Iran, which has twice been drawn into conflicts with the United States and Israel over the past year, was already a dominant oil power in the Middle East during the reign of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. At that time, it was regarded as a key American ally in the region, receiving substantial U.S. military assistance. Before the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Iran had a population of 38 million — meaning that more than four decades ago, the country simultaneously ranked as a major oil producer, military power, and demographic force in the Middle East.
How did Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi (巴勒維), once all-powerful, end up fleeing into exile and dying of cancer in Egypt, while millions of his subjects subsequently left the country to settle abroad?
In the late 1960s, when the Republic of China (ROC) still maintained diplomatic relations with Iran, Taiwan's military attaché to Tehran, Cha Hsien-lin (查顯琳, writing under the pen name Gongsun Yan), recorded extensive firsthand observations in his memoirs. He found that beneath the outwardly prosperous surface of the Iranian kingdom, deep-seated popular grievances and structural problems had already taken root at the social base — factors that would ultimately drive the sweeping Islamic Revolution of 1979.
In his 1983 two-volume work Impressions of the Middle East, Cha reviewed four years of observations in Iran, leaving behind a rare firsthand account of the Iranian military, political, and social landscape as seen through the eyes of a Taiwanese official.
How Taiwan Left Iran Behind
Looking at economic data, Iran and Taiwan were at comparable levels of development in the years before the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
According to figures from the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and Taiwan's Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics, Iran's per capita GDP in 1960 was approximately $200, while Taiwan's was $215. By 1970, Iran stood at $376 versus Taiwan's $467. In 1980, Iran's per capita GDP was $2,368, compared with Taiwan's $2,389.
By 2024, however, Taiwan's per capita GDP had surpassed $30,000, while Iran's remained at approximately $5,000.
The contrast is even starker when compared with other Middle Eastern oil producers in 2024. Qatar, a major natural gas exporter, leads at over $70,000; the United Arab Emirates (UAE) approaches $50,000; Saudi Arabia stands at $32,900; Kuwait and Bahrain hover around $30,000; and Oman is approximately $20,000.
Iran's per capita GDP of roughly $5,000 in the same period is even lower than that of neighboring Iraq at $5,900, placing it last among the region's oil-producing states.
When Iran Ruled the Middle East
The Republic of China and Iran maintained diplomatic relations from 1920 to 1971. After the ROC government relocated to Taiwan in 1949, substantive exchanges continued: Iran faced the communist Soviet threat from the north, paralleling Taiwan's exposure to the Chinese Communist threat, and both countries belonged to the U.S.-led anti-communist bloc.
In May 1958, the 38-year-old Shah Pahlavi led a delegation on a six-day visit to Taiwan — the first foreign monarch to visit after the government's relocation — and was personally received by President Chiang Kai-shek at Taipei Songshan Airport.
In 1967, Cha was assigned to Iran as military attaché at the ROC embassy, serving until the two countries severed diplomatic ties in August 1971. He thus became the last military attaché Taiwan dispatched to Iran.
In his 1983 two-volume work Impressions of the Middle East, Cha reviewed four years of observations in Iran, leaving behind a rare firsthand account of the Iranian military, political, and social landscape as seen through the eyes of a Taiwanese official.
Four Cracks That Brought Down a Dynasty
According to Cha's memoirs, the ambitious political, economic, and social reforms Shah Pahlavi launched in the mid-1960s — known as the "White Revolution" — ended in regime collapse and the royal family's exile by 1979. Cha identified four structural causes.
First, widespread illiteracy. Pahlavi came to power in 1941, yet by the late 1960s, approximately 80% of the population remained illiterate. Cut off from the modern world, most Iranians had little access to information and, Cha observed, little sense of aspiration or hope.
Second, deep religious piety. Most Iranians were devout Muslims who prayed five times daily. The Quranic emphasis on fatalism encouraged a certain fatalistic resignation — something Cha noted worked considerably in the ruling establishment's favor.
Third, reform colliding with entrenched power structures. The most difficult element of the White Revolution, Cha wrote, was land reform. Iran's agricultural land had long been concentrated in the hands of a few major landlord families and a small number of religious leaders. These elites opposed the Shah's reform agenda, effectively blocking every government initiative through their influence over elections and parliament.
To force through his reforms, Pahlavi ultimately relied on the military and issued legal mandates. While this succeeded in pushing the reforms forward, it generated deep enmity among the powerful elites — who subsequently became the primary organized opposition to the monarchy.
"Once the Shah lost his footing, everything crumbled like dry rot. The speed with which the Pahlavi dynasty collapsed is the most important reason why," Cha wrote.
Fourth, extreme socioeconomic inequality. Cha recalled that Tehran, the capital, was a city where the privileged and wealthy were concentrated. Ordinary people struggling to make ends meet watched as the wealthy lived lavishly and recklessly, while unemployment remained widespread. Over time, popular resentment became impossible to contain.
"The Iranian government spared no effort in maintaining control over the population," he wrote, "but in my four years there, it was clear that popular discontent ran too deep to be concealed. Anyone with even the slightest connection to the royal family enjoyed special privileges. The secret scandals of royals and senior officials became the most eagerly circulated whispers among the public."
Exile, Then Death
Throughout the 1970s, Iran's accumulated social grievances began surfacing publicly. By early 1978, nationwide unrest had erupted and political turmoil deepened. In January 1979, the Shah and his family left Iran for the last time. He never returned, dying of cancer in Cairo, Egypt, in July 1980.
Ruhollah Khomeini, the religious leader who had lived in exile for more than a decade, returned to Iran in 1979 and assumed leadership of the country. Iran subsequently renamed itself the "Islamic Republic of Iran," a designation it retains to this day.
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