Taiwan is in the pilot phase.

CBDC History and Development

In June 2022, Reuters reported that the Central Bank of the Republic of China (Taiwan’s central bank) had been working on a CBDC pilot in a closed loop environment since 2020. However, Central Bank of the Republic of China governor Yang Chin-long said it was unclear when a CBDC might be fully launched. He said the central bank still needs to win public support, ensure the system’s stability, and build a legal framework. Governor Yang Chin-long further explained during a speech that distributed ledger technology was not yet efficient enough to be used at scale.

In 2024, the Central Bank of the Republic of China updated parliament by noting that it “currently has no timetable for issuing central bank digital currency.”

Human Rights and Civil Liberties Concerns

Taiwan earned a 94 out of 100 in Freedom House’s 2023 Freedom in the World report. There have been reports of issues around the treatment of human rights and civil liberties, but most of those issues do not tie directly into the issuance or use of a CBDC. Even then, however, it’s important to recognize that the creation of a CBDC could open the door to risks to financial privacy and financial freedom.

For additional information on concerns regarding violations of human rights and civil liberties, see the following reports by Amnesty International, Financial Tyranny Index, Freedom House, Human Rights Watch, Privacy International, and the U.S. Department of State. For additional information on concerns regarding the risks of CBDCs, see the following webpage and report by the Cato Institute: The Risks of CBDCs and Central Bank Digital Currency: Assessing the Risks and Dispelling the Myths.

For additional information regarding metrics, the methodology page explains each of the data points and provides their respective sources.