A fight over whether the flag of the Republic of China should hang on the campus of Louisiana State University has pitted Chinese students against Taiwanese students and the school's administration.
The months-old dispute has caught the attention of Beijing diplomats, who stepped in to try to persuade the university to side with the Chinese students.
Late last year, a group of Taiwanese students asked that their national flag -- the flag of the ROC -- be added to the nearly 150 hanging inside LSU's International Cultural Center.
Hanging from the ceiling inside, in a room called the Hall of Nations, are flags representing the countries of LSU students from around the world. The red flag of China with its five gold stars is among them, but the ROC's blue, white and red flag is not.
"We think we should be treated equally, and we think we should be included as a member of the university community," said Lee Ming, president of the 20-member Taiwanese Student Association.
Many Chinese argue that most of the world recognizes democratic Taiwan as part of communist China. "That's why we are sticking on our request not to have their flag in here," said Wu Zhadyang, a member of the Chinese Student and Scholars Association.
The matter leaves the cultural center's board, which usually meets quietly and decides pedestrian matters, caught up in an international dispute between China and Taiwan.
Morgan Knull, a graduate student and member of the cultural center's board, said the board decided to resolve the matter by drafting a policy to cover all requests to hang flags at the center.
When it looked as though LSU might favor the Taiwanese students' wishes and add their flag, China's general consulate in Houston wrote a letter to LSU Chancellor Mark Emmert urging him not to.
On March 16, the cultural center's board adopted a policy to allow any flag from a country whose passport the US State Department recognizes. Because Taiwanese students have Republic of China passports, their flag could be added to the Hall of Nations. Officials planned to add their flag sometime at the end of the spring semester.
But the dispute did not end there.
Chinese students said the passport rule is not logical. One of the group's members recently protested on campus with a sign mocking the policy, suggesting the Hall of Nations be renamed the "Hall of Passport."
The Chinese students also suggested a compromise: hanging Taiwan's Olympic flag.
But Ming rejected that idea.
Knull said the board's new policy is open in the spirit of cultural exchange. "The question of Taiwan and China will be dueled out on a different level from here," Knull said.
Greg Vincent, vice provost for academic affairs, said the administration suggested the new flag policy because it tends to be accommodating.
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