An errant classification of the nation’s six special municipalities on the Web site of the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy (GCoM) has been corrected, Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) said yesterday.
The Web site had listed the six under the country classification of “China,” but following a joint letter of protest from the municipalities on Sunday, the organization changed the cities’ listing on Sunday night to “Chinese Taipei,” the name used when they had joined the group, Wu said.
The letter had requested that the organization “immediately fix the Web site and change the registered names of our cities back to the original registered nationality.”
If the alliance did not respond positively, the six said that they would withdraw from the group to “defend our rights and interests.”
Taiwan is not part of China, and they objected to attempts to belittle them by listing them as Chinese cities, the letter said.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the six municipalities had earlier yesterday issued a joint statement protesting the wrongful designation via various channels.
However, the GCoM said the misclassification had been a simple “technical error” that was promptly corrected, a ministry news statement said.
Wu said he was happy to see the mayors of the six cities unite across party lines over the issue and that the problem has been resolved thanks to the joint efforts of all involved.
The mayors also acknowledged the GCoM’s “timely correction” and thanked the ministry for pushing the organization to make the correction.
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