Beijing’s guidelines banning Chinese media from using the name “Republic of China (ROC)” — Taiwan’s official title — is “overkill,” Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus secretary-general Lin Wei-chou (林為洲) said yesterday.
“The ROC’s existence is an established fact... If even the term ‘ROC’ is to be censored, I doubt there is a better way [to refer to the nation],” Lin said in response to media queries for comments.
In a move intended to increase pressure on Taiwan, China’s official Xinhua news agency published a set of guidelines for Chinese media when referring to Taiwanese authorities, including a ban on using the Taiwanese version of the so-called “1992 consensus.”
The “1992 consensus” — a term former Mainland Affairs Council chairman Su Chi (蘇起) admitted making up in 2000 — refers to a tacit understanding between the KMT and the Chinese government that both sides acknowledge there is “one China,” with each side having its own interpretation of what “China” means.
The list also bans Chinese media from using the term “president/vice president of the ROC,” instead instructing them to use “leader/deputy leader of the Taiwan authorities.”
Chinese media are also forbidden from saying “Taiwan presidential election” and are required to describe such events as “leadership elections in the Taiwan area” or “Taiwan’s general election.”
Even the use of the phrase “Taiwan government” is not allowed, as is any reference to Taiwanese governmental agencies at the “national” or “central government” level, the Xinhua list says.
Banning the terms would make it more difficult for Taiwan and China to arrive at any sort of consensus, Lin said, calling on both sides of the Taiwan Strait to increase the level of goodwill toward each other to meet people’s expectations for cross-strait rapport and security.
Mainland Affairs Council Deputy Minister and spokesman Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) on Thursday urged the Chinese media to “fully report reality and respect the fact that the ROC exists.”
“Beijing is suppressing and manipulating freedom of the press and severely restricting the rights of Chinese” by prohibiting the Chinese media from using terms that depict the facts, Chiu said.
By banning so many terms, China is drawing attention to its inability to objectively and practically view the real cross-strait situation, he added.
“Such a policy reflects the Chinese leadership’s intransigent thinking and inclination to create an impasse, which will widen the knowledge gap between Taiwan and China and deter mutual understanding,” Chiu said.
China has reserved offshore airspace in the Yellow Sea and East China Sea from March 27 to May 6, issuing alerts usually used to warn of military exercises, although no such exercises have been announced, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported yesterday. Reserving such a large area for 40 days without explanation is an “unusual step,” as military exercises normally only last a few days, the paper said. These alerts, known as Notice to Air Missions (Notams), “are intended to inform pilots and aviation authorities of temporary airspace hazards or restrictions,” the article said. The airspace reserved in the alert is
NAMING SPAT: The foreign ministry called on Denmark to propose an acceptable solution to the erroneous nationality used for Taiwanese on residence permits Taiwan has revoked some privileges for Danish diplomatic staff over a Danish permit that lists “Taiwan” as “China,” Eric Huang (黃鈞耀), head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department of European Affairs, told a news conference in Taipei yesterday. Reporters asked Huang whether the Danish government had responded to the ministry’s request that it correct the nationality on Danish residence permits of Taiwanese, which has been listed as “China” since 2024. Taiwan’s representative office in Denmark continues to communicate with the Danish government, and the ministry has revoked some privileges previously granted to Danish representatives in Taiwan and would continue to review
More than 6,000 Taiwanese students have participated in exchange programs in China over the past two years, despite the Mainland Affairs Council’s (MAC) “orange light” travel advisory, government records showed. The MAC’s publicly available registry showed that Taiwanese college and university students who went on exchange programs across the Strait numbered 3,592 and 2,966 people respectively. The National Immigration Agency data revealed that 2,296 and 2,551 Chinese students visited Taiwan for study in the same two years. A review of the Web sites of publicly-run universities and colleges showed that Taiwanese higher education institutions continued to recruit students for Chinese educational programs without
A bipartisan group of US senators has introduced a bill to enhance cooperation with Taiwan on drone development and to reduce reliance on supply chains linked to China. The proposed Blue Skies for Taiwan Act of 2026 was introduced by Republican US senators Ted Cruz and John Curtis, and Democratic US senators Jeff Merkley and Andy Kim. The legislation seeks to ease constraints on Taiwan-US cooperation in uncrewed aerial systems (UAS), including dependence on China-sourced components, limited access to capital and regulatory barriers under US export controls, a news release issued by Cruz on Wednesday said. The bill would establish a "Blue UAS
RSS