Taipei - Depending on who and where you are, the island of Taiwan could be referred to by one of at least 14 names.
Called the Republic of China (ROC) since 1949 when the Chinese Nationalists launched its government in exile after losing mainland China to the communists, the current government would like to see a return to the use of Taiwan.
After the United Nations expelled the ROC to accept the People's Republic of China (PRC) in 1971, Taiwan has increasingly found the name ROC troublesome because it indicates Taiwan is part of China and foreigners often mistake ROC for PRC.
Continues Below ↓
However, it is not quite that simple.
Currently, Taiwan's formal title remains ROC, with its embassies at 26 diplomatic allied countries reflecting that name, but informal titles such as Chinese-Taipei have been used to join UN-related organisations, the International Olympic Committee, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) and Asian Development Bank (ADB).
In 2002, Taiwan joined the World Trade Organisation (WTO) under the name of Separate Customs Territory of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu (acronym TPKM - Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu are offshore islets of Taiwan), and it is seeking to join the World Health Organisation (WHO) under a name yet to be decided.
In countries which do not recognise Taiwan, unofficial missions use ambiguous names like Co-ordination Council for North American Affairs (in the United States), Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office (in Japan), Taipei Mission (in Korea) and Taipei-Moscow Co-ordination Commission (in Russia).
Other alternatives include:
Taiwan, ROC
Taiwan (ROC)
ROC-Taiwan
ROC (Taiwan)
ROC in Taiwan
ROC; Taiwan
ROC/Taiwan
Taiwan, China
Taiwan/China
Taiwan (China)
As China is increasing its isolation of Taiwan in the international arena, recent public opinion polls have shown that more and more Taiwanese want to change Taiwan's formal tile from "ROC" to "Taiwan" to reflect Taiwan's sovereignty and avoid ROC being mistaken for PRC by foreign countries. - Sapa-dpa
|
StumbleUpon
Reddit
Digg
Delicious
Newsvine
Facebook
muti
Twitter
