Few countries will come out of the COVID-19 crisis looking better than Taiwan. While China was busy punishing Dr. Li Wenliang in January for sounding the alarm on the novel coronavirus, Taiwan was already seeking to warn the international community about the disease. It has since limited its COVID-19 death toll to only seven people in a population of more than 23 million. This stellar job managing the virus has understandably led to calls to grant Taiwan observer status at the World Health Organization, despite Chinese hostility to seeing Taiwan work with international bodies.
But we can and should think bigger. As the world now comes to terms with the economic fallout of COVID-19 — a fallout made worse by Beijing saddling emerging markets with billions of dollars in opaque loan obligations — countries that are tired of China’s cynicism should start the process of making Taiwan a full member of the International Monetary Fund, an institution tasked with ensuring that COVID-19 doesn’t precipitate a global economic crisis.
