a naturalised American citizen since 1990.Dr Chi-Huey Wong, grew up in Tainan, and went to NTU after graduating from the best high school for male students in Tainan. He was awarded the Wolf Prize in Chemistry in 2014. He’s a member of Academia Sinica.Dr Chi-Chih Yao (Andrew Yao), the winner of the ACM A.M. Turing Award in 2000. He grew up and received education in Taiwan, went to America after graduating from NTU. He had nationalities of the ROC and USA when he was awarded the ACM A.M. Turing Award. In 2015, he renounced both of them.Taiwan doesn’t just breed scientists that win prestigious prizes outside of Taiwan; Taiwan also gives prizes to scientists from any part of the world. Dr Hunter, a Professor of Biology at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies and the University of California San Diego, (with other 2 scientists) was given the Tang Prize (唐獎) in Medicine in 2018. He was also the Wolf Prize laureate in Medicine in 2005.The Tang Prize, founded in 2014 by Samuel Yin, a Taiwanese entrepreneur and philanthropist.Taiwan Photon Source (TPS), located in Hsinchu. It’s a synchrotron, which is a type of particle accelerators, and a great amount of time of the teams from Academia Sinica and NCTU to develop the said ultra-fast control technology of electromagnetic radiation was spent here.What it looks like inside the TPS.The Hsiung-Feng III Anti-Ship Missile - like I have said - is supersonic as it travels 3 times faster than the sound with an operational range of 300 km (400 km for the enhanced version), and there aren't many countries that can build supersonic anti-ship missiles. In fact, there are only 4 nations that can - they are Taiwan, France, Russia and Japan. While China has claimed to be able to build such a kind of missiles and has made quite a few ones, it remains a big question whether China truly can or cannot - as there has never been footage where any of China’s claimed supersonic anti-ship missiles is launched - not even a launch test.In order to avoid enemy radar coverage, anti-ship missiles have to navigate as close to the sea level as possible (just like the picture above), or they’ll get detected and shut down way before hitting their targets. This is one of the main reasons why a supersonic anti-ship missile is extremely difficult to develop technologically – because it’s difficult to reach a near-sonic or even higher speed at anywhere close to the surface of the sea while keeping the missile on the track, as even the most insignificant radial deviation can have the missile easily result in the ocean, let alone the strong drag due to high air density at such a low altitude and ultrahigh heat caused by friction with the air, which can damage the missile. America’s shown interest in Taiwan’s supersonic anti-ship technology, but I don’t know how the deal ends or if there’s been any deal proposed.The ARA San Juan, an Argentinian submarine that has exploded in the middle of the sea shortly after leaving its base a couple of years ago, and only very recently (November, 2018) have its wrecks been found near the Valdes Peninsula. The Hsiung-Feng III anti-ship missile has been a little bit too famous internationally since the fishing boat accident, so famous that some Argentinian media have claimed (March, 2019) that an engine which after investigation, has been concluded to belong to a Hsiung-Feng III anti-ship missile has been found in the wrecks of the ARA San Juan. Last week, NCSIST has clarified this misinformation. Personally, I would say this kind of false allegations from some Argentinian media is ridiculous because first, Taiwan would never put something like the Hsiung-Feng III missile in the global defense market. Second, Taiwan’s legal status is very tricky, which prevents Taiwan from becoming a weaponry exporter. Third, yes, the Hsiung-Feng III anti-ship missile is thus far the world’s fastest supersonic anti-ship missile which also has the longest range (I'm referring to pure anti-ship missiles, not counting those developed from cruise missiles), but the distance between Taiwan and Argentina is way beyond that. Seriously, we may be very technologically advanced, yet we’re still humans, not Martians, a supersonic anti-ship missile that can shoot from Taiwan to hit a submarine near Argentina is Martian technology.Oh wait, I have seemed to forget to mention the inexpensive yet high-quality healthcare system, what Taiwan’s been popularly known for.Healthcare in Taiwan has been too good that many people actually abuse it. A Taiwanese person residing abroad and having citizenship of the country that he resides in may fly half the world when he is very ill to be back in Taiwan for Taiwan to take care of a sick him.I first came across this chart reading a comment written by a Taiwanese Quoran. This chart is fetched from a report from The Daily Telegraph, under a title that says ‘Taiwan Tops The Expat Health Care Charts’. According to the chart, Taiwan ranks first in both quality and affordability for healthcare. Taiwanese people don’t have the most healthy food preferences (actually, pretty unhealthy, like the two pictures below) and life styles, so a great healthcare system can certainly help a lot.Heaven is when you have boba (or, beer if you don’t like sweet) and some Taiwanese fried chicken and watch an NBA game on a nice Friday night, that’s how watching too many NBA games can ruin your health. You’d need a good healthcare system to back you up and allow you to continually ruin your health in heaven.Hocena®, a Taiwanese biotech company’s product that effectively restrains the growth of the RAS mutation tumor in cancer and developmental diseases.Myozyme®, an injected medicine developed by a Taiwanese scientist Dr Yuan-Tsong Chen and his team to significantly elevate the survival rate of patients with the rare but fatal disease called ‘glycogenosis II’, also known as ‘Pompe disease’. This medicine is very expensive, costing 300,000 dollars a year, yet under the healthcare policies in Taiwan, it’s been a lot cheaper.Burixafor®, an injected medicine developed by a Taiwanese company (TaiGen Biotechnology Co., Ltd), used in critical treatment of Multiple Myeloma, Hodgkin's Disease, and Non-hodgkin's Lymphoma. Like Hocena® and Myozyme®, Burixafor® is an orphan drug (孤兒藥), a classification of drugs that is developed for treatment of rare diseases or pathology which is especially complicated in catastrophic illness. Development of orphan drugs is usually more difficult than that of common drugs owing to smaller numbers of samples (patients), more complicated pathology, and has higher risks due to much smaller markets – so, orphan drugs are usually very expensive, and governmental policies will have to kick in or no one will be able to afford them. The Taiwanese pharmaceutical industry has been quite an achiever in this area (orphan drugs), having put various products on the markets domestic and abroad (particularly America), especially when we look at its size.The thing that looks like a horizontally-put metal barrel in the green square box is an RF cavity developed by Shian Biotech (錫安生技), the most crucial equipment of a proton therapy system. Proton therapy is thus far not only the most advanced treatment for developmental diseases and malignant tumours, but also the most expensive (the entire equipment set costs more than 150 million USD). After successfully developing RF cavity technology, Shian Biotech has developed its own brand of proton therapy equipment set - iProton® (picture below).iProton®, the entire set contains 8 systems (including the linear particle accelerator system, where the RF cavity is installed), occupying quite of few rooms on a hospital floor.The picture on the left, well, I know some Taiwanese Quorans probably don’t want to see her (while others may like her) but this picture isn’t about her, it’s about the robotic surgery machine that she’s looking at. The machine is developed by a Taiwanese company (Brain Navi Biotechnology Co., Ltd), and its job is to conduct brain surgery in some specific situations where human doctors may have their limitations. The machine has had real clinical use (pictures on the right and below).The machine has to be highly precise as it’s about the brain. A brain surgery machine that doesn’t have high precision can easily have the patient either result in a persistent vegetable state (PVS) or a corpse.Other than the manufacturing industries, the services sector is also very important to the Taiwanese economy as it makes up about 70% of the yearly total GDP of Taiwan.EVA AIR, ranking 1# on the ‘safest airlines worldwide’ list for several years.Shin Kong Mitsukoshi, one of the largest Taiwanese chain department stores. In English, the department store has a Japanese-sounding name, but is in fact a domestic brand.Miramar Cinemas, among the largest Taiwanese chain operation cinemas. It’s also a big shopping mall.Living Mall, a large shopping centre located in Taipei.Wang Steak, probably the largest chain steakhouse in Taiwan.Din Tai Fung, a very famous corporation of chain restaurants offering Taiwanese cuisines.The Taiwanese love reading, and this leads to the prosperity of local bookstores – Eslite, the largest Taiwanese chain bookstore.RT-Mart, the largest local chain shopping malls (not counting foreign brands such as Carrefour and Costco).A Fullon Hotel located in Tamsui, belonging to one of the largest Taiwanese corporations operating multiple 5-star hotels across the country.Another side of the said Fullon Hotel.Grand Hotel.CTBC, one of the largest Taiwanese banks.A CTBC branch (the skyscraper with greenish lighting that reads ‘CTBC BANK’ at the top) located in Los Angeles.Leofoo Village Theme Park, one of the