Criteria for membership in the Commonwealth of Nations is constantly changing. Since 1949, when the British Commonwealth was replaced by the Commonwealth of Nations with the adoption of the London Declaration, members are only required to recognise the British Monarch as 'Head of the Commonwealth'.
With the Harare Declaration in 1991, members were required to abide by the principles of democracy and respect for human rights. These principles can be enforced upon current members, who may be suspended or expelled for failure to abide by them.
Membership criteria was further refined by the Edinburgh Declaration of 1997, which states that Commonwealth members must a) Accept and comply with the principles of the Harare Declaration;
Members of the Commonwealth can be republics, such as India and Pakistan (most Commonwealth members are in fact republics), and can even be monarchies with their own monarch, such as in the cases of Brunei and Malaysia. In 1995 Mozambique become the Commonwealth's first non former British Empire member. New members of the Commonwealth are now not required to have been former British colonies. In 2007, it was agreed that future members of the Commonwealth are only required to have had some constitutional link with any existing member at any time in the past.
Taiwan is recognised by 23 states, and of these states 9 are already Commonwealth of Nations members, so the link to the Commonwealth is well established. One can also reasonably argue that Taiwan is considered by many a fully sovereign state, and not just a nation. Certainly 23 states agree with that, but Michael Bloomberg, the mayor of New York, referred to Taiwan as a country in 2002, and the former US Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld stated that Taiwan is "a sovereign nation" in July 2005.
Taiwan is also recognised as a mature democracy by many influential ministers. In a controversial speech in February 2006, Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso called Taiwan a country with very high education levels. A month later, he also told a Japanese parliamentary committee that "[Taiwan's] democracy is considerably matured and liberal economics is deeply ingrained, so it is a law-abiding country. In various ways, it is a country that shares a sense of values with Japan."
It is clear, therefore, that with greater support for Taiwan as a country, the nation would have no problem qualifying for Commonwealth of Nations membership, and that was enough for Taiwan to become a Commonwealth Nations Research Society member.
The Commonwealth Nations Research Society (CNRS) is a non-lobbying and non-profit organisation which educates and promotes a closer, wider and stronger Commonwealth.
