Several Taiwanese-American organizations on Friday issued a joint letter, calling on the US Census Bureau to include a “Taiwanese” option to answer the ethnicity question in the next US national census in 2020.
The US Constitution requires a national census once every 10 years and according to the US Census Bureau, an individual’s response to the ethnicity question is based on self-identification.
The census forms do not have a “Taiwanese” option, which had prompted Taiwanese American Citizens League, which also signed the letter, to urge Taiwanese-Americans to check the “other Asian” option in the ethnicity category and write “Taiwanese” in the 2010 census.
In Friday’s letter addressed to Chair of US Census Bureau’s National Advisory Committee Ditas Katague, the organizations said there are large discrepancies in government information on the Taiwanese-American population in the US, pointing to the 2010 census that set the population of Taiwanese-Americans at 230,382, whereas 2014 US Homeland Security data on Lawful Permanent Residents showed that the number of Taiwanese-Americans who have registered in the US between 1950 and 2010 was 450,673.
“Taiwanese-Americans all over the nation have expressed their concern and frustration about not knowing how many Taiwanese-Americans there are in the US. We campaign for a separate check box for ‘Taiwanese’ because Taiwanese-Americans want to be counted,” said the letter, which was backed by 12 organizations, including the Formosan Association for Public Affairs (FAPA), Taiwanese Association of America, Formosan Association for Human Rights and North America Taiwanese Medical Association.
FAPA, a nonprofit Washington-based lobbying organization, has since 1997 been calling for a check box for “Taiwanese.”
At the time, it was told by the bureau that a 1997 US Department of State memorandum stipulated that “any listing of ‘Taiwanese’ as a race in a census questionnaire would inevitably raise sensitive political questions ... contrary to US government policy and US national interests.”
FAPA said in a statement that since the US Immigration and Naturalization Service already maintains a separate quota for Taiwanese coming to the US, there should be no reason for the bureau to continue omitting a Taiwanese check box.
“No foreign country should dictate how our own Census Bureau counts its citizens. Taiwanese-Americans today recognize that they are a separate ethnicity from Chinese-Americans and we must honor and respect that,” the letter said.
NATIONAL SECURITY: Authorities are working to confirm the identities of the military personnel involved and investigating possible illegal conduct and regulatory violations Authorities are probing possible national security implications after Kinmen police and immigration officers on Sunday found a Chinese woman allegedly posing as a tourist while engaging in prostitution involving more than 10 military personnel. The woman, surnamed Chen (陳), has since been deported, authorities said, adding that investigators are still working to confirm the identities of those implicated, as the records only listed code names and aliases. The case stemmed from a report received by the Kinmen District Prosecutors’ Office on Friday last week from the Jinhu Precinct of the Kinmen County Police Bureau. On Sunday, police, along with the National Immigration
GLOBALGIVING: ‘ Caving to external pressure is not acceptable for an organization that has cultivated justice reform and human rights for 30 years,’ one NGO said A slew of non-government organizations (NGOs) have withdrawn from the GlobalGiving fundraising platform after it announced it would use “Chinese Taipei” instead of “Taiwan” from next month. The Taiwan Good Rice Association wrote on Facebook on Friday that it was informed on April 28 via a teleconference call of the change, which was made because the platform wanted to operate in China. Taiwan Good Rice is to terminate all cooperative relationships with GlobalGiving in response to the platform’s “unilateral and non-negotiable” decision to remove references to Taiwan, the NGO said. “Taiwan is in the official name of Taiwan Good Rice Association and the
HEAVY WEATHER: Typhoon Jangmi is due to crash straight into the Ryukyus as airlines look to shift flights to larger aircraft or cancel flights to Okinawa entirely Taiwan’s international air carriers announced flight adjustments over the weekend as Typhoon Jangmi is forecast to hit the Ryukyu Islands today and tomorrow. The Central Weather Administration (CWA) upgraded Jangmi from a tropical storm to a typhoon at 8am yesterday, with the eye located 580km south of Naha city. It was moving north at 19kph. Today, China Airlines’ CI-120, CI-121, CI-122 and CI-123 flights between Taoyuan and Naha, Okinawa, have been canceled as well as CI-132 and CI-133 between Kaohsiung and Naha. EVA Air’s BR-112, BR-113, BR-186 and BR-185 flights between Taoyuan and Naha are also canceled. Low-cost carrier Tigerair Taiwan canceled IT-230,
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) yesterday briefed her party’s Central Standing Committee regarding her scheduled visit to the US between Monday next week and June 16, saying that her purpose would be to persuade the US that the Republic of China (ROC) Constitution was a “one China” constitution that would foster stable and peaceful cross-strait relations. The ROC Constitution is the most important defense for all Taiwanese citizens, as it upholds our democracy and has contributed to our robust economy, which aligns with international and US interests, she said. “We would not be troublemakers and drag the US under,”
RSS