Taiwan’s Bid for IMF Membership

Taiwan is making persistent efforts to join the International Monetary Fund (IMF), a move seen as a measure to prevent financial and economic attacks from China.

According to reports, the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office to the United States stated at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank (WB) annual general meeting in Washington, D.C. that “Taiwan’s membership in the IMF will help increase financial resilience.”

Earlier this month, the Taiwanese think tank Institute for Research and Training in Finance (TABF) also raised the need to join the IMF.

IMF Membership and China’s Influence

In IMF official documents, Taiwan is referred to as ‘Chinese Taiwan Province (Province)’.

The reason Taiwan wants to join the IMF is to protect itself from China’s financial invasion, as the United States worries about a military conflict in the Taiwan Strait.

Experts have raised concerns that China could wage economic and cyber warfare to force Taiwan’s surrender.

Benefits of IMF Membership

The IMF provides emergency loans to 190 member countries, and if Taiwan joins the IMF, it can use these to defend itself in times of emergency.

The United States actively supports Taiwan’s membership in the IMF, as evident in the fact that the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill supporting Taiwan’s accession to the IMF last January.

Challenges Ahead

However, China, which considers Taiwan as part of its territory, is blocking not only Taiwan’s participation in the IMF, but also Taiwan’s participation in the World Health Organization (WHO) annual general meeting and membership in the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) as an observer.

As an IMF member country, China’s voting rights are the third highest (6.08%) after the United States (16.5%) and Japan (6.14%), and former Vice Governor of the People’s Bank of China Li Bo is currently serving as IMF Vice Governor.