Alex, Taiwan is 58% forested. It had a booming plywood industry during the '60s. It has excellent soils and climate for agriculture, fishery resources, and would be more self sufficient in sand and gravel had the Japanese not been so ruthless in exporting it during their occupation, which also saw intense timber mining for export. It is also, de facto, a country, (despite ill-founded claims by China) with a democratically elected government. It only lacks international recognition by the cowed countries who acquiesce to China's blustering and threats of violence against Taiwan.
If you are depending on people like Friedman to inform you on anything, you are likely to remain ignorant.
Taiwan is a barren rock? I guess Thomas Friedman has never been there, even though he claims it's his second favorite country. Another incredibly stupid statement in what's looking like some kind of world record for serial cluelessness. Sometimes I think he just says stuff he knows is incredibly wrong and stupid just to see if anyone is gullible enough to publish it.
Err.. Taichung City dates from the early 1700's, at least. It's a huge city. The military dependent's village is a small compound in Taichung, founded 50 or so years ago.
When I was building houses, we would often leave news pages in walls for future remodelers and deconstructors to find. Also wrote jobsite trivia like 'Scott's having a bad day' on the backside of drywall.
If you are depending on people like Friedman to inform you on anything, you are likely to remain ignorant.