More than 100,000 people are expected to take to streets in downtown Taipei today to campaign for the change of nation's name from "Republic of China" (ROC) to "Taiwan" as well as the usage of Taiwan as the official title for the country's bid to enter the UN.
The Alliance to Campaign for Rectifying the Name of Taiwan, the organizer of the march, yesterday released the latest tally of the number of people signing up for the campaign drive, which might draw as many as 120,000 people from all over the country to the rally.
PHOTO: SEAN CHAO, TAIPEI TIMES
Supporters of 113 domestic and overseas groups will join the rally in front of the Presidential Office. The DPP and TSU, which have long been promoting Taiwan's sovereign status independent from China, have also mobilized more than 40,000 and 30,000 rank-and-file supporters respectively, party officials said.
Overseas participants from the US, Japan, Argentina, Paraguay, Costa Rica, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa would also attend the rally.
Using the slogan that "our mother's name is Taiwan," the campaign advocates the abolishment of the use of "ROC" or "China" as a nomenclature representing Taiwan, and demands that the title of the country, company's names and the names of social groups using the word "China" should be replaced with "Taiwan" to reflect the reality that China, officially known as the People's Republic of China, does not govern Taiwan.
The alliance listed a total of 245 private groups, companies and institutions whose names need to be corrected including China National Petroleum Corp, China Steel, China Shipbuilding, China Airlines, the Chinese-language newspaper China Times, China Television, China Television Company, Farmers Bank of China and the KMT, whose full name actually translates as the "Chinese Nationalist Party" (中國國民黨).
The campaign also appeals to the government to use Taiwan as the official title for its overseas organizations, to apply for membership of the UN under the name of Taiwan.
It also asks the government to write a constitution for Taiwan rather than the outdated and much amended Constitution of 1947 currently in use, and change the nation's official name to the "Republic of Taiwan" or simply "Taiwan."
Marchers will gather in six locations -- Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, National Taiwan University, the 228 Memorial Park, Chungshan Football Stadium, Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall and Taipei City Hall -- at 11am and start the march at noon before reaching to the Presidential Office at 3pm.
Former president Lee Teng-hui (
The DPP yesterday released a poll of public opinion on the nation's sovereignty according to which 63.2 percent of the public support the idea that Taiwan and China are "one country on each side of the Taiwan Strait," and 70.3 percent agreed that a national plebiscite to be held to decide whether Taiwan should change its status quo or the nation's name.
The KMT criticized the campaign drive as advocating Taiwan independence and accused the DPP and TSU of being "historical criminals" and being "unethical" by trying to annihilate the existence of the ROC, which, it said, has existed since 1911.
Taiwan has arranged for about 8 million barrels of crude oil, or about one-third of its monthly needs, to be shipped from the Red Sea this month to bypass the Strait of Hormuz and ease domestic supply pressures, CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) said yesterday. The state-run oil company has worked with Middle Eastern suppliers to secure routes other than the Strait of Hormuz, through which about 20 percent of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas typically passes, CPC chairman Fang Jeng-zen (方振仁) said at a meeting of the legislature’s Economics Committee in Taipei. Suppliers in Saudi Arabia have indicated they
A global survey showed that 60 percent of Taiwanese had attained higher education, second only to Canada, the Ministry of the Interior said. Taiwan easily surpassed the global average of 43 percent and ranked ahead of major economies, including Japan, South Korea and the US, data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) for 2024 showed. Taiwan has a high literacy rate, data released by the ministry showed. As of the end of last year, Taiwan had 20.617 million people aged 15 or older, accounting for 88.5 percent of the total population, with a literacy rate of 99.4 percent, the data
CCP ‘PAWN’? Beijing could use the KMT chairwoman’s visit to signal to the world that many people in Taiwan support the ‘one China’ principle, an academic said Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) yesterday arrived in China for a “peace” mission and potential meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), while a Taiwanese minister detailed the number of Chinese warships currently deployed around the nation. Cheng is visiting at a time of increased Chinese military pressure on Taiwan, as the opposition-dominated Legislative Yuan stalls a government plan for US$40 billion in extra defense spending. Speaking to reporters before going to the airport, Cheng said she was going on a “historic journey for peace,” but added that some people felt uneasy about her trip. “If you truly love Taiwan,
NEW LOW: The council in 2024 based predictions on a pessimistic estimate for the nation’s total fertility rate of 0.84, but last year that rate was 0.69, 17 percent lower An expected National Development Council (NDC) report expects the nation’s population to drop below 12 million by 2065, with the old-age dependency ratio to top 100 percent sooner than 2070, sources said yesterday. The council is slated to release its latest population projections in August, using an ultra-low fertility model, the sources said. The previous report projected that Taiwan’s population would fall to 14.37 million by 2070, but based on a new estimate of the total fertility rate (TFR) — the average number of children born to a woman over her lifetime — the population is expected to reach 12 million by
RSS