Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) encouraged the Taiwan chapter of Lions Club International (LCI) to stand firm after the NGO's headquarters changed the chapter's name from "ROC" to "Chinese Taiwan" without its consent.
Lu made the remark while delivering an opening speech in a ceremony held by the Taiwan chapter's 300G district yesterday.
"China's demand to change Taiwan's name is hateful. Taiwan belongs to her 23 million people only. We won't allow any country to utilize its political privilege to change Taiwan's name," Lu said yesterday.
LCI decided in April to change the name of Taiwan's chapter without consulting its Taiwanese members, hoping that the move would impress LCI's two new branches, China's Guangdong and Shenzhen chapters.
The Hong Kong and Macao chapters are called "China Hong Kong" and "China Macao," and the two new members have been named "China Guangdong" and "China Shenzhen." LCI headquarters caved into pressure from these chapters and in the process relegated the Taiwan chapter as a part of China.
"We should insist on `ROC' or `Taiwan' as the Taiwan chapter's name," Lu said.
Denny Hsu (
As one of the biggest NGOs with 189 member chapters representing countries and areas around the free world, LCI is looking to China to increase its membership.
"The Taiwan chapter has 19 districts with a total of 33,000 members. That is probably as big as the Taiwan chapter can get," Hsu said.
In reaction to LCI's unilateral change of Taiwan's name, the Taiwan chapter has commissioned US lawyers to prepare a lawsuit against LCI in Chicago where the organization is based.
Hsu said he has issued a letter to LCI chairman Frank Moore, calling on LCI to revise its decision.
LCI has promised to discuss this issue in its board meeting slated from Wednesday to July 7 in Osaka, Japan.
Taiwan will not have a representative at the board meeting this year, so the Taiwan chapter plans to send a group to lobby for the board members' support during the meeting.
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