The name of a nation is a symbol of that nation, which is why every nation exerts great effort to find a representative name.
Some nations, however, have chosen both long and cumbersome names, which is the reason why the international community simply uses the geographic part of the name to designate such nations. "Venezuela" is short for the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, "Guyana" for the Co-operative Republic of Guyana, or "Brazil" for the Federative Republic of Brazil. Of course, the names of some nations with already short names get further abbreviated, like "Peru" for the Republic of Peru. The Japanese name for its nation is "State of Japan," three characters in Japanese (日本國), but when taking an English name, the Japanese themselves abbreviated it to only one word, "Japan."
Regardless of a nation's domestic political situation, the most common addition to national names throughout the world is the word "Republic." Even if the common word "Republic" is the only addition to a geographical name, making it very easy to pronounce, the international community still finds it too long and cumbersome and only uses the geographical name. Sometimes these names are geographical names that have become national names, and sometimes it is the other way around.
Many nations have used a single word as the name of their nation from the day they were founded. Not only does this make it easy for them to pronounce the name of their own nation, but it also provides them with a high level of international name recognition. India and Malaysia are two examples of a total of 23 nations around the world that have adopted this approach.
There was almost immediate controversy over the union of states known as "Serbia and Montenegro" because it is unabbreviateable and therefore quite unwieldy for writers and governments. What if the disputed territory "South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands" were to become independent by some twist of fate? Such an island-state would have the world's longest name.
Some countries call themselves republics, but are actually dictatorships, such as the Republic of Iraq. Leaving out the word "Republic" from the national name, simply using a geographical name, does not harm national dignity, which is well exemplified by such proud nations as Canada, Singapore, Australia and Ireland.
Even though the question of a nation's name is a solemn and serious issue, there is nothing shameful in changing the name of a nation. Ceylon, for example, changed its name to Sri Lanka, and Burma changed its to Myanmar. Mongolia has changed its name from Greater Mongolia to the People's Republic of Mongolia, before, in 1992, becoming Mongolia.
"China" is used as the abbreviation of both the People's Republic of China (PRC) and the Republic of China (ROC), while both sides reject the idea of two Chinas, saying that there is only one. Suppose that we could advance to the point where the idea of "two Chinas" becomes acceptable to both sides. Which of the " two China" would be larger? The ROC today still includes Mongolia in its territory! The fact that both the PRC and the ROC are called China in English corroborates the fact that there is only one China. The former has a people, the latter doesn't, ie, the ROC is a peopleless China.
So how should we deal with the Chinese republic on Taiwan? The ROC on Taiwan, the Republic of China on Taiwan, the ROC (Taiwan), or Taiwan ROC? There are in fact quite a few different names that would be appropriate for Taiwan. Why not the "Republic of Taiwan?" Or just "Taiwan?"
Ng Chiau-tong is chairman of World United Formosans for Independence (WUFI).
Translated by Perry Svensson
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