Sun, Nov 17, 2002 - Page 2 News List

Thousands petition for `Taiwan' in US

NAME-CHANGE Taiwanese Americans delivered 10,000 petition letters to Taiwan's man in Washington, urging him to push for including the word `Taiwan' in his office's title

By Charles Snyder  /  STAFF REPORTER , IN WASHINGTON

Already a product of compromize

After Washington recognized Beijing, the office was known as the Coordinating Council for North American Affairs. After a long series of talks between Taiwan and US officials after that, the name was changed to its current name in 1994, as part of the Clinton administration's Taiwan Policy Review that year.

TECRO officials have not talked to US officials about a further change since then, since TECRO does not want to "jump the gun," should the Taiwan government decide it wants the name changed, Chen said.

Eventually, he said, any name change must be subject to negotiations and agreement by both sides.

The US version of the Name Rectification Campaign began in May, at about the same time as supporters of a change in the official name of the country from "Republic of China" to "Taiwan" held a 30,000-person rally in Taipei.

A Canadian version of the campaign is expected to kick off shortly, supporters say.

While the US supporters have not contacted Bush administration officials, they say that -- based on contact with congressmen -- Congress "would have no objection" to the name change.

Leaders of the petition campaigns say that copies of the petition letters will be sent to the office of the president, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Legislative Yuan.

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