largest Taiwanese amusement theme parks.Formosan Aboriginal Culture Village, another large (probably the largest) theme park in Taiwan. Unlike Leofoo Village Theme Park that introduces a lot of foreign and exotic elements, it mainly features the cultures of Taiwanese aborigines.At Formosan Aboriginal Culture Village.This is called ‘Maya Adventure’, one of the most famous attractions at Formosan Aboriginal Culture Village.National Taichung Theatre.National Theatre (in Taipei).National Concert Hall.National Palace Museum.Taipei the capital, the financial centre of Taiwan.Drone view of Taipei. Picture fetched from this YouTube video titled ‘I fly my drone in TAIWAN [4K]’[39]. SimCity 4 Formosa, anyone?One commercial district in Taipei.Kaohsiung, the second largest city in Taiwan.Taichung, the third largest, I guess? Or maybe not.Taichung skyline at night.Creeks in Taichung.They look like highways, well yeah they are.These look like highways too, well yeah they are.Three pictures of Taipei Train Station (including Qsquare), a complex public transportation hub as you can also take metro, high speed rail and buses from here.Taichung Train Station, the newer one.The Danhai Light Rail. It’s homegrown, meaning it’s designed and built by local companies. This means a lot to Taiwan because it’s the first time Taiwan’s managed to develop a domestic railroad-vehicle industry. Taiwan’s such a tiny island only slightly bigger than Israel, a country at this size will never make a firm that domestically manufactures any railroad vehicles be profitable as the domestic market is too small. That’s why Taiwan’s always imported instead of building when it comes to trains, trams, or metro. But the Danhai Light Rail has marked the beginning of a Taiwanese railroad-vehicle industry as the Government now has planned to make Taiwan a future exporter of vehicles moving on rails.One of the Danhai Light Rail trams in motion recorded in July, 2018. This is only a test-run as they haven’t been officially operating yet.The Danhai Light Rail has now been in operation since December 23, 2018.Central Park Station of Kaohsiung MRT.Kaohsiung circular light rail.Two pictures showing parts of Taipei MRT.The Puyuma Express. I personally think it’s the prettiest train we’ve got.The Taroko Express.The High Speed Rail. I prefer airplanes to be honest because I’m just very much into any vehicles that fly.Taoyuan International Airport. Its traffic flow is expanding, so more runways and terminals are being built.Airport MRT Express directly heading for Taoyuan International Airport.Songshan Airort (Taipei International Airport), located in the capital but much smaller than Taoyuan International Airport.Port of Kaohsiung, the largest port (I guess) in Taiwan.Headquarter of CPC, the largest petroleum, natural gas, and gasoline company in Taiwan.A CPC’s offshore platform. This one is for research purpose.A wind power station located in Penghu.A nuclear power station in Pingtung.Other than using turbines rotated by power of the wind to generate electricity, Taiwan has also developed an industry of renewable energy of other forms and such technologies have been in use. What’s in the picture above is a solar farm built on water in Tainan. As of January 2019, Google has announced to build its first data centre powered by renewable energy in Asia. The data centre will be located in Tainan, using solar technologies developed by Taiwanese companies. A data centre consumes a lot of electricity, especially one that belongs to a world-class tech corporation like Google, which would easily cover a couple of hundreds of land square metres, needing to store and process data from all of Asia, never taking a day off. Following Google, in the same month, Tokyo Electric Power Company (東京電力ホールディングス株式会社) has also announced to invest one hundred million US dollars in Taiwan’s renewable energy industry.A Google Data Centre in Denmark. So far, Google has had 16 data centres, 9 in the USA, 4 in Europe, 1 in South America, and 2 in Asia (Taiwan and Singapore). The one in Taiwan is in Changhua, and the largest Google Data Centre in Asia.A large desalination system developed and built by KTI, a Taiwanese company specialising in water treatment technology. This desalination system locates at a harbour in Yunlin County. I was actually quite surprised to learn that we needed something like this because I had always thought although Taiwan had literally zero valuable natural resources, at least we were blessed with abundance of fresh water. Well apparently I was wrong, that God actually treated us much worse than I thought (joke).Roads, bridges and remediated streams - paint a quiet countryside view.Street view: typical middle-class homes in the countryside.Street view: the quiet afternoon in a small town in the countryside. These houses (and those in the previous picture) have more modern design and look newer compared to the ones in the picture below.Street view: evening in a residential district in a countryside town. This district is the typical kind built in the ‘90s as it looks kinda old and you can see many windows are barred, which is extremely strange as Taiwan’s crime rates have always been very low even back in the day.Street view: a closer look.Onto agriculture, Taiwan’s a small country, so there isn’t much land to grow crops. As a result, Taiwan has to rely on technology innovation to boost the efficiency and productivity of its farms. In fact, Taiwan’s quite well-known for turning the agriculture industry - something that is usually considered primary and lowly - into a knowledge economy. The agriculture sector of Taiwan produces about 1.5% of Taiwan’s total yearly GDP.Taiwan’s agriculture industry relies heavily on innovation of technology. One of the most famous examples is YesHealth iFarm, a company that has developed a patent formula of antagonist micro-organisms, which boost production with low nitrate levels, and further develops into a system of growing vegetables in a water solution rather than soil. YesHealth iFarm’s going to have its first overseas branch in York, UK.A controlled environment hydroponic system developed by a fresh fruit and vegetable company in Changhua. A controlled environment hydroponic system is a type of precise-controlled environment agriculture greenhouses, and is among the most advanced modern agriculture technologies.A precise-controlled environment agriculture greenhouse system allows to massively grow plants that are rare under natural conditions, which would then significantly lower their prices. These plants in the picture here are grifola frondosa, a species of mushrooms. They are edible, and can help prevent cancers, but they’re expensive because they are uncommon even in their native habitats. The image above is from a locally developed precise-controlled environment greenhouse in Taichung.Taiwan’s agriculture economy isn’t just known for vegetables and fruits, but also flowering plants, such as those of the orchid family, which are good materials for perfume. In fact, ‘Kingdom of orchids’ refers to Taiwan.Every country has strength and weakness. While Taiwan is advanced in many areas, particularly those that are heavily technology, knowledge and science-oriented, Taiwan fares only moderately in some, where management and marketing are more determinant. Two typical examples are the finance and entertainment industries.What you’re looking at is a part of Nangang District, one of the most heavily invested regions in Taipei, and a lot of banks are located here. There’s nothing impressive about Taiwan’s finance industry because it’s just mediocre. Taiwan can learn a great deal from Singapore, whose finance industry is arguably ahead of the entire Asia.Other than the finance industry, the entertainment industry is another area that Taiwan should put more effort into. One of the most major parts of the entertainment industry is the gaming industry, in which Taiwan does relatively better than in the music and film industries, thanks to widespread international platforms such as Steam. The picture here is anime named ‘Xuan Yuan Sword Luminary’ (Japanese: 軒轅剣・蒼き曜) produced by TV TOKYO Corporation (株式會社東京電視). The anime is an adaptation of a video game named ‘Xuan-Yuan Sword: The Millennial Destiny‘ (軒轅劍外傳：滄之濤) released in 2004, developed by Softstar, a major Taiwanese video game company. TV TOKYO Corporation has obtained license from Softstar for development of the anime.Chu Yun (車芸), one of the main characters in the video game ‘Xuan-Yuan Sword: The Millennial Destiny’. ‘Chu’ is her surname, the pronunciation is the same as ‘居’. Her entire family were slaughtered when she was a baby, but even as a baby, she didn’t fully get away. The people that massacred her family chopped off her legs to compensate for not taking her life. In the picture here, you can see her legs are prostheses made of wood. The prostheses are a technology called ‘mu chia shu’ (木甲術), something much more advanced than even the 21st century robotics (bear in mind, the story of the game is set in a fictional version of the Spring and Autumn period). The wooden fox next to her is built using the same technology. Chu Yun dies in the end of the game, at an age of 14.The Legend of Sword and Fairy (仙劍奇俠傳), one of the very first Taiwanese video games, originally released in 1995 and developed by Softstar. This game was the first milestone of the Taiwanese gaming industry in that it was a tremendous success both in Taiwan and China. This game was so popular that probably every kid in Taiwan and China that had access to computer gaming back in the ‘90s had played or at least heard of it.The Seventh Seal: Resurrection of the Dark Lord, an RPG developed by Soft World, a major Taiwanese video game company. This game was released in 2002. In general, Soft World’s games aren’t as popular as Softstar’s, but they still have quite a large fanbase.The era of the ‘90s was the booming period of Taiwan’s gaming industry because at the time a good number of Taiwan’s videogame companies tried to do as many things as possible. The console here, named Super A’Can, has been the first TV gaming console that Taiwan’s gaming industry has developed, by Funtech Entertainment Corporation and released in 1995. Owing to scarcity of the number of videogames released for this console and a lack of 3D support, along with a high price, Super A’Can failed to compete with Sony’s PlayStation and eventually led the company into bankruptcy. Funtech Entertainment Corporation now belongs to UMC (United Microelectroincs Corporation), a Taiwanese semiconductor company.