The Legislative Yuan yesterday resolved to update the nation’s passport to highlight the Chinese and English for “Taiwan,” and to devise “feasible” ways to rename state-run China Airlines Ltd (CAL, 中華航空) to differentiate it from its Chinese counterpart, Air China.
Motions tendered by Taiwan Statebuilding Party Legislator Chen Po-wei (陳柏惟) and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus on the passport cover, and by the DPP and New Power Party caucuses on the name of the airline were voted on yesterday.
The proposals submitted by the DPP caucus won both votes.
Photo: Wu Su-wei, Taipei Times
The first resolution mandates that the English and Chinese for “Taiwan” should be highlighted on the passport to prevent Taiwanese from being confused with Chinese, to uphold their dignity and ensure their safe passage amid the COVID-19 pandemic, which originated in China.
The second resolution says that the international community has often confused China Airlines with Air China and to avoid that, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications should devise ways to set China Airlines planes apart from those of Air China.
China Airlines in the short term should add Taiwanese motifs to the fuselages of its aircraft so that the nation’s air rights would not have to be renegotiated, it says.
The ministry in the long term should devise feasible ways to change the English-language name of China Airlines, it says.
The motions were drafted after reports of Asians being discriminated against overseas due to the COVID-19 pandemic and batches of masks wrapped in banners reading “China Airlines” misleading recipients into thinking that they were donated by China.
The ministry said that it has instructed the China Aviation Development Foundation (中華航空事業發展基金會) — China Airlines’ largest shareholder — to form a consultancy team to discuss the legislature’s resolution.
China Airlines said that it had no comment on the resolution.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Joanne Ou (歐江安) said in a statement that the foreign ministry would collect feedback on how the nation’s passport should be redesigned.
Additional reporting by Shelley Shan and Lin Chia-nan
SURPRISE GUEST: Media reports identified the visitor as Admiral Michael Studeman, director of the J2, which oversees intelligence at the US military’s Indo-Pacific Command A two-star US Navy admiral overseeing US military intelligence in the Asia-Pacific region has made an unannounced visit to Taiwan, two sources told Reuters on Sunday. The sources, who include a Taiwanese official familiar with the situation, said the official was Rear Admiral Michael Studeman. They were speaking on condition of anonymity. After initially saying on Sunday night that it had no comment about the report, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it welcomed the visit of an “unidentified US official,” but declined to give more details because the trip “has not been made public.” Presidential Office spokesman Xavier Chang (張惇涵) yesterday
SUPPORT: Reporters Without Borders said that it stands behind the legitimacy of the commission’s probe and that press freedom does not mean the absence of oversight National Communications Commission (NCC) commissioners yesterday reached a unanimous decision to reject CTi News’ (中天新聞台) license renewal application on the grounds that the channel’s frequent contraventions of media regulations showed that it has a malfunctioning internal control mechanism that cannot be rectified. This was the first time since it was established in 2006 that the commission denied a license renewal to a news channel. NCC Chairman Chen Yaw-shyang (陳耀祥) announced the landmark decision at the commission’s weekly media briefing. The commission denied the renewal request because the news channel was fined a total of NT$11.53 million (US$400,932) for 25 breaches of media regulations
AUTUMN STRUGGLE: The KMT and TPP set up stages on the rally’s sidelines, while Want Want boss Tsai Eng-meng said the DPP was curtailing freedom of speech Tens of thousands of people in Taipei yesterday took part in the “Autumn Struggle” (秋鬥) — an annual protest march by labor groups — but with this year’s focus on rejecting the government’s plan to allow imports of US pork containing ractopamine residue. “Against poisonous pork, against double standards, against a party-state,” the protesters, mostly wearing black, chanted in front of the rally’s main stage on Ketagalan Boulevard at about noon, before a parade set off at 2pm. Autumn Struggle spokesperson Lee Chien-cheng (李建誠) said this year’s march was divided into three teams, with the first team urging food safety and labor
An investigation has found no mechanical problems underlying the Tuesday disappearance of an F-16 jet and its pilot, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said yesterday, adding that it does not rule out an accident due to “spatial disorientation.” An air force F-16 jet on Tuesday evening disappeared from radar screens, just two minutes after it took off from Hualien Air Base, while the 44-year-old pilot, Colonel Chiang Cheng-chih (蔣正志), has yet to be found. Minister of National Defense Yen De-fa (嚴德發) yesterday morning headed to Hualien for updates on the search and rescue, while giving a pep talk to Chiang’s unit,
RSS