What’s in a name? It is a label that sets one person apart from another, and helps foster a sense of identity and self.
Just as someone’s name says a lot about a person, when it comes to a nation’s appellation, it is something through which its citizens showcase their identity and find their place in the world.
However, in the case of Taiwan, as a result of being occupied in 1949 by the retreating Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Republic of China (ROC) government in exile, it has since been trapped in a modern political fable like The Emperor’s New Clothes.
Add in decades of brainwashing that Taiwanese were subjected to under the former KMT regime, and many still suffer from a nationality identity crisis, with no clear concept of their identity in the struggle between Taiwan and the ROC.
While Taiwanese continue to live in this absurd reality, the People’s Republic of China (PRC), on the other hand, is having a field day, benefiting from Taiwan clinging to the empty shell of the exiled ROC. As long as Taiwan does that, Beijing can continue with its deceitful claim that it has “inherited” sovereignty over Taiwan by citing the UN General Assembly’s Resolution 2758 of Oct. 25, 1971, which recognizes the PRC as the sole legitimate government of China, replacing the ROC.
However, Beijing’s complacency has been broken — by a name rectification campaign initiated by a civic organization. The Taiwan 2020 Campaign Council is seeking to hold a referendum on having Taiwan seek participation in international sports events, including the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, under the name “Taiwan” instead of “Chinese Taipei.”
Beijing was so concerned that it admitted on Wednesday last week that it had a hand in the East Asian Olympic Committee’s decision to revoke Taichung’s right to host the East Asian Youth Games in August next year, pointing to the name-change referendum as the reason.
International sports events are a powerful setting for forging a sense of national pride and patriotism as people cheer fervently for their country. One can just imagine how dreadful that image would be for Beijing: a crowd collectively chanting “Taiwan” and cheering for “Taiwan” at international competitions, because it knows how that could easily arouse a sense of national identity that is different from the ROC government’s ideology.
And a reinforced sense of “Taiwan is Taiwan and not the ROC” is certainly the last thing Beijing wants.
As Taiwan 2020 Campaign Council director Hideki Nagayama has said, the campaign has made Beijing anxious due to its reach and it is concerned about the extent of the campaign’s effects internationally.
Knowing how scared Beijing is of the name “Taiwan,” Taiwanese should use it to their utmost advantage to deter Beijing’s incessant suppression of Taiwan internationally.
The campaign for a referendum to have Taiwan compete in international sports events under the name “Taiwan” is a golden opportunity for all Taiwanese to make China — and the whole world — know what they like their country to be called.
All that stands in the way now is not Beijing, but whether Taiwanese have the will and mind-set to present a united voice to make the world know what they want.
They did it again. For the whole world to see: an image of a Taiwan flag crushed by an industrial press, and the horrifying warning that “it’s closer than you think.” All with the seal of authenticity that only a reputable international media outlet can give. The Economist turned what looks like a pastiche of a poster for a grim horror movie into a truth everyone can digest, accept, and use to support exactly the opinion China wants you to have: It is over and done, Taiwan is doomed. Four years after inaccurately naming Taiwan the most dangerous place on
Wherever one looks, the United States is ceding ground to China. From foreign aid to foreign trade, and from reorganizations to organizational guidance, the Trump administration has embarked on a stunning effort to hobble itself in grappling with what his own secretary of state calls “the most potent and dangerous near-peer adversary this nation has ever confronted.” The problems start at the Department of State. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has asserted that “it’s not normal for the world to simply have a unipolar power” and that the world has returned to multipolarity, with “multi-great powers in different parts of the
President William Lai (賴清德) recently attended an event in Taipei marking the end of World War II in Europe, emphasizing in his speech: “Using force to invade another country is an unjust act and will ultimately fail.” In just a few words, he captured the core values of the postwar international order and reminded us again: History is not just for reflection, but serves as a warning for the present. From a broad historical perspective, his statement carries weight. For centuries, international relations operated under the law of the jungle — where the strong dominated and the weak were constrained. That
On the eve of the 80th anniversary of Victory in Europe (VE) Day, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) made a statement that provoked unprecedented repudiations among the European diplomats in Taipei. Chu said during a KMT Central Standing Committee meeting that what President William Lai (賴清德) has been doing to the opposition is equivalent to what Adolf Hitler did in Nazi Germany, referencing ongoing investigations into the KMT’s alleged forgery of signatures used in recall petitions against Democratic Progressive Party legislators. In response, the German Institute Taipei posted a statement to express its “deep disappointment and concern”
RSS