Home > Chinese Taipei

1 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 organizations 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 the politically neutral title "Chinese Taipei," even though Taipei is just a metropolitan region small in proportion to the entire Taiwan Region.

2 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 AirportChiang Kai-shek International Airport (, pinyin: Zhongzheng Guoji Hangkongzhan) is located in Taoyuan, Taiwan, Republic of China and is one of two airports that serve Taipei. The other is Sungshan Domestic Airport, which is within the city limits and form as "Taipei, Chinese Taipei." The PRC has even successfully pressured religious organizations and nonpolitical organizations such as the Lions Club to have Taiwan relegated to "Chinese Taipei".

Because of the confusing and misleading title of "Chinese Taipei", some people actually believe that Taipei is a country. To reduce confusion, news agencies remove "Chinese Taipei" references from press releases of international organizations 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 another variation of the term China), which, in effect, labels it the "Chinese Team". However, as of the 2004 Summer OlympicsThe Games of the XXVIII Olympiad commonly known as the 2004 Summer Olympics were the 28th Summer Olympic Games. The Games were held in Athens over 17 days, from August 13 to August 29, 2004. Planners expected 10,500 athletes (in fact 11,099 at the end) an, 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. 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.

The current Democratic Progressive PartyThe Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) ( Chinese: ; abbrev. pinyin: min jin dang) is a liberal political party in the Republic of China on Taiwan which has traditionally been associated with the pan-green coalition and Taiwan independence although it has government's policy on Taiwan's name in international settings is ambiguous. As for unofficial offices overseas, pro- Taiwan independence groups have unsuccessfully petitioned to have the Taipei Economic and Cultural OfficeThe Taipei Economic and Cultural Office (TECO sometimes known as Taipei Representative Offices are de facto embassies and consulates of the Republic of China (Taiwan) in countries that do not have official relations with the ROC because of relations with (TECO) renamed the more official-sounding "Taiwan Representative Office." Foreign Minister Eugene ChienEugene You-hsin Chien (b. February 4, 1946) is a politician and diplomat of the Republic of China on Taiwan. He obtained a Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering from the National Taiwan University in 1968. He travelled to the United States to earn also promoted the idea of making the newly established ROC embassy in KiribatiThe Republic of Kiribati is an island nation located in the central tropical Pacific Ocean. The country's 33 atolls are scattered over 3,500,000 km² near the equator. Its name is pronounced /kiribas/ and is a Gilbertese transliteration of "Gilberts", the the first to bear the name "Taiwan". The government also altered the cover of the ROC passport to includes the name "Taiwan": its official explanation for the change was that it would remind foreign immigration officials that the passport holder is not from the PRC.