Taiwan’s efforts to combat corruption will extend beyond domestic institutional reforms to include international cooperation. With the increasing complexity of transnational capital flows and crime patterns, Foreign Minister Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said, anti-corruption is a governance challenge that the international community must actively address.

The foreign minister made the statements on the first day of meetings to review Taiwan’s third national report under the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) this Tuesday. Taiwan has published its national report every four years since 2018. Five international experts make up the review committee this year and are in Taiwan to conduct on-site assessment.

Lin stated that Taiwan demonstrates through concrete actions that it is willing to follow the same standards and assume the same responsibilities as the international community. 

Lin said, “Faced with China’s long-term political interference in Taiwan’s participation in the United Nations and other multilateral mechanisms, we have never lowered our standards. Taiwan continues to independently abide by international norms, invites international experts to Taiwan for review, and implements the recommendations into domestic reforms.”

Lin pointed to Taiwan’s placement in global civil society organization Transparency’s newest Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) 2025. Taiwan placed 24 out of 182 countries and third among East Asian countries. The CPI uses a scale from 0 to 100, with lower numbers indicating more corruption and higher numbers indicating less corruption. Taiwan’s score of 68 outranks France, the United States, and South Korea.

Integrity, transparency, and accountability are important foundations for the sound operation and good governance of a democratic system, Lin noted. He said corruption erodes public trust in the government, undermines fair competition, and weakens democracy and the rule of law. He also stressed that the value of democracy lies not only in free and fair elections but also in the government’s willingness to accept oversight and to examine itself against international standards.