Taiwan's postal firm to resume use of name with 'China'
Taiwan's government-run postal company changed back to its original name containing the word 'China' yesterday, in line with Taipei's policy of engaging the mainland.
The Taiwan Post Company officially changed its title back to Chunghwa Post Company, 18 months after dropping the 'China' reference on the orders of the previous government of pro-independence president Chen Shui-bian.
'We changed the name to Taiwan Post Company in February last year in line with then government policy, but the legislature disagreed with the name change and a review of our budget required that we change the name back to Chunghwa Post Company before October this year,' the firm's chairman, Wu Min-yu, said.
The legislature, dominated by Kuomintang members, reviews and approves budgets for the government-run company. It said the name change to Taiwan was politically orchestrated by Mr Chen to cut the island's historical link with the mainland and highlight its de facto independent status.
'Chunghwa' or 'Zhonghua' means 'Chinese' in Mandarin. Titles with that term and 'Chungkuo' or 'Zhongguo' are quite common in Taiwan because the KMT ruled the mainland for several decades before fleeing to the island in 1949.
'The company decided at a board meeting on August 1 to resume the use of its original title,' Mr Wu said at a low-profile ceremony at the company's headquarters in Taipei.
Unlike the high-profile name-change ceremony last year, which was attended by Mr Chen and other cabinet heavyweights, no political luminaries from the government of mainland-friendly Ma Ying-jeou were at yesterday's ceremony.
Political observers said a high-profile change would only cause resentment among independence supporters, who backed Mr Chen's 'Taiwan name rectification' campaign to highlight the island's self-rule.
Legislators from the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party blasted the reversion and called on Mr Ma to step down for failing to stand by the island's name. 'Ma Ying-jeou, you have proven yourself a lousy leader who has no ability at all. Since you don't even have the guts to use the name Taiwan, just step down and go,' DPP legislator Wang Sin-nan said.
But KMT legislators fought back, saying the DPP's original name change was illegal. 'They illegally converted the title to Taiwan Post, wasting a great deal of taxpayers' money.
'The KMT government would have a legal problem if it failed to revert to the name 'Chunghwa Post',' KMT legislator Wu Yu-sheng said.
The original name change cost the government at least NT$20 million (HK$5 million), including changing the signs of 30 post offices across the island and reprinting stamps.
