Everything about Chinese Taipei totally explained
Chinese Taipei is the designated name used by the
Republic of China (ROC), commonly known as "Taiwan", to participate in most
international organizations, due to the persistent
diplomatic pressure from the
People's Republic of China (PRC), which doesn't recognize the
Republic of China (ROC) as a sovereign
nation. Currently, the
international community frequently avoids the use of the ROC's preferred
titles, the "Republic of China (ROC)," "Republic of China" or "Taiwan" so as to avoid offending the
PRC by implying that the
ROC and the
PRC are two separate
countries when participating in international organizations (see
political status of Taiwan).
Origins
The
People's Republic of China (PRC), which doesn't recognize the
Republic of China (ROC) and claims the island of
Taiwan as part of its own territory, effectively blocks the
Republic of China from using their official
national title "Republic of China" in international organizations. To the PRC, the name "Republic of China" suggests either the continued existence of a
country that the PRC believes it has toppled or the existence of two Chinas, a contravention of the PRC's "
One-China policy".
When international organizations downgraded or even expelled Taiwan in the 1970s and 1980s in favor of recognizing the PRC, the
Kuomintang (KMT)-controlled
Republic of China government refused to be designated as "Taiwan, China" because the title would imply that it was subordinate to the
People's Republic of China government. At the time, the Kuomintang government also rejected the names "Taiwan" and "
Formosa" because it still considered itself the sole legitimate government of all of China and refused any hint of
Taiwan independence. Therefore, it chose what was considered a politically neutral title "
Chinese Taipei", after its capital,
Taipei.
In November of 1979 the
International Olympic Committee and later all the international sports federations adopted a resolution which recognized the National Olympic Committee of Taiwan as the
National Olympic Committee of Chinese Taipei and every sports team or athlete from Taiwan would compete as Chinese Taipei. Under this resolution, Chinese Taipei adopted the Chinese Taipei Olympic Flag, which consists of the emblem of the National Chinese Taipei Olympic Committee on a white background, and since the
1984 Summer Olympics has participated always with this name and under this flag at the
Olympics,
Paralympics and other international events.
The flag, however, isn't recognized on some media references. In 1992, during the
Winter Olympics in
Albertville, France,
CBS used the
flag of the Republic of China with the official "TPE" code. During the
2004 Summer Olympics, the Australian Baseball Federation Web site used a waving
National Flag of the ROC to refer to the island country. Many news networks and web sites also prefer to use the
National Flag of the Republic of China rather than the designated Chinese Taipei flag.
Translation compromise
Both sides agree to use the English name "Chinese Taipei". This is possible because of the ambiguity of the English word "Chinese". The PRC translates it as "
Zhongguo Taipei" (中国台北).
Zhongguo literally means "the Chinese state", and this translation connotes that Taipei is a part of the Chinese state. By contrast, the Republic of China government translates it as "
Zhonghua Taipei" (中華臺北) in Chinese, which references
China the cultural or ethnic entity, rather than the state. In the Olympic Games opening ceremony, when each country normally proceeds in alphabetical order, Chinese Taipei don't follow China, but instead take a place in the procession as if their name were Taipei, and follow countries such as Switzerland and Syria instead.
Consequences
The name "Chinese Taipei" has spilled into apolitical arenas. The
PRC has successfully pressured some religious organizations and organizations such as the
Lions Club to have Taiwan referred to as to "Chinese Taipei".
In 2000, the government of the
People's Republic of China pressured the
Miss Universe Organization to rename Miss Taiwan 2000 as "Miss Chinese Taipei". Three years later at the Miss Universe pageant in
Panama, the first official Miss China and Miss Taiwan competed alongside each other for the first time in history, prompting the Chinese government to again demand that Miss Taiwan assume the title "Miss Chinese Taipei." The contestant in question,
Szu-yu Chen, was famously photographed tearfully holding her two sashes. Today, neither
Miss Universe nor
Miss World, the two largest pageant systems in the world, allow Taiwan's entrants to compete under the Taiwan label. In 2005, the third largest pageant system,
Miss Earth, initially allowed beauty contestant
Li Fan Lin to compete as "Miss Taiwan"; however after a week into the pageant her sash was updated to "Taiwan ROC". There was no subsequent backlash or government disapproval from the PRC over this move.
The title "Chinese Taipei" leads some people to believe that "Taipei" is a country. To reduce confusion, news agencies remove "Chinese Taipei" references from press releases of international organizations and simply refer to the ROC as "Taiwan". For sporting events, the Taiwanese team is abbreviated in Taiwan as the
Zhonghua Team (中華隊;
Zhonghua being a more cultural rather than political variation of the term China), which, in effect, labels it the "Chinese Team".
Starting around the time of the
2004 Summer Olympics, there has been a movement in Taiwan to change all references of the ROC (Taiwan) team in media to the "Taiwanese Team", and the mainstream
Taiwan Television (TTV) is one of the first Taiwanese media outlets to do so. There are currently also cable TV channels that refer to Taiwan as the
Zhonghua Team and China as the
Zhongguo Team.
In contrast to Taiwanese usage, the
PRC always labels the Taiwanese team as the "Zhongguo Taibei Team," which translates as "China's Taipei Team." This name is consistently rejected by the
ROC.
In the
International Children's Games 2005 in Coventry as well as the
National Geographic World Championship, the name Chinese Taipei was used. Chinese Taipei was also the term being used by
Major League Baseball for the ROC team that participated in the
2006 World Baseball Classic, and will presumably do so in the future.
Other references to Taiwan and the ROC
References used in the international context to refer to the Republic of China or Taiwan differ according to the type of the organisation.
International organisations that only admit sovereign states generally don't recognise the Republic of China or allow its membership. Thus, for example, whenever the
United Nations makes reference to Taiwan, it uses the designation "
Taiwan, Province of China". Certain web-based postal address programs also label the country designation name for Taiwan as "
Taiwan, Province of China".
Inter-governmental organisations use a variety of terms to designate ROC territories. The
World Trade Organization uses the name "
Separate Customs Territory of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu" for the ROC, but "Chinese Taipei" is used unofficially since the official designation is too unwieldy. As a founding member of the
Asian Development Bank, the ROC participated in the organization as "Republic of China" until PRC's membership in 1986; because of pressure from PRC, Asian Development Bank now uses the name "
Taipei,China" (with the space between words intentionally omitted) for the ROC.
Some non-governmental organisations which the PRC doesn't participate in continue to use "China" or the "Republic of China" The
World Organization of the Scout Movement is one of few international organizations that continue to refer to the Republic of China as "China", and the ROC affiliate as the
Scouts of China. This is because such
Scouting organizations
do not exist on the mainland
People's Republic of China.
Countries that maintain diplomatic relations with the
Republic of China, especially the ROC's older diplomatic affiliates, also refer to the ROC as "China" on occasion: for example, during the
funeral of Pope John Paul II, the
President of the Republic of China Chen Shui-bian was seated as part of the
French alphabetical seating arrangement between the
first lady of Brazil and the president of Cameroon as the head of state of "Chine".
Further Information
Get more info on 'Chinese Taipei'.
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