Letters: Name changes necessary

Most Westerners identify the name "Taiwan" with a progressive, technically innovative and democratic country that makes high quality products and exports them around the world.

Taiwan is a "brand" that people trust, and "Made in Taiwan" evokes quality and reliability. Westerners generally regard people from Taiwan as Taiwanese but are sometimes unsure exactly how to identify the native language they speak.

Notwithstanding the political, constitutional and legal imperatives, when the Republic of China (ROC) is used however, the country's identity becomes a little murky.

First, the ambiguity in the name can imply that the ROC belongs to China.

Second, acronyms with the letter R for Republic in them are mostly associated with repressive communist regimes such as the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea), the USSR and the People's Republic of China (PRC).

Third, a question many Westerners raise is, are people from the ROC Chinese or Taiwanese? Then, we have the leading advocates for Taiwan in the US bearing the historical name Formosa.

The "Formosa Foundation" and the "Formosan Association for Public Affairs" add to Westerners confusion and obscure Taiwan's modern status and true identity. Whatever the political motivation for President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) recent actions to change the names of some state owned enterprises to include "Taiwan" and remove "China" seems like a positive move, from the average Westerners point of view.

Westerners trust people from Taiwan and people representing Taiwanese companies. People representing Taiwanese companies with China in their name are sometimes misunderstood and are treated a little more cautiously. This cautiousness stems from the fact that the PRC's legal protections and copyright issues are not as robust as Taiwan's.

Taiwan needs to proudly and boldly reinforce its "brand" recognition in the world with a clear and unambiguous identity.

This will benefit not only the Taiwanese people in their international dealings but will also assist people who do business with Taiwan, potential tourists, government officials of foreign countries and other international organizations that wish to deal with a modern, vibrant, free and independent Taiwan.

Walt Brown
Auckland, New Zealand

It is a mistake for Michael Falick to say that state-run entities in Taiwan are "owned -- and named -- by China" (Letter, Feb. 26, page 8). This is precisely the reason why many names in Taiwan have to be rectified to avoid mistakes and confusion like this.

Many of these Taiwanese entities were established even before the PRC was born. China cannot have named or owned them. Although most of them still carry "China" or "Chinese" in their names, they are not owned by China. As state-run corporations, they belong to the people of Taiwan. The government has the responsibility to administer them and report to the people rather than the shareholders.

Likewise, New England does not belong to England, nor is New Mexico part of Mexico, although Americans choose not to change these names since England and Mexico do not claim these areas.

Taiwan is called "Chinese Taipei" in the Olympics, APEC meetings and other international gatherings. Americans would be pissed off if the US were called "British Washington." Taiwan's official representative office in the US has a lengthy name, "Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office." This name needs to be shortened for simplicity.

Individuals also have rights to change or to keep their names. Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator John Chiang (蔣孝嚴) has freedom to rectify his last name if he thinks his previous last name (Chang) was incorrect. Former KMT chairman Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) was born in Hong Kong and his given name literally means "British Kowloon." Ma has liberty to keep his original name, right or wrong.

It was childish for Ma to criticize the recent name changes in Taiwan as "childish." Ma always opposes whatever President Chen says and does anyway.

Charles Hong
Columbus, Ohio