‘Son of Evil’, an RPG game developed by Funtech Entertainment Corp and released for Super A’Can.Taiwan’s music industry mostly only caters for Chinese-speaking markets, and it has been so for decades. Taiwan is without a doubt the pop-culture icon in the domain of Chinese-speaking countries, but not so much outside of it.Mayday is a relatively more internationally-focusing band in comparison with other bands and singers originated in Taiwan. In early January 2019, they have just finished their 10th concert tour, which started from March 2017. They performed in multiple major cities on the tour, including Kaohsiung, Hong Kong, Beijing, Tokyo, Seoul, Shanghai, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok, Vancouver, Toronto, Chicago, Huston, New York, Auckland, Melbourne, Sydney, Paris and London. 13 countries and 53 cities in total.The film industry in Taiwan is pretty much in the same boat with the music industry, and it also mostly just aims at Chinese-speaking markets, although in recent years, there has been a boom for new movies in both quantity and quality. The two movies in the picture here hit the cinema in 2011.‘Seediq Bale’ (賽德克巴萊) is a movie about Taiwanese aboriginals rebelling against the Japanese invaders.This is from the trailer of a horror film called ‘The Devil Fish’ (人面魚. The English translation sounds kind of funny), hitting the cinema in November 2018. The movie is based on quite a few urban legends in Taiwan. I’m sorry, I should have warned you about this picture.Wake Up, a 2015 Taiwanese television series, a medical drama that received largely positive reviews, recommended even by real physicians.The World Between Us, a 2019 Taiwanese drama television series. This drama may sound like a romantic one, but it isn’t. The story begins with a mass murder, centers around the death penalty, psychology and emotions of both the murderer’s and victims’ family, clashes between wanting to revenge and growing sympathy for those who call the offender ‘son’ and ‘brother’ (“哥哥”), and conflicts between justice and human rights. IMDB has given this drama 9.2 out of 10.Nowhere Man, the first Taiwanese drama to be aired (October 31, 2019) on Netflix. Including Nowhere Man, there have been 3 Taiwanese dramas scheduled to be aired on Netflix; the other two are Triad Princess (December 6, 2019) and The Ghost Bride (January 2020). Since Netflix is worldwide popular, not restricted to Chinese-speaking regions, I think we can say Taiwanese dramas have formally entered the international market.The three major festivals and their awards that the entertainment industries in Taiwan, Hong Kong, China and Singapore hold dear, namely the Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival and Awards (金馬獎), the Golden Melody Awards (金曲獎) and the Golden Bell Awards (金鐘獎), were all founded and are held by Taiwan. This picture shows actors and actresses attending the Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival and Awards.The Golden Melody Awards, giving prizes to the best singers, artists and bands of the year.The Golden Bell Awards, an annual Taiwanese television production award, attracting actors, actresses and directors from all Chinese-speaking regions.The fact that Taiwan’s the pop culture centre of all Chinese-speaking societies also attracts talented foreigners to come and develop their careers here. Leehom Wang (left) is a Taiwanese-American singer. Stefanie Sun (middle), a singer from Singapore. Wayne Lim (right), also a Singaporean singer, crazy popular.Besides attracting foreign talents to work in Taiwan’s entertainment industry, there are also Taiwanese that work in the entertainment industries in other countries, like Tzuyu and Ang Lee (pic below). Of course you know Tzuyu. The whole planet knows her. She’s from Tainan, a major city in Southern Taiwan. I have heard more than a few times that people say she has very typical “Tainan girl” looks. Guess what, I kinda agree.Ang Lee, he’s also from Tainan (but was born in Pingtung). He’s a director, working in America’s film industry, and has obtained the Academy Award for Best Directing twice, in 2006 and 2013. In the picture above, he was apparently given another award.Ang Lee won the Academy Award for Best Directing for these two films of his – Life of Pi (left) and Brokeback Mountain (right).Taiwan used to be a major animated film contractor in the ‘90s, which means a lot of name-brand animated film companies had the drawing and animation work of their animated films done in Taiwan, including many famous Disney films, so it isn’t surprising at all that the puppy in the rain in the picture above is CGI done by a Taiwanese animation studio for its own film. This picture is fetched from the studio’s short film called ‘A Dog’s Life’, in which some scenes are CGI, some are regular animation (2D).Another CGI scene in ‘A Dog’s Life’, isn’t it beautiful?The CGI of Netflix’s famous ‘How To Train Your Dragon’ TV series is done by a Taiwanese studio (CGCG Inc.). The studio has won quite a few Annie Awards for it.CGCG Inc. also participated in production of ‘Star Wars: Resistance’ and ‘Pokémon Ranger and the Temple of the Sea’.‘On Happiness Road’ (幸福路上) is the most recent animated film produced by Taiwanese studios, and has won ‘Award for Best Animated Feature Film’ at Tokyo Anime Award Festival (東京アニメアワード) last year (2018). While I believe winning a major award which has a long history of being won by Miyazaki Hayao’s films, at a major anime festival, in a major anime-producing country, means something, as an ordinary movie watcher however, I have to say that’s exactly the problem of Taiwan’s anime industry because actually ‘On Happiness Road’ sold terribly. It isn’t a secret that Taiwanese anime producers refuse to learn from Disney and Japanese anime, criticising them being ‘commercial and customer-serving’, so the result is anime films from Taiwan win awards, but nobody cares because they don’t have much entertainment value, hell they aren’t even interesting. I think it’s time that Taiwanese anime producers got off from their ‘artist’ high horse and recognised the fact that anime from America and Japan are a result of natural selection of the market, that they may not win a major prize, but they sell, which is the most important thing since this isn’t about art and glory, but about the industry and money. This is why I have higher regard for the two animated films below, and not for ‘On Happiness Road’ (Let me clear myself a little bit: I watched ‘On Happiness Road’, and I really liked it. This film isn’t what it looks like. It’s clearly for adults. What this film tries to convey is deep and reflects a lot of issues that we’re facing even today. The story has fun moments that would make you burst into laughter, but there are also parts that are really sad. ‘On Happiness Road’ is one of those great films that would linger in your heart long, even years after you have watched it for the first time on a random Saturday night. I’m not surprised at all that this film has won appreciation of Japanese film critics and been given major awards in both Japan and Germany. It even has been in theatres in France, with blue-ray disks now released in the European market. ‘On Happiness Road’ has set a high bar for Taiwanese animated films in terms of scripts, content, smoothness and expressiveness of animations, but commercially – let’s face it - it’s a failure. It even isn’t profitable.)‘Implosion: ZERO DAY’ (聚爆：第零日) is an animated film based on the video game of the same name. Both of the film and video game are developed by Rayark. The film was originally planned to hit the cinema in summer 2018, but has been postponed. You can watch the trailer here[40].