Hello Taiwan, an international nonprofit organization, yesterday called for support for a proposal to rename Taiwan’s overseas offices as “Taiwan representative offices,” replacing the “Taipei Economic and Cultural Office” format.
The New York-based organization, founded by Taiwanese-
Americans in 2010, promotes Taiwan’s international visibility and fosters cultural and economic ties with democratic partners.
Photo: Fang Wei-li, Taipei Times
Organization chairman Ming Chiang (江明信) cited past initiatives, including lobbying for 2.5 million vaccine doses during the COVID-19 pandemic and collaborating with the New York Mets to distribute Taiwan-themed jerseys at the team’s Taiwan Heritage Day in 2024.
Chiang said he accompanied San Antonio Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones during her visit to Kaohsiung, where a trilateral memorandum of understanding was signed on Friday last week with sister cities Kaohsiung and Kumamoto, Japan.
He cited the proposed Taiwan Representative Office Act introduced by US Senator John Curtis and remarks by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio as evidence of political support in the US.
Rubio, then a senator, last year sponsored legislation to rename the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office (TECRO) as the Taiwan Representative Office.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chung Chia-pin (鍾佳濱), who attended the event, said inconsistencies between office signage and official Web sites using “Taiwan” creates confusion.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ use of the abbreviation “TECO” for overseas offices is easily misunderstood, he said.
Citing passport redesigns, Chung said Taiwanese society has shown resilience in embracing the name “Taiwan,” and that overseas offices should follow suit.
Hello Taiwan member Wu Hsin-tai (吳欣岱) said the current naming system reflects a legacy of authoritarian rule and no longer matches Taiwan’s international engagement.
The terminology often causes confusion in areas such as security and judicial cooperation, increasing the workload of Taiwanese diplomats, she said.
In some countries, law enforcement authorities interpret “Taipei” as referring to a local city rather than a national entity, which can complicate efforts by Taiwanese when seeking assistance abroad, particularly during emergencies, Wu added.
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
BREACH OF CONTRACT: The bus operators would seek compensation and have demanded that the manufacturer replace the chips with ones that meet regulations Two bus operators found to be using buses with China-made chips are to demand that the original manufacturers replace the systems and provide compensation for breach of contract, the Veterans Affairs Council said yesterday. Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Michelle Lin (林楚茵) yesterday said that Da Nan Bus Co and Shin-Shin Bus Co Ltd have fielded a total of 82 buses that are using Chinese chips. The bus models were made by Tron-E, while the systems provider was CYE Electronics, Lin said. Lin alleged that the buses were using chips manufactured by Huawei subsidiary HiSilicon Co, which presents a national security risk if the
The National Immigration Agency has banned two Chinese from returning to Taiwan, after they published social media content it described as disrespectful to national sovereignty. The agency imposed a two-month ban on a Chinese man surnamed Liang (梁) and a permanent ban on a woman surnamed Yang (楊), an influencer with 23 million followers, in October last year and last week respectively. Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) yesterday said on the sidelines of a legislative meeting that Chinese visitors to Taiwan are required to comply with the rules and regulations governing their entry permits. The government has handled the ban and
RSS