Chinese Taipei
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| Chinese Taipei | |||||||||
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| Traditional Chinese: | 中華臺北 | ||||||||
| Simplified Chinese: | 中华台北 | ||||||||
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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 does not 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).
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[edit] Origins
The People's Republic of China (PRC), which does not 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[1] 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, is not 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.
[edit] 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 do not 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.
[edit] 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".[citation needed]
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.
[edit] 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 do not 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 does not 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".
[edit] Notes
- ^ However, the name of the committee in Chinese continues to be "中華奧林匹克委員會" ("Chinese Olympic Committee"): see Official Website
[edit] See also
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This article contains Chinese text. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Chinese characters. |
- Chinese Taipei national basketball team
- Chinese Taipei national football team
- Chinese Taipei national ice hockey team
- Taiwan national baseball team
- Foreign relations of the Republic of China
- Four-stage Theory of the Republic of China
- Sport in Taiwan
- National Banner Song
- Nagoya Resolution [1] [2]
- Flag of the Republic of China
- Taiwan Province
- Kuomintang
[edit] External links
- Chinese Taipei Olympic Committee Official Website
- Type "TPE" in the following flight schedule websites to see references to "Taipei, Chinese Taipei":
- Articles regarding the United Nations' reference to Taiwan
- Information About Japan Asia Airways, a subsidiary of Japan Airlines created not to offend Beijing
- Swiss Residency Permits Refer the Nationality of ROC Citizens as "Chinese Taipei"
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