‘Mayfly Island’ (蜉蝣之島), originally named as ‘Kraft’ (最後的卡夫特), is an animated film scheduled to hit the theatre in 2020. The poster may remind some people of ‘Howl's Moving Castle’, but they’re completely different things, having totally different world backgrounds, settings and themes. The only similarity between them is they both feature what we would call ‘illegal structures’ in real life, like that ship-looking thing behind the boy in the poster, and the castle of Howl’s. Unlike ‘Implosion: ZERO DAY’, there hasn’t been any trailer of ‘Mayfly Island’, and all the videos about this film leaked on the Internet are just samples (樣片), meaning they’re short and a lot of details regarding the art have been removed.Similar to the entertainment industry, the garment industry (including clothing and personal accessories) is also a field that Taiwan should invest more money and talents in. NET is one of the very few Taiwanese brands of clothing.Watches are very representative personal accessories. ATOP (left) is the only Taiwanese watch brand that I know that designs and develops its own clockwork (the right picture; watch clockwork is also known as ‘movements’. The clockwork here in the picture is not from ATOP). The ability to develop own clockwork is very important for a watch manufacturer. Major watch brands such as Seiko, Citizen, Casio, Tissot, Oris, Rolex and etc, all develop clockwork for themselves. ATOP watches are not expensive, their prices usually ranging between USD 200 - 500, but they’re technically much more valuable than those Taiwanese watch brands that use some China-made cheap crappy clones of Swiss clockwork and try to sell for a thousand bucks just because some diamonds are put on them.Like the garment industry, the cosmetic industry of Taiwan could use more investment and talents as there aren’t many cosmetic brands from Taiwan. My Beauty Diary (left) is a mid-range Taiwanese brand that seems to have occupied many young Chinese ladies’ vanities. St. Clare (right) is an expensive brand, whose products are viewed as on a par with those from European and Japanese cosmetic brands. St. Clare is a popular brand in Taiwan, but I haven’t seen it in China.Certainly, there are some areas that Taiwan should put a lot of more effort into, such as the entertainment and garment industries, but it doesn’t change the fact that Taiwan is no doubt a developed economy and technologically advanced. Some other things alongside economy and technology I’d like to add: freedom of the press and forest coverage rate. High freedom of the press indicates more powerful media, functioning not only as a highly efficient force to monitor the Government, but also as a means where different perspectives and opinions can be spoken and heard by the masses, which as a result, would naturally lead to a government of less corruption, and a more forward-thinking and open-minded society. A developed country, in my own thought, ought to have high freedom of the press; look at those Nordic countries! The forest coverage rate tells us how ‘green’ a country is. Some countries are naturally greener than others due to different terrains. Taiwan’s getting greener and greener! Having gone through a lot to realise the importance of environmental protection, we the Taiwanese have learnt to appreciate the beauty of the island and what she has given to us. The island is our mother. After years of environmental preservation, the forest coverage rate of Taiwan has improved significantly.Taiwan receives a score of 25 (the lower the better) on Freedom of the Press 2017, ranking ahead of Japan (27), South Korea (34), Hong Kong (42), China (87) and North Korea (98). Scores of other major countries: America (23), Canada (18), France (26), Britain (25), Germany (20) and Italy (31).Taiwan scored 7.73 for the Democracy Index in 2018, ranking 32, between Belgium (31) and Italy (33). Overall, in the developed European regions, the country that is institutionally the most similar to Taiwan in a meaningful way is France, which scored 7.80, ranking 29.Taiwan is the only country built based on a model of separation of five powers (五權分立); other countries adopt a model of separation of three powers, such as the United States of America. The philosophy to establish examination affairs as an independent power off of the Executive Yuan is that founders of this country believe civil service examinations being a just and open competition, political influences and intervention should be as minimalized as possible.Taiwan (left) and France (right) are both semi-presidentialism. I don’t necessarily think that a parliamentary system would serve Taiwan better, but I do think we lack certain good customs that you can find in the French semi-presidentialism; for example, a tradition of alternation when a minority cabinet is formed.Alternation only happened once in the history of the Taiwanese government. In the first term of Shui-Bian Chen (left) as head of state, he appointed Fei Tang (the guy in the middle in the right picture), who was a member of the largest oppositional party, as head of government. Fei Tang quit the position 4 months after being appointed.In a country that is a presidential system, like the US, the president is the head of state and owns predominant power over all the other cabinet members. In a parliamentary system, like the UK, it’s the head of government (the Prime Minister) that is given actual power by the constitution, while the head of state (the monarch) is more like a symbolic position. In Taiwan, a semi-presidential system, actual power is shared by both the head of state and the head of government, each confines the other in their own dominant aspects. In Taiwan’s constitution, the position of the head of government is called “President of the Executive Yuan” (行政院院長).In the French semi-presidential system, when a minority cabinet is formed, usually the president would exert his/her right of dissolution of parliament, and determine if the government should enter cohabitation based on the results of reelection of the parliament. In the Taiwanese semi-presidential system, the constitution regulates the president’s right of dissolution of parliament. The president of Taiwan can dissolute parliament only when the head of government resigns in response to the vote of no confidence passed by parliament. In a presidential system, the head of state can’t dissolute parliament. Picture above was captured in Beidou, Changhua County.The semi-presidential system has characteristics of both of the presidential and parliamentary systems. In the presidential system, parliament has no interrogating power to question any members of the cabinet, including the president, whereas in the parliamentary system, the actual power holder (the Prime Minister) being interrogated in parliament is a common scene. In the Taiwanese semi-presidential system, legislators are entitled by the constitution to interrogate the cabinet, but not the president. This is partly why the head of government (President of the Executive Yuan) has the final say in validating (by countersign) enactment of bills because once enacted, bills go from the domain of the legislative power into the domain of the executive power, and that’s where liability of the President of the Executive Yuan lies. Image here is Chao-Shiuan Liu, the President of the Executive Yuan from May 2008 to September 2009.In the semi-presidential system of Taiwan, the head of government is entitled by the constitution to nominate his vice-president and all his ministers. The picture above shows some of the ministers sitting in a row answering questions from the press.The yuan sitting is the highest decision-making unit of the Executive Yuan and holds the highest executive power in all the cabinet. Premier of the sitting is the President of the Executive Yuan himself. The constitution of Taiwan gives the head of state no say in this unit. Various things have to be discussed at the sitting of the Executive Yuan before final decisions are made and announced by the president of Taiwan. These things include enforcement of martial law, declaration of war against other countries, and signing treaties with other states.The forest coverage rate of Taiwan is currently at 60.71% as of the data reported in 2016. Lower than Japan (67%), but higher than Slovenia (60.1%), Sweden (58%), Germany (31.7%), Britain (11.76%), France (30.95%) and Italy (35%). The picture was taken in Ilan, Taiwan.Mugumuyu in Hualien County.A part of Taroko National Park, it’s a fascinating experience to drive through the long, narrow, greenish canyon.At the first glance, it may look like somewhere in the Amazon rainforest, but this is actually in Tainan. Tainan has one of the largest wetland nature reserves in Taiwan.Another large wetland nature reserve, in Tamsui.Orchid Island is an island off the southeastern coast of Taiwan, administratively belongs to Taitung County, and is the only place where you can see tropical (not ‘subtropical’!) Forests in the country. The man in the right picture is Hazen Audel, starring in National Geographic Channel’s ‘Primal Survivor’ series. The series brought him to Orchid Island, in the picture he was hunting aquatic animals using Yami people’s techniques. The Yami people are the indigenous people native to Orchid Island.At the weekend, leave your home in Taipei, visit the wilds in Taiwan, climb a short mountain below 500m, you’ll be greeted with a typical scenario of subtropical forests.Swinhoe’s pheasants are habitants commonly seen in Taiwan’s low-altitude forests. They’re found only in Taiwan (hence also known as the ‘Taiwan blue pheasant’), named after Robert Swinhoe in 1862, a British naturalist, yet actually the first word record of this species dates back to 1753, by a Chinese settler, who described the pheasants as ‘difficult to tame’, suggesting a nature very different from that of domestic animals and poultry although the locals (Taiwanese aboriginals) had tried to tame them.Taiwan is a mountainous country, between 500m – 2,000m of altitude, the terrains of Taiwan are covered with temperate vegetation, forming rampant and beautiful temperate forests, home of quite a lot of species.Taiwan is an island, the lack of influence from outside world for million years helps species on the island evolve into their own unique branches. The Formosan black bear is one of the many endemic species of Taiwan, the largest native mammal in the country.The Formosan sika deer, also an endemic species of Taiwan, as suggested by the name.The leopard cat is one of the only two large species of felidae native to Taiwan. The other is the Formosan clouded leopard (picture below), but due to our greed for the value of their fur, the Formosan clouded leopards have become extinct, with the last record of a wild individual in 1983, a dead cub. We’re not going to make the same mistake