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Name-rectification protests fail to influence Cabinet

The Executive Yuan has no plans to pressure government agencies to remove "China" from their official names and replace the word with "Taiwan," Cabinet Spokesman Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday.

Lin said the Cabinet will respect whatever decision individual government agencies make with respect to their names.

Lin's announcement comes following a massive march on Saturday by pro-independence forces calling on the country to change its official name from "Republic of China" (ROC) to "Taiwan."

The demonstration was followed by a smaller pro-China march on Sunday demanding the government keep the ROC label.

"Our stance is clear -- we won't encourage nor ask government agencies, state-run enterprises or public foundations to modify or rectify their names," Lin said. "Instead, we'll respect their decision if they think such a move is deemed necessary and practical."

Government agencies using "China" in their names include the Central Bank of China (中央銀行), Central Trust of China (中央信託局) and the Overseas Chinese Affairs Commission (僑委會).

In other Cabinet-related news, two evaluation reports will determine whether Taichung City gets an addition NT$2 billion from the central government for its planned NT$6.4 billion branch of the Guggenheim Museum.

"It's not true that we broke our promise on the project, because we're still studying its feasibility," Lin said yesterday.

Premier Yu Shyi-kun on Aug. 18 agreed to grant Taichung NT$3.2 billion toward its planned establishment of the museum and said he would decide within three weeks whether to grant the city another NT$2 billion. Yesterday was the three-week deadline.

Lin said yesterday that the city will get the NT$3.2 billion it has requested because it's a promise made by the premier.

"However, whether it'll get the additional NT$2 billion depends on the evaluation reports conducted by the Solomon Guggenheim Foundation and the Cabinet's Council for Cultural Affairs (文建會)," Lin said.

According to Lin, the foundation has entrusted McKinsey & Company to study the feasibility of the museum.

If approved, Taichung will become the first city in the Asia-Pacific region to have a Guggenheim branch. The Guggenheim has branches in Venice, Berlin, Bilbao, Las Vegas and New York.

Although the city has received a copy of the report, Lin said, it has not yet made it available to the Council for Cultural Affairs.

While the council yesterday presented the premier with a separate evaluation report conducted on its own, Lin said, it fails to reach a definite conclusion.

"It states the divided opinions voiced by experts and academics. It also requests the city provide more information for its reference," Lin said.

Lin added that Yu hopes to reach the final decision on the matter as soon as possible because the government intends to include the NT$6.4 billion project in the Cabinet's five-year, NT$500 billion public-construction project.
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