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Lawrence Chung

Taiwan's top representative body in Hong Kong played it low-key as it officially changed its name yesterday, marking an elevation of its status after the settlement of a 45-year political standoff.
 In fact the only visible indication of the change of the de facto Taiwanese consulate from Chung Hwa Travel Service to the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office  was red cloths covering the nameplates.
The office's director general Jeff Yang Jia-jun - formerly managing director of Chung Hwa - said the new signboards had not been installed as they were still being made in Taiwan. 
While Taiwan president Ma Ying-jeou  earlier described the move as 'a change which shakes the heavens', Yang said: 'It was Taiwan's representative office in Hong Kong yesterday, and is Taiwan's representative office in Hong Kong today. The functions remain the same.'
The new name is in line with those of the island's government offices in other world cities. 'Some say it's correcting a name,' Yang said. 'In fact it's just a renaming. After the office is renamed, the functions will be clear and the efficiency will  ... increase.' 
In a corresponding move the SAR government plans to open a Hong Kong Economic, Trade and Cultural Office in Taipei later this year. 
Yang and his colleagues posed for photographs in the office but were reluctant to sit down and give a press conference. Yang was equally low-key in his account of his office's role in Taiwan-Hong Kong negotiations for the change. 'The renaming of the office and the Hong Kong government's plan to set up an office in Taiwan were the results of direct communications between the Mainland Affairs Council and the Hong Kong government,' he said, adding that he understood the two governments were under talks on issues including further relaxation of visa requirements by the Hong Kong side. 
 The name of Taiwan's top office in the city had long been a sensitive issue, because neither the former British colonial government nor the special administrative region government wanted to give it official recognition. Consensus on the renaming was struck after eight months of negotiations. 
In Taiwan, a government source said Mainland Affairs Council minister Dr Lai Shin-yuan applied for a visa to attend a renaming ceremony for the  office but it had yet to be granted.  Lai has visited Hong Kong before and inspected the council's Hong Kong office in June last year.  A spokeswoman for Hong Kong's Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Bureau said it had no information on the visa.



Low-key name change for Taiwan's top office