Taiwan's success in the 70s, 80s and 90s --- can be attributed to the successful policies of the following men during the critical years :
1) Chiang Ching-kuo
2) Yen Chia-kan
3) Lee Teng-hui
The policies of the day , during the Cold War, excused some 'dictatoresque' style of governance by democracies --- so long as the state developed. The early rule of Ferdinand Marcos had realized the same success that was seen in Singapore under Lee Kuan Yew , the same for South Korea under Park Chung Hee, the same for Taiwan under Yen, Chiang, and Lee -- all three were regarded as successful leaders that heralded Taiwan's rise as an Asian Economic Tiger.
In fact Asia's original Asian Economic Tigers had leadership that had an iron style of governance in the early years; Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore.
Lee followed the traditional Confucian style of leadership: Authoritarianism. It worked. In fact, all of East Asia (except North Korea) that followed an authoritarian style of governance during the critical years of development --- reaped success. Examples -- Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, China , and to an extent Singapore (which inherited strong East Asian culture through the shear demographic influence).