Taiwan in the eyes of a foreigner

I came across this article about Taiwan from David's blog. After reading too much negative news coverage from the mainstream media in Taiwan, I found it quite refreshing to learn Taiwan from the eyes of a foreigner.

It would be a very tough question to answer if somebody ask you to define the Taiwanese culture. Yes, culturally, Taiwan and China share the same historical background but no, politically we are closer to the U.S. than the Chinese. So what's the core spirit of Taiwanese culture? What makes Taiwan different other than the strong capability in computing business?

The author of the article has a rather interesting description about Taiwan,

"...Taiwan is much more; a small island with lots of soft power. Above all, it
is a hybrid culture, in many respects even liberal with gay rights to boot, that
successfully mixes the civilizational attributes of America, China and Japan, which occupied it for 50 years. Indeed, it is the only country in the Asian region not consumed with anxiety over Japan rewriting its constitution, still doing massive business with China and sticking with America all at the same time."

I like the last part of the paragraph, which pinpoint the tolerance of the Taiwanese civic society. Contrary to some domestic opinion leaders question over the injustice of justice department in the investigation of the first family, the author sees the other side of the story, the independent jurisdiction, which is exactly what makes Taiwan so much different from China. I guess that's why the Chinese media stopped the large news coverage over this case since the Chinese public might asked, would the same thing happen in China?