Pro-Taiwan independence group lobbies US to make symbolic change to name of island’s Washington ‘embassy’
Lobbying group says name of Taipei Representative Office should be changed to make it clear it represents whole island, but move would be certain to anger China
A pro-Taiwanese lobbying group is urging Washington to change the name of the island’s representative office in the United States to refer to “Taiwan” instead of “Taipei” in a highly symbolic gesture that would anger Beijing.
The campaign to rename the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office – the de facto Taiwanese embassy in the US – has been undertaken by the US-based Formosan Association for Public Affairs (FAPA), an organisation that supports a formal declaration of independence from mainland China.
Coen Blaauw, from the Foromosan Association for Public Relations that operates under the FAPA, said the organisation was actively pushing for the name change but declined to share details, saying only that the effort was in its preliminary stages, the Central News Agency reported on Wednesday.
“The representative office’s name makes it seem as if it only represents Taipei, when it actually represents all of Taiwan’s 23 million people, which is why we want this name change,” he was quoted as saying.
Taiwan’s representative offices in countries that maintain formal diplomatic ties with Beijing have formal titles that refer only to the capital Taipei rather than using the name of the whole island.
A switch in formal name of these unofficial embassies would inevitably trigger a backlash from Beijing, which rejects any suggestion that Taiwan is a separate country.
Beijing views the self-ruled island as a breakaway province that must be reunited with the mainland and it has never ruled out the use of force.