The central bank has launched a redesign of the New Taiwan dollar banknotes, prompting questions from Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators — “Are we not promoting digital payments? Why spend NT$5 billion on a redesign?”
Many assume that cash will disappear in the digital age, but they forget that it represents the ultimate trust in the system. Banknotes do not become obsolete, they do not crash, they cannot be frozen and they leave no record of transactions. They remain the cleanest means of exchange in a free society.
In a fully digitized world, every purchase, donation and action leaves behind data. An authoritarian regime just needs one command to make someone economically disappear.
During Hong Kong’s anti-extradition bill protests, demonstrators’ credit card records became clues to track them. In China’s Xinjiang region, even buying fuel with cash can raise suspicions.
When China’s central bank first began promoting its digital yuan, it sounded quite appealing — counterfeit-resistant, convenient and secure. The reality is that it is a state-level financial surveillance system. Every transaction can be tracked in an instant and anonymity is virtually nonexistent.
The government can impose time limits, regional restrictions and usage conditions, and subsidies can only be spent within a specified time frame or area. Such currency is no longer circulating money — rather, it is a management tool.
Documents state that the digital yuan could help achieve social governance and macroeconomic control. It could be frozen, revoked, flagged or punished — erasing a person’s economic existence in the blink of an eye. The more efficient digital currency becomes in the hands of the regime, the faster freedoms die.
While Taiwan’s banknote redesign might seem traditional, it is actually quite avant-garde. By choosing to update its paper currency, Taiwan is refusing to be ruled by algorithms. Cash allows the public to preserve their privacy. The redesign is more than just an anti-counterfeiting measure — it is the most basic pledge of freedom that could be made in a democratic society.
China’s move to eliminate paper money reflects a power grab, while Taiwan’s banknote redesign is a choice rooted in trust.
Shen Yan is a political commentator.
Translated by Kyra Gustavsen
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