with leopard cats or any other species in Taiwan again.Specimens of the Formosan clouded leopard at National Taiwan Museum, preserved since the Japanese ruling era.The so-called ‘Formosan clouded leopards’ bred in various major zoos in Taiwan that you can see today are not real Formosan clouded leopards. Instead, they’re foreign species, most commonly the Sudan clouded leopard (the picture here). Pay a visit to National Taiwan Museum, those cold, soulless specimens are the only chance that you can see what a real Formosan clouded leopard looks like. How pathetic that we have exploited what the island of Taiwan has offered and taken it for granted, annihilating an entire species by our own hand. Modern Taiwan has learnt a hard lesson with it, having put a lot of effort into environmental and animal protection since the ‘90s, that’s the right path.Taiwan currently has at least 9 national parks and 57 conservation zones set for habitats and species protection. The Chinese white dolphin is a dolphin species whose habitats range southward from oceanic areas surrounding Taiwan to Southeast Asia and Oceania. Taiwan’s planning a conservation zone for the Chinese white dolphins west off the coast of Miaoli, Taichung, Changhua and Yunlin, a total area of 763 square kilometres. Fishing and marine development in this area will have to meet special regulations.Being an island, Taiwan naturally has abundant ocean resources, and some are very good for tourism. The picture above (which I obtained from a travel agency website) features Ching-shui Cliffs, on the east coast of Taiwan. It’s an ideal place for whale watching.Another shot of Ching-shui cliffs. Credit: this website[41].Longdong Bay, northeast coast. Picture from here[42].Baisha Bay, in New Taipei City. Taiwan’s a country where you have access to both high mountains and beautiful seaside within arm’s reach.Longpan Park, Pingtung.Double-heart of Stacked Stones, Penghu. It’s a well-preserved ancient fish trap made by stacking stones to form a trap that resembles a flying heart.A lighthouse near the Aimen Beach, also in Penghu.Aowanda, Nanto County, one of the largest woods that are home of maples.Alishan in autumn.Above 3,000m of altitude, the whole island of Taiwan is covered with coniferous vegetation, breeding wide areas of coniferous forests.If you are keen on mountain climbing and enjoy those Taiwanese mountains higher than 3,000m, you must have been familiar with this kind of woods in the two pictures here. It’s the same type of woods that you see in Scandinavia.Cloud sea and the sun in the morning, somewhere in Nantou.Two pictures of Mt. Sylvania, located in Miaoli; the mountain is referred to as ‘Papa-Waqa’ by the Atayal people, and ‘Kapatalayan’ by the Sai-Siat people.Mount Hehuan, snowfall in January, 2010.Yushan, or Mount Jade, the highest mountain in Taiwan, at 3,952m. It’s also the highest mountain in East Asia if you don’t count those in Mongolia and Western China (including Northwestern and Southwestern China). Taiwan has 98 mountains over 3,000m in height.Many mountains have urban legends, Yushan is no exception. The most widespread urban legend about Yushan stems from unverified sighting reports of this thing we call ‘Yushan hsiao fei hsia’ (玉山小飛俠), literally translated as ‘Yushan Peter Pan’ in English, called so because of its appearance – yellow raincoat and a pointy hat. They always appear in a group of three, standing silently near mountain trails when the woods start to get cold and foggy, usually seen by mountain climbers, who once see them, will not be able to resist the idea of following them. Most mountain climbers that follow them are found dead days after by other hikers or rescue teams, usually having fallen off a high cliff, but there are also some that survive to tell people their stories. In this urban legend, these mysterious, humanlike figures are thought to be connected with a large number of death accidents on Yushan.And, Taiwan’s been helping people in need worldwide for a long time!The Tzu Chi Foundation. A Taiwan-based Buddhist organisation that helps promote education, better public health, provide clothes and shelters, eliminate famine in developing countries.Taiwan is a country that values human rights and believes in equality. February 2019, with the law for same-sex marriage drafted, Taiwan’s is in the process of becoming the first Asian state to legalise same-sex marriage. Homosexuality is neither sexual inversion like necrophilia, nor sexual orientation that fundamentally causes harm like pedophilia. It’s a minority, but just as normal as heterosexuality. Homosexual individuals should deserve the right to build a family, to take the responsibility of being a parent and raising children, to live life to the fullest just like all we do. I feel Taiwan has made a huge progress.May 2019, Taiwan legalised same-sex marriage. But for some very weird reason, a lot of netizens and Quorans seem to have made this whole thing be like an X-file because there are a lot of versions. One version says legalisation of same-sex marriage didn’t pass parliament, instead, it was president’s order. Another version says parliament disobeyed Taiwanese people’s opinions because in the referendum held in November last year, legalisation of same-sex marriage was actually voted against and didn’t pass. Well, so Mulder and Scully are here to help. They are X-file experts.After 10 seconds of Google search, Mulder and Scully say case closed (yeah they know Mandarin). This must have been the only case where Scully is right that it ain’t X-file. Apparently, in the referendum, people voted against ‘legalising same-sex marriage under the Civil Code’, but people actually accepted it when the legalisation was through a non-Civil Code. So the conclusion: first, legalisation of same-sex marriage was through parliament; second, the Civil Code provides more thorough protection for civil rights than a non-Civil Code does, but accepting protection of rights of same-sex couples outside of the Civil Code is already one giant leap for an East Asian society and a good start. The Taiwanese society is progressive, even Judicial Interpretation No. 748[43] has concluded prohibiting same-sex couples from marital rights violates constitutional protection for right of equality. We are not ‘allowing’ same-sex couples to form marriage. We are ‘returning’ marital rights back to them.With all the evidence presented be it just some metric figures or occurrences that have happened or events that are currently ongoing, Taiwan is positively a developed country - it seriously cannot be anything else, for what Taiwan's capable of is far too much for an emerging state.*Additional Content:These are a little bit off-topic but I feel inclined to address some very important facts about the ownership (sovereignty) of the island of Taiwan and archipelago of Penghu not belonging to the Republic of China, which then leading to another fact, that there’s no legal stance for the People’s Republic of China to lay any claims on Taiwan and Penghu, and hence the United States of America has considered Taiwan’s status as undetermined.The Cairo Declaration, the Potsdam Declaration, the Treaty of Taipei, and the Japanese Instrument of Surrender have been the only four written documents where the sovereignty of the island of Taiwan and archipelago of Penghu may have been mentioned to belong to, or to be returned to the Republic of China. While there’s no denying that they have referred to such an issue, these materials have had no legal effect when it comes to sovereignty transferring of a territory.1. The Cairo Declaration -(1) Instead of being a treaty or an executive agreement, the Cairo Declaration (year 1943) has only been a press communiqué, and a statement of intention at best, having no legal effect, and therefore has had no authority to invalidate the Treaty of Shimonoseki (year 1895), by which the sovereignty of the island of Taiwan and archipelago of Penghu has been transferred to Japan.(2) No countries have signed on the Cairo Declaration.(3) The yearly governmental publication ‘Treaties in Force’, published by United States Department of State, has never included the Cairo Declaration.(4) Due to the Cairo Declaration’s lacking legal effect, the sovereignty of the island of Taiwan and archipelago of Penghu has continued to be legally in the hands of Japan until 1952 after the Treaty of San Francisco has come into effect. The Republic of China has only been governing Taiwan and Penghu under the name of ‘military occupation’ (mandate) authorised by General Order No. 1, signed in and coming into effect since 1945. Sovereignty and governing have always been two separate concepts.2. The Potsdam Declaration -(1) The only part of the Potsdam Declaration ever mentioning the sovereignty of Taiwan and Penghu has been the Cairo Declaration, as the Cairo Declaration’s been included in it.(2) Just like the Cairo Declaration, the Potsdam Declaration too has only been a statement of intention. ‘United States Treaties and Other International Agreements Cumulative Index 1776-1949’, originally published in 1975, has categorized all of the text materials it’s collected into 5 kinds based on their legal effect: the TS (Treaty Series), EAS (Executive Agreement Series), TIAS (Treaties and Other International Acts Series), UST (United States Treaties) and AD (Additional Documents). The TS, EAS, TIAS and UST represent ‘text materials that have legal effect’ while documents having no legal effect are all put into the AD. Both of the Cairo Declaration and Potsdam Declaration have been sorted into the AD since the very beginning.3. The Treaty of Taipei -(1) The Treaty of Taipei, signed by Japan and the Republic of China in 1952, and coming into effect on the 5th, August in the same year, has been legally questionable because it's contradicted the Treaty of San Francisco, coming into effect on the 28th, April, 1952. The Treaty of San Francisco’s regulated Japan’s authority to sign any legal documents with other countries following it by stating any legal documents required to be signed by Japan to come into effect cannot contradict the Treaty of San Francisco. The content of the Treaty of Taipei has had conflicts with the Treaty of San Francisco, leading to its deniable validity.