The People’s Republic of China demands that the Republic of China be referred to, exclusively, as Taiwan, Province of China.
A large number of institutions cravenly go along with that, solely for their personal political gain, including—especially shamefully—an American high school.
Colorado’s Regis Jesuit High School applied for credentials to attend the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women.
The purpose of attending was to give some students a taste of foreign affairs.
That’s when the PRC, a member of that commission, instructed the school to mend its ways. The PRC, through that commission, instructed the school to “fix” an obscure reference to the RoC on its Web site:
…modify[] it to “Taiwan, Province of China.”
Christina Vela, the Spanish teacher responsible for the application, meekly complied—and she got her school permitted to attend the commission. What a lesson in foreign affairs that process was.
Nor was this American high school alone in its obsequiousness.
China cited improper Taiwan terminology to stall applications from at least six other groups, including the World Bicycle Industry Association, a French nature society called the Association of 3 Hedgehogs and For All Moonkind, a volunteer team of space lawyers trying to preserve lunar landing sites so they don’t become tourist traps in the far-off future.
Iain Patton, Environmental Association for Universities and Colleges CEO, another organization seeking permission to attend the commission, added Province of China some of the group’s Web site references after being told to do so by the commission.
We did it because we’re intent on getting in and influencing that [UN] system from within.
Left entirely unaddressed is how Patton or his organization expect to influence “the system” from within when his first act is to timidly succumb to that system’s diktat.
On the other hand, the PRC’s UN representative Zhang Zhe, makes the case (albeit unintentionally) for not “correcting” references to the RoC.
“…sovereignty and territorial integrity of UN member states” is a core UN principle, so “using correct terminology is one of the most basic criteria for submitting applications.”
Indeed, and the logic applies, also, to nations not members of the UN, including nations like the Republic of China which was so shamefully and spinelessly expelled from the UN’s Security Council and then from the UN altogether.
Thus, the correct way to write the name of the nation that’s on the island of Taiwan is “Republic of China.”
Full stop.