Chinese Taipei

From Freepedia

Chinese Taipei (中華台北; Hanyu Pinyin: Zhōnghuá Táibĕi) is the designated name that the Republic of China (ROC), commonly known as "Taiwan," uses to participate in most international organizations due to the insistence of the People's Republic of China (PRC) under its version of the One-China policy, that the ROC may not use the names Republic of China or Taiwan (see political status of Taiwan). In Chinese, it is Zhōnghuá Táibĕi (中華台北), although the PRC uses Zhōngguó Táibĕi (中国台北; literally Taipei, China) so as to suggest its sovereignty over Taiwan. The PRC has used Zhōngguó Táibĕi whenever possible, during APEC Forum 2001 hosted by Shanghai, China, for example. The government of the ROC considers Zhōngguó Táibĕi offensive, as this places Taiwan on the same level as Hong Kong, China, and Macao, China.

1 Origins
2 Consequences
3 Other references to Taiwan
4 Political interference in the airline industry
5 Related topics
6 External links

Origins

The People's Republic of China, which claims Taiwan as part of its territory, effectively blocks the Republic of China on Taiwan from using the titles "Taiwan" or "Republic of China" in international organizations. To the PRC, having Taiwan represented as the "Republic of China" suggests either the continued existence of a state that PRC believes it has toppled or the existence of two Chinas, a contravention of the One-China Policy; having Taiwan represented by its common name "Taiwan" suggests that China and Taiwan are separate countries. Both cases would, in the eyes of the PRC, support a "conspiracy to split Taiwan from the motherland".

When international organisations downgraded or even expelled Taiwan in the 1970s and 1980s in favor of recognizing the PRC, the Kuomintang-controlled ROC government refused to be designated as "Taiwan, China" because the title would imply that it was subordinate to the mainland Chinese government. At the time, the Kuomintang government also rejected the names "Taiwan" and "Formosa" because it still considered itself the sole legitimate government of all China and refused any hint of Taiwan independence. Therefore, it chose what was then considered a politically neutral title "Chinese Taipei," even though Taipei is just a metropolitan region small in proportion to the entire Taiwan Region.

In November of 1979 the IOC ( International Olympic Committee ) and later all the international sports federations adopted a resolution which recognised the National Olympic Committee of Taiwan as the National Olympic Committee of Chinese Taiwan and every sports team or athlete from Taiwan would compete as Chinese Taipei. Under this resolution, Chinese Taipei adopted the Chinese Taipei Olympic Flag as their flag, which consists of the emblem of the National Chinese Taipei Olympic Committee on a white background.

Image:Chinese Taipei Olympic Flag.png

Consequences

The name "Chinese Taipei" has spilled into apolitical arenas. Flight schedules from official airport websites such as those for Los Angeles International Airport and San Francisco International Airport list flights to and from Chiang Kai-shek International Airport as "Taipei, Chinese Taipei." The PRC has even successfully pressured religious organisations and organisations such as the Lions Club to have Taiwan relegated to "Chinese Taipei". When Taiwanese participants in apolitical events emphasise that they come from Taiwan rather than "Chinese Taipei," they are often accused by the organisers of being politically incorrect and of having a political agenda (although it could be argued that the usage of "Chinese Taipei" also represents a political agenda).

Image:Chinese Taipei Soccer Flag.png

The title "Chinese Taipei" leads some people to believe that Taipei is a country. To reduce confusion, news agencies remove "Chinese Taipei" references from press releases of international organisations and simply refer to the ROC as "Taiwan". For sporting events, the Taiwanese team is abbreviated in Taiwan as the Zhonghua Team (中華隊; Zhonghua being a more cultural rather political variation of the term China), which, in effect, labels it the "Chinese Team". However, as of the 2004 Summer Olympics, there has been a movement in Taiwan to change all references of the ROC team in media to the "Taiwanese Team," and the mainstream Taiwan Television (TTV) is one of the first Taiwanese media to do so. There are currently also cable TV channels that refer to Taiwan as the Zhonghua Team and China as the Zhongguo Team as if Zhonghua and Zhongguo mean totally different things. In contrast to both Taiwanese and most foreign usage, the PRC always labels the Taiwanese team as the Zhongguo Taibei Team (中国台北队 or "Taipei, China Team," using the PRC's preferred translation for the term) to avoid either suggesting that Taiwan is independent or the ROC is China. In the International Children's Games 2005 in Coventry as well as the National Geographic World Championship , the name Chinese Taipei was used.

The current Democratic Progressive Party government's policy on Taiwan's name in international settings is ambiguous. As for the Republic of China on Taiwan de facto embassies abroad, pro-Taiwan independence groups have unsuccessfully petitioned to have the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office (TECO) renamed the more official-sounding "Taiwan Representative Office." Foreign Minister Eugene Chien also promoted the idea of making the newly established ROC embassy in Kiribati the first to bear the name "Taiwan". The ROC government also altered the cover of the ROC passport to include the name "Taiwan": its official explanation for the addition was to avoid confusion at foreign immigration and customs that the passport holder is a citizen of the Republic of China on Taiwan, not from the PRC on the mainland.

Recent statements from the mainland suggest that even though they once preferred the term Taiwan, their leadership now prefers the use of the term "Republic of China" when referring to Taiwan. On January 6, 2005, the New Straits Times reported: "Similarly, in the past Beijing did all it could to prevent the usage of the name "Republic of China".

"But now that Taipei wants to get rid of that name and replace it with "Taiwan", Beijing has decided that "Republic of China" isn't so bad after all, certainly much better than "Republic of Taiwan", since at least the former title acknowledges that the island and its people are Chinese." (New Straits Times, 1-5-2005)

Other references to Taiwan

Whenever the United Nations makes reference to the ROC, it uses the designation "Taiwan, Province of China." Certain web-based postal address programs also label the country designation name for Taiwan as "Taiwan, Province of China" to the chagrin of the Taiwanese postal authorities. In 2005, a pro-Taiwanese group in the US had Amtrak apologize for using "Taiwan, Province of China" in its website Taipei Times, September 14, 2005.

In other organizations such as the World Trade Organization, the name "Separate Customs Territory of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu" is used, but "Chinese Taipei" is used unofficially since the official designation is too unwieldy. As a founding member of the Asian Development Bank, the ROC participated in the organization as "Republic of China" until PRC's membership in 1986; because of pressure from PRC, Asian Development Bank now uses the name "Taipei, China" for the ROC.

The World Organization of the Scout Movement is one of few organizations that continue to refer to the Republic of China as "China", and the Taiwan affiliate as the Scouts of China. This is because such scouting organizations do not exist in mainland China.

Political interference in the airline industry

Certain airlines have had to create subsidiaries with subtle name changes to avoid offending Beijing with their flights to the ROC. For instance, when British Airways served Taiwan, it had to call itself British Asia Airways. So does KLM Asia. Japan Asia Airways was created so that Japan Airlines could fly to Taiwan without protests from the PRC.