(2) Japan’s renounced the sovereignty of the island of Taiwan and archipelago of Penghu in the Treaty of San Francisco. Hence, any parts (if there’s any) of the Treaty of Taipei stating Japan would return the island of Taiwan and archipelago of Penghu to the Republic of China will have ended up illegal, as Japan has had no sovereignty over the Taiwanese isles ever since the Treaty of San Francisco coming into effect, leaving Japan no authority to make any decisions on such an issue.(3) On the 29th, September, 1972, Japan’s renounced its diplomatic relation with the Republic of China and turned to the People’s Republic of China. Shortly following this event, Japan has declared void of the Treaty of Taipei.4. The Japanese Instrument of Surrender -The Instrument of Surrender has only been a truce, a form of legal documents used to formally declare the end of the warfare between or among countries. This is the only function of a truce, and hence it’s out of question that a truce has natively never had the authority of sovereignty transferring of a territory. The transferring of the sovereignty of a territory can only be legally achieved through treaties or agreements. Transactions of the Senate of the State of Japan (date: 15th/03/1961) have written, as transcribing Zentaro Kosaka’s (小坂善太郎) original words, who’s been Japan’s Foreign Minister at the time, “… however, what the Instrument of Surrender represents is only a pact of a truce, and therefore it is incapable of having binding force regarding any decisions or arrangement concerning the sovereignty of a territory”. (original text in Japanese: しかし、これは降伏文書というものは、休戦協定の性格を有するものでありまして、領土的処理を行ない得ない性質のものであるということを申し上げたのであります。)These help explain why the United States of America’s always considered Taiwan’s status as undetermined, and how on earth it has got to enact Taiwan Relations Act, continually operating weaponry communication with Taiwan based on such an act while recognising the People’s Republic of China as the sole legitimate representative of China. In the world of the law, the sovereignty of the island of Taiwan and archipelago of Penghu hasn’t been owned by any political entities. The Republic of China’s merely governing Taiwan in the name of military mandate since the very beginning. Let’s see how Kai-shek Chiang has put it.Taiwan’s Academia Historica (directly belonging to Office of the President, ROC) has revealed a letter written by Chiang to Cheng Chen, the Governor of Taiwan Province, Vice President and Premier of the Republic of China; it’s been year 1949, and in the letter, it says, ‘Taiwan is merely a mandate [the green part] of the Republic of China before a Treaty with Japan declares it is not. How could you publicly state Taiwan would serve as the last resort for the Republic of China to wipe the communists out of the country, and to liberate our people suffering under communism? Your statement was laughable to anybody that had learnt a thing or two about Taiwan’s legal status, which was, and still is merely a mandate, be they foreign or not.’In the world of the law, Taiwan is not China and has nothing to do with China, even if it’s officially called the Republic of China. In the world of the law, Taiwan has had no government ever since its sovereignty was renounced by the Empire of Japan in 1952. It’s been 66 years as I’m writing this. For 66 years already, Taiwan has had no government from the perspectives of the law, as no one in the world but the Taiwanese themselves has been legally qualified to obtain the ownership (sovereignty) of the island of Taiwan and archipelago of Penghu after the Empire of Japan. The Taiwanese haven’t been ready to do it, though. They have no reason to do it, either, for everything is still fine and quite acceptable currently. A military invasion from China however, would be a solid reason for the Taiwanese to finally pick up the sovereignty of Taiwan, which has been waiting for them to take for so long.Again, these help explain why, before a Republic of Taiwan will be built, the United States of America has always considered Taiwan’s status as undetermined and unsettled. The United States of America has intentionally left some grey zone to manipulate when signing the Three Joint Communiqués with the People’s Republic of China. In the Shanghai Communiqués (year 1972), it says -‘The United States acknowledges that all Chinese on either side of the Taiwan Strait maintain there is but one China and that Taiwan is a part of China. The United States Government does not challenge that position. It reaffirms its interest in a peaceful settlement of the Taiwan question by the Chinese themselves.’The grey zone is as follows –1. ‘The United States’ isn’t even the formal name of America to begin with. The formal name should be ‘the United States of America’. This already shows how diplomatically informal the piece of Communiqué is.2. ‘Acknowledge’ has very different meanings depending on the contexts. It doesn’t necessarily mean ‘recognise’; instead, it can mean ‘having knowledge of’, which is semantically a synonym of ‘knowing’. Knowing doesn’t mean agreement or recognition. In international legal documents, when you do formally recognise something, you use the word ‘recognise’ straight. You don’t make use of the word ‘acknowledge’ as it causes ambiguity, unless you intend to cause ambiguity.3. ‘All Chinese on either side of the Taiwan Strait’, another ambiguity here. The word ‘Chinese’, does it refer to citizenship or something else? If it refers to citizenship, there’s no Chinese on Taiwan because the Republic of China doesn’t possess the sovereignty of Taiwan. It has no people, legally speaking. Hence, there’s only one side of the Taiwan Strait inhabited by the Chinese.Therefore, basically, what the United States of America states in the Shanghai Communiqué, is this informal language with a grant of salt -‘Me know you Chinese people of the PRC think there’s only one China, and that you think Taiwan’s a part of China. I won’t challenge your stance (not saying I agree though). I just want you to deal with yourself peacefully.’As a result, the position of the United States regarding Taiwan’s legal status, as clarified in the ‘China/Taiwan: Evolution of the "One China" Policy’ report of the Congressional Research Service (date: July 9, 2007), is summed up in five points -1. The United States did not explicitly state the sovereign status of Taiwan in the three US-PRC Joint Communiques of 1972, 1979, and 1982.2. The United States "acknowledged" the "One China" position of both sides of the Taiwan Strait.3. US policy has not recognized the PRC's sovereignty over Taiwan.4. US policy has not recognized Taiwan as a sovereign country.5. US policy has considered Taiwan's status as undetermined. U.S. policy has considered Taiwan's status as unsettled.These positions remained unchanged in a 2013 report of the Congressional Research Service. The Congressional Research Service (CRS) offers Congress research and analysis on all current and emerging issues of national policy. It offers timely and confidential assistance to all Members and committees that request it, limited only by CRS’s resources and the requirements for balance, nonpartisanship and accuracy. CRS makes no legislative or other policy recommendations to Congress; its responsibility is to ensure that Members of the House and Senate have available the best possible information and analysis on which to base the policy decisions the American people have elected them to make. In all its work, CRS analysts are governed by requirements for confidentiality, timeliness, accuracy, objectivity, balance, and nonpartisanship.I hope my answer helps you understand Taiwan better. Thank you for reading this far.*About the references (footnotes):There’s a lot of information in this answer and I can’t possibly put all their sources in the answer in just a few hours, but I will add them gradually. However, your use of reverse image search is also recommended when I haven’t put the references. Google search using keywords (in English or Mandarin, or both) is welcome, too. My apology for the inconvenience.Footnotes[1] Earl B. Hunt - Wikipedia[2] Human Intelligence[3] A century of trends in adult human height[4] The g‐factor of international cognitive ability comparisons: the homogeneity of results in PISA, TIMSS, PIRLS and IQ‐tests across nations[5] 大麥克指數：台幣相對美元低估逾 4 成，遠比人民幣嚴重[6] Report for Selected Countries and Subjects[7] High-Entropy Alloys - Fundamentals and Applications | Michael C. Gao | Springer[8] High-Entropy Alloys[9] 行政院性別平等會-性別統計資料庫[10] Innolux 1.4" round flexible OLED[11] AUO shows Foldable AMOLED, Conformable Plastic LCD, Bezel-less displays and 240Hz Monitor[12] AUO AMOLED technologies at SID 2018[13] Acer XR341CK - Perfection in a monitor?[14] Taiwan is the World’s Fourth-Largest Exporter of Machine Tools[15] 機械零組件 工具機明日之星 - 產業特刊[16] 工研院院士朱志洋：認真、執著、堅持 成就全球第三大工具機集團 | 聯合新聞網[17] 友嘉 拚航太工具機廠落戶台灣 - Taiwan Smart Machinery[18] AD5L AMS 高速深孔加工機 180秒[19] 突破奈米極限！ 台灣技術獲國際肯定 - 生活 - 自由時報電子報[20] Foxconn - Wikipedia[21] 發現材料界超人 清大學者躍國際期刊 - 科技[22] Breakthrough applications of high-entropy materials | Journal of Materials Research | Cambridge Core[23] The Global Competitiveness Report 2018[24] Engineered Ceramics[25] Refractory high-entropy alloys[26] 賀！材料系高熵合金研究計畫團隊榮獲2017未來科技展-未來科技突破獎 - 國立台灣大學材料科學與工程學系暨研究所[27] https://money.udn.com/money/story/5612/3199684[28] 台積電秀自研 4 核心晶片，7 奈米製程最高時脈達 4GHz[29] https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/5/3/eaav2002[30] Making new layered superconductors using high entropy alloys[31] :::成功大學產學雲端平台:::[32] 成大教授疑輕生 墜系館13樓亡 - 社會 - 自由時報電子報[33] 國家中山科學研究院[34] 飛機發動機零組件 漢翔獲三菱重工大單 - 財經要聞[35] 航太公會參加日航太展 秀軍民航太組件能量 | 芋傳媒 TaroNews[36] 台灣塑膠工業股份有限公司[37] 海釣船與飛彈快艇擦撞 意外見證匿蹤功能？ - 政治 - 自由時報電子報[38] GMTC[39] I fly my drone in TAIWAN [4K][40] Implosion: ZERO_DAY Teaser[41] https://www.nickkembel.com/east-coast-taiwan-yilan-hualien-taroko-gorge/[42] Taiwan Northeast Coast Day Tour, Itinerary & Price - OWNRIDES[43] 釋字第748號解釋

