The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday said it would not back down from using Zhonghua Taibei (中華台北) as the Chinese translation for “Chinese Taipei” as Taiwan’s membership designation in APEC.
The ministry made the remarks in response to China’s Taiwan Affairs Office, which told a press conference on Wednesday that it would use Zhongguo Taibei (中國台北) as the Chinese translation when referring to Taiwan’s APEC membership.
That designation literally means “China Taipei.”
MOFA Spokesman Henry Chen (陳銘政) said yesterday that in 1991 when APEC was discussing the membership titles for China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, it was agreed in a memorandum of understanding written in English that Taiwan would be known as “Chinese Taipei.”
However, to date, there has been no official Chinese translation of the term.
“If there has to be a Chinese translation, the ministry will insist on using Zhonghua Taibei,” Chen said.
Meanwhile, Mainland Affairs Council Vice Chairman Liu Teh-hsun (劉德勳) yesterday urged Beijing to use the official title to refer to the country at APEC.
“Zhongguo Taibei is not our official title,” he said.
“It will be more respectful to the people of the Taiwan region if they use our official title at the organization,” he said.
Liu said that for the sake of improving cross-strait relations, people in Taiwan would prefer to see both sides use the official title because only by doing so would cross-strait relations develop in a positive direction.
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