A dispute over the wording of the nation’s title on a set of commemorative postage stamps to mark the inauguration of president-elect Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) on May 20 has been resolved, a Cabinet source said on Thursday.
The source said Ma’s office had agreed to accept a new design bearing the imprint “Republic of China (Taiwan),” a solution proposed by the state-run Taiwan Post Co to resolve the dispute of how the nation’s name should appear.
Earlier, Ma’s office had suggested postponing the launch of the stamps because the original design was controversial, using only the name “Taiwan” rather than the official national title, the Republic of China.
“The Executive Yuan respects their decision” and is set to approve the new design, the source said.
The opposition from Ma’s office came in response to a government decision to change the postal company’s name from Chunghwa Post Co to Taiwan Post Co last year as part of its name-change campaign to highlight Taiwanese identity.
Soon after the name change last February, the company also replaced the wording “Republic of China” on its stamps with “Taiwan.”
The legislature, which is dominated by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), did not pass an amendment to an act governing the establishment of the postal firm last year, leaving the company’s legal name as Chunghwa Post Co.
Prior to Thursday’s announcement, the Cabinet had insisted that the name “Taiwan” appear on the stamps, but it decided to soften its stance because it does not want to politicize the launch of the new stamps, the source said.
This year will be the fourth time that the postal company has launched inaugural stamps since 1996, when the company sold 4.2 million stamps to mark former president Lee Teng-hui’s (李登輝) inauguration.
In 2000, the company sold 3 million commemorative President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) stamps when the Democratic Progressive Party first came to power, ending 55 years of KMT rule.
However, 1.5 million of the 3.5 million stamps launched in 2004 to mark the start of Chen’s second term remain unsold.
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