NASA is one of the best for space science and agency .you can here of NASA something else .this is sample onlyNASAFor other uses, see NASA (disambiguation).The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA /ˈnæsə/) is an independent agency of the executive branchof the United States federal governmentresponsible for the civilian space program, as well as aeronautics and aerospaceresearch.[note 1]National Aeronautics and Space AdministrationSealEmblemFlagAgency overviewFormedJuly 29, 1958; 59 years agoPreceding agencyNACA (1915–1958)[1]JurisdictionUnited States governmentHeadquartersTwo Independence Square, Washington, D.C., U.S.38°52′59″N 77°0′59″WMottoFor the Benefit of All[2]Employees17,381+[3]Annual budgetUS$19.5 billion[4](2017),[5]also see Budget of NASAAgency executivesRobert M. Lightfoot Jr., Acting Administrator & Associate Administrator[6]Krista Paquin, Deputy Associate Administrator[7]Websitenasa.govPresident Dwight D. Eisenhower established NASA in 1958[10]with a distinctly civilian (rather than military) orientation encouraging peaceful applications in space science. The National Aeronautics and Space Act was passed on July 29, 1958, disestablishing NASA's predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA). The new agency became operational on October 1, 1958.[11][12]Since that time, most US space explorationefforts have been led by NASA, including the Apollo Moon landing missions, the Skylabspace station, and later the Space Shuttle. Currently, NASA is supporting the International Space Station and is overseeing the development of the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle, the Space Launch System and Commercial Crew vehicles. The agency is also responsible for the Launch Services Program (LSP) which provides oversight of launch operations and countdown management for unmanned NASA launches.NASA science is focused on better understanding Earth through the Earth Observing System,[13]advancing heliophysicsthrough the efforts of the Science Mission Directorate's Heliophysics Research Program,[14]exploring bodies throughout the Solar System with advanced robotic spacecraft missions such as New Horizons,[15]and researching astrophysics topics, such as the Big Bang, through the Great Observatoriesand associated programs.[16]NASA shares data with various national and international organizations such as from the Greenhouse Gases Observing Satellite.CreationMain article: Creation of NASAWilliam H. Pickering, (center) JPL Director, President John F. Kennedy, (right). NASA Administrator James E. Webb (background) discussing the Mariner program, with a model presented.From 1946, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) had been experimenting with rocket planes such as the supersonic Bell X-1.[17]In the early 1950s, there was challenge to launch an artificial satellite for the International Geophysical Year(1957–58). An effort for this was the American Project Vanguard. After the Sovietlaunch of the world's first artificial satellite(Sputnik 1) on October 4, 1957, the attention of the United States turned toward its own fledgling space efforts. The US Congress, alarmed by the perceived threat to national security and technological leadership (known as the "Sputnik crisis"), urged immediate and swift action; President Dwight D. Eisenhowerand his advisers counseled more deliberate measures. On January 12, 1958, NACA organized a "Special Committee on Space Technology", headed by Guyford Stever.[12]On January 14, 1958, NACA Director Hugh Drydenpublished "A National Research Program for Space Technology" stating:[18]It is of great urgency and importance to our country both from consideration of our prestige as a nation as well as military necessity that this challenge [Sputnik] be met by an energetic program of research and development for the conquest of space... It is accordingly proposed that the scientific research be the responsibility of a national civilian agency... NACA is capable, by rapid extension and expansion of its effort, of providing leadership in space technology.[18]While this new federal agency would conduct all non-military space activity, the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) was created in February 1958 to develop space technology for military application.[19]On July 29, 1958, Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act, establishing NASA. When it began operations on October 1, 1958, NASA absorbed the 43-year-old NACA intact; its 8,000 employees, an annual budget of US$100 million, three major research laboratories (Langley Aeronautical Laboratory, Ames Aeronautical Laboratory, and Lewis Flight Propulsion Laboratory) and two small test facilities.[20]A NASA seal was approved by President Eisenhower in 1959.[21]Elements of the Army Ballistic Missile Agencyand the United States Naval Research Laboratory were incorporated into NASA. A significant contributor to NASA's entry into the Space Race with the Soviet Union was the technology from the German rocket programled by Wernher von Braun, who was now working for the Army Ballistic Missile Agency(ABMA), which in turn incorporated the technology of American scientist Robert Goddard's earlier works.[22]Earlier research efforts within the US Air Force[20]and many of ARPA's early space programs were also transferred to NASA.[23]In December 1958, NASA gained control of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a contractor facility operated by the California Institute of Technology.[20]Staff and leadershipMain article: List of NASA AdministratorsCharles Bolden speaks after landing of the last Space Shuttle mission, STS-135The agency's leader, NASA's administrator, is nominated by the President of the United States subject to approval of the US Senate, and reports to him or her and serves as senior space science advisor. Though space exploration is ostensibly non-partisan, the appointee usually is associated with the President's political party (Democratic or Republican), and a new administrator is usually chosen when the Presidency changes parties. The only exceptions to this have been: James C. Fletcher, appointed by Republican Richard Nixon but stayed through May 1977 into the term of Democrat Jimmy Carter; Daniel Goldin, appointed by Republican George H. W. Bush and stayed through the administration of Democrat Bill Clinton; and Robert M. Lightfoot, Jr., associate administrator under Democrat Barack Obamakept on as acting administrator by Republican Donald Trump.[6]Though the agency is independent, the survival or discontinuation of projects can depend directly on the will of the President.[24]The first administrator was Dr. T. Keith Glennan appointed by Republican President Dwight D. Eisenhower. During his term he brought together the disparate projects in American space development research.[25]The third administrator, James E. Webb(1961–1968), appointed by President John F. Kennedy, was a Democrat who first publicly served under President Harry S. Truman. In order to implement the Apollo program to achieve Kennedy's Moon landing goal by the end of the 1960s, Webb directed major management restructuring and facility expansion, establishing the Houston Manned Spacecraft (Johnson) Center and the Florida Launch Operations (Kennedy) Center. Capitalizing on Kennedy's legacy, President Lyndon Johnson kept continuity with the Apollo program by keeping Webb on when he succeeded Kennedy in November 1963. But Webb resigned in October 1968 before Apollo achieved its goal, and Republican President Richard M. Nixon replaced Webb with Republican Thomas O. Paine.James Fletcher was responsible for early planning of the Space Shuttle program during his first term as administrator under President Nixon. He was appointed for a second term as administrator from May 1986 through April 1989 by President Ronald Reagan to help the agency recover from the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster.Former astronaut Charles Bolden served as NASA's twelfth administrator from July 2009 to January 20, 2017.[26]Administrator Bolden is one of three former astronauts who became NASA administrators, along with Richard H. Truly (served 1989–1992) and Frederick D. Gregory (acting, 2005).The agency's administration is located at NASA Headquarters in Washington, DC and provides overall guidance and direction.[27]Except under exceptional circumstances, NASA civil service employees are required to be citizens of the United States.[28]NASA Advisory CouncilIn response to the Apollo 1 accident which killed three astronauts in 1967, Congress directed NASA to form an Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel (ASAP) to advise the NASA Administrator on safety issues and hazards in NASA's aerospace programs. In the aftermath of the Shuttle Columbia accident, Congress required that the ASAP submit an annual report to the NASA Administrator and to Congress.