Mon, Jun 16, 2008 page8

• [LETTERS]

  • By Kris Liao
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    • 

  Singaporean correction

  Liou You-shine’s (劉侑學) article (“Singapore reflects the pitfalls of China ties,” June 10, page 8) gave inaccurate information about Singapore Airlines. I would like to clear up a few points.

  Singapore Airlines currently has 7,000 crewmembers, of whom 60 percent are female and 40 percent are male. Eighty-five percent of female employees are from Singapore and Malaysia, while the other 15 percent are from Taiwan, Hong Kong, China, Indonesia, India, Japan and South Korea.

  Singapore Airlines employs foreign crewmembers to offer better service to travelers from different parts of the world. We do not employ foreign staff to cut costs. Singapore Airlines pays special attention to the specific needs of each individual traveler. For example, on flights to Taiwan, two crewmembers from Taiwan are on board to serve Taiwanese travelers and offer a flight experience customers keep coming back for.

  Wu Pei-nan

  Public relations manager

  Singapore Airlines

  A name is a name is a name

  It appears that President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration has been secretly plotting to restore the name of Republic of China (ROC) to its former glory.

  Shortly after Ma took office, the Presidential Office removed the Chinese characters for “Taiwan” from its Web site, but left the word “Taiwan” in the English version. The reason given by spokesman Wang Yu-chi (王郁琦) was that the international community tended to be more confused about the nation’s title, while Taiwanese were not (“Presidential Office removes ‘Taiwan’ from its Web site,” May 23, page 3).

  I totally disagree with Wang. The international community follows the rules and policies of the UN, which clearly states that “one China” means the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and not the Republic of China, which exists now only in history books.

  The Wall Street Journal’s weekend edition for June 7 and June 8 said the name of the country was Taiwan, also known as the Republic of China, which is officially claimed by the PRC as part of China, but is in fact an independent state. So the world community knows that Taiwan is an independent country formerly known as the ROC.

  It is the people in Taiwan who are confused about their country’ name since its withdrawal from the UN in 1971. The reason is that the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and its diehard followers have been fooling people in Taiwan into believing that they still live in a fantasyland called the “ Republic of China.” How absurd.

  When the ROC began having trouble getting accepted into international organizations, the KMT started tinkering with names, including “Chinese Taipei.”

  The latest tinkering by the Ma administration amounts to meddling with the PRC’s internal affairs. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) has recommended using the term “Mainland China” instead of “The People’s Republic of China” when referring to China. I wonder who gave the ministry (or Ma for that matter) the authority to change another country’s name at its whim. (“MOFA delays ‘Taiwan” name changes,” June 6, page 1)

  The ministry said its recommendation was in keeping with Ma’s stance on cross-strait relations, based on the so-called “1992 consensus,” which in my opinion is an imaginary pact based on mutual fooling.

  The consensus stipulates that both sides of the Taiwan Strait uphold the “one China” principle and agree to disagree on whether Taiwan is part of the PRC or China is part of the ROC.

  Thus it seems so perfect for Ma’s administration to describe the PRC as Mainland China and include the entire country as part of the ROC. How wonderful it is to “recover the mainland” by simply manipulating the names.

  Ma might be able to continue to fool people in Taiwan with some feel-good schemes. But the international community needs just one official name for a country, not a variety that sidesteps the rule of law.

  As US president Abraham Lincoln said: “You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time.”

  People in Taiwan should be fooled no more. They should demand that lawmakers hold a referendum on changing the country’s name from the Republic of China to the Republic of Taiwan, or just Taiwan.
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