Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

The Ching-kuo Chi-hai Cultural Park and Chiang Ching-kuo Presidential Library officially opened on Jan. 22. In her opening remarks at the event, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) praised former president Chiang Ching-kuo’s (蔣經國) firm anti-communist stance and his determination to safeguard Taiwan, a position shared by Taiwanese in the face of the threat posed by China.

Attended by opposition and government figures, the ceremony to commemorate someone representative of the authoritarian period has not failed to cause uproar, even though Chiang passed away 34 years ago.

However, Tsai’s speech refrained from passing judgement on Chiang’s character.

Taiwan’s future is likely to have an outsized impact on not only the United States and People’s Republic of China, but the entire global order. There is no country on Earth today whose future is so uncertain, so contested, and so consequential. Why does Taiwan matter? Because not all foreign policy puzzles are created equal. A power law applies.

When it comes to matters of power, radically unequal distribution is the law of the universe. In Peter Thiel’s book, Zero to One, he describes how the power law works and why it matters to everyone. Thiel uses examples from the venture capital world, pointing out that just a few companies radically outperform all others.