Is renaming an airport embracing reality or hiding from the past?
I still remember my first visit to Taiwan in 1996: confusion. I disembarked from the American Airlines plane that I had taken from the US and walked through a long corridor. I was confronted by a security check point with a large sign overhead that read "Republic of China, ROC."
I was confused. Had I ended up in China somehow?
Does that sound ignorant or naive?
In fact, at no time did I see a "Welcome to Taiwan" sign. Not at the airport, nowhere. Of course I am familiar enough with "ROC" to recognize that it's the politically friendly name maintained to keep Communist China at bay and to make post-1949 immigrants feel some connection to the mainland. That is not my point.
My airline ticket showed my destination as "Taiwan." My travel guide-books talked about Taiwan. The travel programs that I watched on TV spoke of Taiwan. My travel agent understood Taiwan as my destination. My business associates in the US, Japan and South Korea know it as Taiwan. Europeans know it as Taiwan. Everyone knows except the Taiwanese, apparently.
Of course I know of the long-running debate: "Are we an independent country or are we part of China." That issue has nothing to do with what the rest of the world recognizes you as: Taiwan. Embrace the name that you are recognized by. Only in the political confines of Taiwan-China politics is Taiwan readily recognized as the ROC.
Ask any American or European if they know where Taiwan and the ROC are located on the globe. You'll find they consistently know where Taiwan is but frequently confuse the ROC with China or do not know what the ROC is.
This isn't the result of a poor education, in marketing it's called "branding." You're most readily known as Taiwan, embrace it and love it. Leave politics out of your name. Products made the last 40 years and sold the world over have "marketed" you as Taiwan, "Made in Taiwan."
No amount of public relations or even the saviest marketing skills will take that mind-share away. Embrace your land and your "brand."
Troy Henley
Columbus, Ohio
As strategic tensions escalate across the vast Indo-Pacific region, Taiwan has emerged as more than a potential flashpoint. It is the fulcrum upon which the credibility of the evolving American-led strategy of integrated deterrence now rests. How the US and regional powers like Japan respond to Taiwan’s defense, and how credible the deterrent against Chinese aggression proves to be, will profoundly shape the Indo-Pacific security architecture for years to come. A successful defense of Taiwan through strengthened deterrence in the Indo-Pacific would enhance the credibility of the US-led alliance system and underpin America’s global preeminence, while a failure of integrated deterrence would
The Executive Yuan recently revised a page of its Web site on ethnic groups in Taiwan, replacing the term “Han” (漢族) with “the rest of the population.” The page, which was updated on March 24, describes the composition of Taiwan’s registered households as indigenous (2.5 percent), foreign origin (1.2 percent) and the rest of the population (96.2 percent). The change was picked up by a social media user and amplified by local media, sparking heated discussion over the weekend. The pan-blue and pro-China camp called it a politically motivated desinicization attempt to obscure the Han Chinese ethnicity of most Taiwanese.
On Wednesday last week, the Rossiyskaya Gazeta published an article by Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) asserting the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) territorial claim over Taiwan effective 1945, predicated upon instruments such as the 1943 Cairo Declaration and the 1945 Potsdam Proclamation. The article further contended that this de jure and de facto status was subsequently reaffirmed by UN General Assembly Resolution 2758 of 1971. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs promptly issued a statement categorically repudiating these assertions. In addition to the reasons put forward by the ministry, I believe that China’s assertions are open to questions in international
The Legislative Yuan passed an amendment on Friday last week to add four national holidays and make Workers’ Day a national holiday for all sectors — a move referred to as “four plus one.” The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), who used their combined legislative majority to push the bill through its third reading, claim the holidays were chosen based on their inherent significance and social relevance. However, in passing the amendment, they have stuck to the traditional mindset of taking a holiday just for the sake of it, failing to make good use of
RSS