ESHS/HSS Annual Meeting

Exporting the Taiwanese Experience of Land Reform：A Case Study of the Taiwan— Nicaragua Agricultural Technical Cooperation, 1975—1979

• In Event: ‘Beyond Bandung: Histories of Scientific, Technological and Medical Assistance between Decolonising Nations during the Cold War’ 1

English Abstract

Taiwan’s agricultural technological assistance in Africa during the 1960s has often been portrayed as a successful example of an aided country becoming a provider of aid. Yet what adjustments were required for Taiwan to become a helper? What exactly constituted the “Taiwanese Experience” that others were expected to emulate? And how could technicians and experts transfer this experience to countries with different social and cultural contexts? This study uses the case of the Taiwan–Nicaragua Agricultural Technical Cooperation from 1975 to 1979 to address these questions.

The Taiwan-Nicaragua Agricultural Technical Cooperation was designed not only to help prevent the internal collapse of the Somoza regime but also to showcase Taiwan’s successful experience with land reform. During this period, Nicaragua established a new institution, the Instituto de Bienestar Campesino (INVIERNO), which Taiwanese diplomats compared to the Sino-American Joint Commission on Rural Reconstruction (JCRR). Taiwanese experts were stationed at numerous rural outposts in Nicaragua, working side by side with INVIERNO technicians. Nevertheless, their collaboration was fraught with challenges, conflicts, and miscommunication. What did it mean to be a “respected foreign expert”? How much autonomy could such an expert exercise? When should they adjust their practices to local conditions? Who possessed better knowledge in specific situations? These were the practical questions they encountered on the ground.

Drawing primarily on archival materials from Taiwan, this study highlights the struggles of Taiwanese diplomats, technicians, and experts as they attempted to redefine the “Taiwanese Experience” and Taiwan’s potential contribution to a world divided by Cold War geopolitics. In this sense, the paradigm of “peaceful and democratic land reform” during the Cold War can be reconsidered not simply as an ideological construct, but as a field in which competing practices interacted, clashed, and became intertwined.

Author

• Ying-Ying Chu, National Taipei University