The name changes now coming into effect in Taiwan reflect an increasing approval of "Taiwan identity" rather than "Taiwan independence," despite the suggestions made in the disapproving rhetoric of the US, political analysts have said.
Last week, President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) pledged to change the names of state-owned enterprises, the nation's embassies and overseas representative offices and other laws and regulations.
As a result, Chunghwa Post Co (
After the pan-blue camp voiced its opposition to the name changes, on Saturday US Department of State spokesman Sean McCormack said: "We do not support administrative steps by the Taiwan authorities that would appear to change Taiwan's status unilaterally or move toward independence. The United States does not, for instance, support changes in terminology for entities administered by the Taiwan authorities."
US comments
The US comments on changing the names reflected remarks made by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Ma Ying-jeou (
But political analysts said Ma overreacted and over-interpreted the name change issue.
"The US' reaction might be a little bit disturbing to the name-change bid but it did not oppose it directly because it does not violate President Chen's guarantees in his 2000 inaugural address," said Lo Chih-cheng (羅致政), the chairman of Soochow University's political science department.
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and Chen's administration have prepared for the name changes for a long period of time and did not suddenly bring the issue up, Lo said.
"You will find the name-change campaign is actually linked with other issues of transitional justice and it does not necessarily relate to the concept of `Taiwan independence,'" Lo said.
"Taiwan identity" and "Taiwan independence" are two different matters, Lo said.
`recognition'
"For the people of Taiwan, pursing the recognition of `Taiwan identity' has been brought about by Taiwan's democratic development and the name change issue is emerging in this circumstance," he said.
Polls conducted by the government and by outside pollsters over the past decade show that a steadily increasing number of people recognize themselves as "Taiwanese" instead of "Chinese."
"I do not think the US can deny the increase of `Taiwan identity' because it is upheld by public opinion," Lo said. "The concept of independence is political, but the concept of having a clear identity is a natural process of democracy."
With the rise of "Taiwan identity," changing the names is an irresistible trend and will not go backwards, he said.
Bilateral negotiations and communication will be required to change the names of the nation's overseas embassies and representative offices, and the government will not seek to make immediate, unilateral changes.
The signs in Taiwan's embassies now display the word "Taiwan" in parenthesis under "Republic of China," Taiwan's official national title.
Hsu Yung-ming (
"I think Ma's comment was only aimed at causing panic and confrontation while ignoring the trend of Taiwan's public opinion," Hsu said.
US climber Alex Honnold is to attempt to scale Taipei 101 without a rope and harness in a live Netflix special on Jan. 24, the streaming platform announced on Wednesday. Accounting for the time difference, the two-hour broadcast of Honnold’s climb, called Skyscraper Live, is to air on Jan. 23 in the US, Netflix said in a statement. Honnold, 40, was the first person ever to free solo climb the 900m El Capitan rock formation in Yosemite National Park — a feat that was recorded and later made into the 2018 documentary film Free Solo. Netflix previewed Skyscraper Live in October, after videos
Starting on Jan. 1, YouBike riders must have insurance to use the service, and a six-month trial of NT$5 coupons under certain conditions would be implemented to balance bike shortages, a joint statement from transportation departments across Taipei, New Taipei City and Taoyuan announced yesterday. The rental bike system operator said that coupons would be offered to riders to rent bikes from full stations, for riders who take out an electric-assisted bike from a full station, and for riders who return a bike to an empty station. All riders with YouBike accounts are automatically eligible for the program, and each membership account
A classified Pentagon-produced, multiyear assessment — the Overmatch brief — highlighted unreported Chinese capabilities to destroy US military assets and identified US supply chain choke points, painting a disturbing picture of waning US military might, a New York Times editorial published on Monday said. US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s comments in November last year that “we lose every time” in Pentagon-conducted war games pitting the US against China further highlighted the uncertainty about the US’ capability to intervene in the event of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. “It shows the Pentagon’s overreliance on expensive, vulnerable weapons as adversaries field cheap, technologically
NUMBERS IMBALANCE: More than 4 million Taiwanese have visited China this year, while only about half a million Chinese have visited here Beijing has yet to respond to Taiwan’s requests for negotiation over matters related to the recovery of cross-strait tourism, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. Taiwan’s tourism authority issued the statement after Chinese-language daily the China Times reported yesterday that the government’s policy of banning group tours to China does not stop Taiwanese from visiting the country. As of October, more than 4.2 million had traveled to China this year, exceeding last year. Beijing estimated the number of Taiwanese tourists in China could reach 4.5 million this year. By contrast, only 500,000 Chinese tourists are expected in Taiwan, the report said. The report
RSS