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
AMPHIBIOUS EXERCISES: The defense ministry said that it had detected 24 Chinese PLA Air Force planes entering Taiwan’s air defense zone over the previous 24 hours Chinese movements around Taiwan were “abnormal,” Minister of National Defense Chiu Kuo-cheng (邱國正) said yesterday, flagging recent amphibious exercises in addition to drills Taipei has observed in China’s Fujian Province. Taiwan has reported a rise in Chinese military activity over the past week as dozens of fighters, drones, bombers and other aircraft, as well as warships, have operated around the nation. “Our initial analysis is that they are doing joint drills in September, including land, sea, air and amphibious,” Chiu told reporters at the legislature in Taipei. The “recent enemy situation is quite abnormal,” he said. The comments followed a statement from the
IN MOURNING: Tsai visited the site and spoke with family members of those killed, while all the major presidential candidates said they would temporarily halt campaigning A fire and subsequent explosions at a golf ball factory at Pingtung Technology Industrial Park (屏東科技產業園區) killed at least seven people, including four firefighters, and injured 98, while three were still missing, authorities said yesterday. The blaze at Launch Technologies Co’s (明揚國際) plant on Jingjian Road raged for more than 12 hours after it started at about 5pm on Friday, officials said. The Pingtung County Fire Bureau early yesterday used large excavators to search for missing people, while family members waited at the scene. Pingtung County Fire Bureau Director Hsu Mei-hsueh (許美雪) said the bureau received a call about the fire at 5:31pm
DETERRENCE: The president on Thursday is to launch the first indigenous submarine, which is to enter sea trials next month before being delivered to the navy next year Taiwan hopes to deploy at least two new, domestically developed submarines by 2027, and possibly equip later models with missiles to bolster its deterrence against the Chinese navy and protect key supply lines, the head of the program said. Taiwan has made the Indigenous Submarine Program a key part of an ambitious project to modernize its armed forces as Beijing stages almost daily military exercises. President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), who initiated the program when she took office in 2016, is expected to launch the first of eight new submarines on Thursday under a plan that has drawn on expertise and technology from
SDG AGENDA: Eswatini’s king told the UN that including Taiwan in the body is an essential next step to implement the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Marshall Islands President David Kabua on Wednesday called on the UN to rescind its interpretation of Resolution 2758, which bars Taiwan from participating in the international organization. There is still a “visible crack” in the UN, as it “will never be whole and complete without the meaningful participation of the 23 million people of Taiwan,” Kabua said in his address on the second day of the General Debate at the 78th General Assembly in New York. He also criticized the UN’s specialized agencies, meetings and mechanisms for what he described as their continuous efforts to close the doors to journalists and visitors
RSS