Taiwan deletes 'Chinese' from organization's name

Oct 8, 2006, 13:34 GMT

Taipei - Taiwan has further distanced itself from China by deleting the word 'Chinese' from a government organization's name, a newspaper said on Sunday.

Premier Su Tseng-chang has approved changing the name from the Overseas Chinese Affairs Commission to Overseas Compatriot Affairs Commission, the United Evening News (UEN) reported.

Taiwan has also changed the name of Chinese Cultural Center in US cities to Cultural Centre of TECO, UEN said. TECO is the acronym for Taiwan's representative office in the US - Taipei Economics and Cultural Office.

The UEN said the name change is President Chen Shui-bian's government's latest effort to distance itself from China. Since he became president in 2000, Chen has been advocating Taiwan is a sovereign state and had no links with China.

China has warned that it will use force to recover Taiwan if Taipei declares independence or indefinitely delays reunification.

But the Overseas Compatriot Affairs Commission (OCAC) denied the name change had any political meaning.

'Foreigners often mix our name 'overseas Chinese' up with the Chinese on mainland China because they consider themselves overseas Taiwanese, not overseas Chinese,' UEN quoted OCAC Vice Minister Cheng Tong-hsing as saying.

'For the same reasons, we changed the name of Chinese Culture Center because when overseas Taiwanese were not interested in attending the activities of Chinese Cultural Center,' he said.

Taiwan and China split at the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949, when the Republic of China (ROC) government lost the civil war and fled to Taiwan to set up its government-in-exile.

Because of Taiwan's historical links with China, the word 'China' is everywhere in Taiwan - like the China Airlines, China Times, Broadcasting Corp of China, China Shipbuilding Co and Chinese Petroleum Corp.

But since Chen Shui-bian became president in 2000, ending the five-decade grip on power by the Chinese Nationalist Party, he has been pushing the de-sinicization campaign, demanding the removing of 'China' or 'Chinese' from all these names, triggering concern from China that Taiwan is moving slowing towards independence.