[29]By 1971, NASA had also established the Space Program Advisory Council and the Research and Technology Advisory Council to provide the administrator with advisory committee support. In 1977, the latter two were combined to form the NASA Advisory Council (NAC).[30]Space flight programsResearchMain article: NASA researchFor technologies funded or otherwise supported by NASA, see NASA spin-off technologies.NASA developed this hard-suit in the 1980s at the Ames Research CenterNASA's Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate conducts aeronautics research.NASA has made use of technologies such as the Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator (MMRTG), which is a type of Radioisotope thermoelectric generator used on space missions.[141]Shortages of this material have curtailed deep space missions since the turn of the millennia.[142]An example of a spacecraft that was not developed because of a shortage of this material was New Horizons 2.[142]The earth science research program was created and first funded in the 1980s under the administrations of Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush.[143][144]NASA started an annual competition in 2014 named Cubes in Space.[145]It is jointly organized by NASA and the global education company I Doodle Learning, with the objective of teaching school students aged 11—18 to design and build scientific experiments to be launched into space on a NASA rocket or balloon. On June 21, 2017 the world's smallest satellite, Kalam SAT, built by an Indian team, was launched.[citation needed]Climate studyNASA also researches and publishes on climate issues.[146]Its statements concur with the interpretation that the global climate is heating.[147]Bob Walker, who has advised the 45th President of the United States Donald Trump on space issues, has advocated that NASA should focus on space exploration and that its climate study operations should be transferred to other agencies such as NOAA.[148]FacilitiesJet Propulsion Laboratorycomplex in Pasadena, CaliforniaVehicle Assembly and Launch Control at Kennedy Space CenterMain article: NASA facilitiesNASA's facilities are research, construction and communication centers to help its missions. Some facilities serve more than one application for historic or administrative reasons. NASA also operates a short-line railroad at the Kennedy Space Center and own special aircraft, for instance two Boeing 747 that transport Space Shuttle orbiter.John F. Kennedy Space Center (KSC), is one of the best-known NASA facilities. It has been the launch site for every United States human space flight since 1968. Although such flights are currently on pause, KSC continues to manage and operate unmanned rocket launch facilities for America's civilian space program from three pads at the adjoining Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston is home to the Christopher C. Kraft Jr. Mission Control Center, where all flight control is managed for manned space missions. JSC is the lead NASA center for activities regarding the International Space Station and also houses the NASA Astronaut Corps that selects, trains, and provides astronauts as crew members for US and international space missions.Another major facility is Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama at which the Saturn 5 rocket and Skylab were developed.[149]The JPL worked together with ABMA, one of the agencies behind Explorer 1, the first American space mission.FCR 1 in 2009 during the STS-128mission, JSC in HoustonThe ten NASA field centers are:John F. Kennedy Space Center, FloridaAmes Research Center, Moffett Field, CaliforniaArmstrong Flight Research Center (formerly Hugh L. Dryden Flight Research Facility), Edwards, CaliforniaGoddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MarylandJet Propulsion Laboratory, near Pasadena, CaliforniaLyndon B. Johnson Space Center, Houston, TexasLangley Research Center, Hampton, VirginiaJohn H. Glenn Research Center, Cleveland, OhioGeorge C. Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AlabamaJohn C. Stennis Space Center, Bay St. Louis, MississippiNumerous other facilities are operated by NASA, including the Wallops Flight Facility in Wallops Island, Virginia; the Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, Louisiana; the White Sands Test Facility in Las Cruces, New Mexico; and Deep Space Networkstations in Barstow, California; Madrid, Spain; and Canberra, Australia.BudgetNASA's budget from 1958 to 2012 as a percentage of federal budgetAn artist's conception, from NASA, of an astronaut planting a US flag on Mars. A manned mission to Mars has been discussed as a possible NASA mission since the 1960s.Main article: Budget of NASANASA's budget has generally been approximately 1% of the federal budget from the early 1970s on, after briefly peaking at approximately 4.41% in 1966 during the Apollo program.[24][150]Public perception of NASA's budget has differed significantly from reality; a 1997 poll indicated that most Americans responded that 20% of the federal budget went to NASA.[151]The percentage of federal budget that NASA has been allocated has been steadily dropping since the Apollo program and in 2012 it was estimated at 0.48% of the federal budget.[152]In a March 2012 meeting of the United States Senate Science Committee, Neil deGrasse Tyson testified that "Right now, NASA’s annual budget is half a penny on your tax dollar. For twice that—a penny on a dollar—we can transform the country from a sullen, dispirited nation, weary of economic struggle, to one where it has reclaimed its 20th century birthright to dream of tomorrow."[153][154]For Fiscal Year 2015, NASA received an appropriation of US$18.01 billion from Congress—$549 million more than requested and approximately $350 million more than the 2014 NASA budget passed by Congress.[155]In Fiscal Year 2016, NASA received $19.3 billion.[156]There was a new executive administration in the United States, which lead to the NASA Transition Authorization Act of 2017, which set the budget at around 19.5 billion for 2017.[157]The budget is also reported as 19.3 billion for 2017, with 19.1 billion proposed for 2018.[158]Examples of some proposed 2018 (fiscal year) budgets:[159]Human exploration: $3.7 billionPlanetary science: $1.9 billionEarth science: $1.8 billionAeronautics: $0.6 billionEnvironmental impactThe exhaust gases produced by rocket propulsion systems, both in Earth's atmosphere and in space, can adversely effect the Earth's environment. Some hypergolic rocket propellants, such as hydrazine, are highly toxic prior to combustion, but decompose into less toxic compounds after burning. Rockets using hydrocarbon fuels, such as kerosene, release carbon dioxide and soot in their exhaust.[160]However, carbon dioxide emissions are insignificant compared to those from other sources; on average, the United States consumed 802,620,000 US gallons (3.0382×109L) gallons of liquid fuels per day in 2014, while a single Falcon 9 rocket first stage burns around 25,000 US gallons (95,000 L) of kerosene fuel per launch.[161][162]Even if a Falcon 9 were launched every single day, it would only represent 0.006% of liquid fuel consumption (and carbon dioxide emissions) for that day. Additionally, the exhaust from LOx- and LH2- fueled engines, like the SSME, is almost entirely water vapor.[163]NASA addressed environmental concerns with its canceled Constellation program in accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act in 2011.[164]In contrast, ion engines use harmless noble gases like xenon for propulsion.[165][166]On May 8, 2003, Environmental Protection Agency recognized NASA as the first federal agency to directly use landfill gas to produce energy at one of its facilities—the Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland.[167]An example of NASA's environmental efforts is the NASA Sustainability Base. Additionally, the Exploration Sciences Building was awarded the LEED Gold rating in 2010.[168]ObservationsPlot of orbits of known Potentially Hazardous Asteroids (size over 460 feet (140 m) and passing within 4.7 million miles (7.6×106 km) of Earth's orbit)Various nebulae observed from a NASA space telescope1 CeresPlutoJupiterSpacecraftHardware comparison of Apollo, Gemini and Mercury[note 3]Hubble Space Telescope, astronomy observatory in Earth orbit since 1990. Also visited by the Space ShuttleCuriosity rover, roving Mars since 2012Planned spacecraftJames Webb Space TelescopeOrion spacecraft design as of January 2013Space Launch System concept artMars 2020 design artExamples of missions by targetHere are some selected examples of missions to planetary-sized objects. Other major targets of study are the Earth itself, the Sun, and smaller solar system bodies like asteroids and comets. In addition, the moons of the planets or body are also studied.Examples of robotic missionsSpacecraftLaunchyearMercuryVenusMarsJupiterSaturnUranusNeptunePlutoMariner 21962FlybyMariner 41964FlybyMariner 51967FlybyMariner 6 and 71969FlybyMariner 91971OrbiterPioneer 101972FlybyPioneer 111973FlybyFlybyMariner 101973FlybyFlybyViking 1 and Viking 21975OrbitersLandersVoyager 11977FlybyFlybyVoyager 21977FlybyFlybyFlybyFlybyGalileo1989FlybyOrbiterMagellan1989OrbiterMars Global Surveyor1996OrbiterCassini1997FlybyFlybyOrbiterMars Odyssey2001OrbiterSpirit and Opportunity2003RoversMESSENGER2004OrbiterFlybyMars Reconnaissance Orbiter2005OrbiterNew Horizons2006FlybyFlybyJuno2011OrbiterCuriosity (Mars Science Laboratory)2011RoverMAVEN2013OrbiterSpacecraftLaunchyearMercuryVenusMarsJupiterSaturnUranusNeptunePlutoExamples of missions for the SunInterface Region Imaging SpectrographSolar Dynamics ObservatorySTEREOUlysses (spacecraft)Parker Solar Probe