Beijing’s campaign of “namefare” – to discredit Taiwan’s status as a de facto independent state by confiscating the use of the name Taiwan – has accelerated as of late. Namefare has most notably been conducted on the websites of international airlines, but is also showing up at sporting and cultural events. The campaign to disabuse others from using the name “Taiwan” is just part of Beijing’s strategy to unite Taiwan with the mainland, a duty it considers “sacred.”
Media around the world have widely reported on Beijing’s demand for international airlines to change how their websites refer to Taiwan by July 25. Despite accusations of bullying, and widespread condemnation by Canada, the United Kingdom, the United States and other countries, Beijing’s efforts succeeded. All 44 international airlines contacted by the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) in April have amended their websites, although measures taken by US airlines were deemed incomplete.
Many of the airlines, including Air Canada and British Airways, changed their websites to “Taiwan, China,” while US airlines removed “Taiwan” and list only city names. Hawaiian Airlines changed its reference to “Taipei, Taipei.”
The namefare over the use of “Taiwan” on the websites of international airlines has also been waged on other industries and companies. The website of the Marriott hotel chain was temporarily suspended in January after labeling Tibet and Taiwan as separate countries. The Gap, a clothing retailer, issued an apology to China in May after a T-shirt it sold in Canada did not show Taiwan as part of China.
Most recently, Beijing’s use of namefare has extended to youth sports, such as the 2019 East Asian Youth Games to be held in Taichung, Taiwan. The East Asian Olympic Committee recently revoked its decision for the Games to be held in Taiwan, apparently yielding to pressure from Beijing. Beijing has even gone so far to force the withdrawal of a junior-high-school choir scheduled to perform at a United Nations building as part of the World Peace Choral Festival held in Vienna.
By engaging in namefare, Beijing appears to have abandoned its soft-power approach to win the hearts and minds of the Taiwanese and is willing to accept a decline in its popularity among Taiwanese. A poll conducted in May revealed that nearly 80% of Taiwanese thought China was unfriendly toward Taiwan.
Beyond Taiwan’s shores, the namefare controversy has only drawn increased attention to the issue of Taiwan, and may have even generated more international sympathy for the Taiwanese. As the Irish author, playwright and poet Oscar Wilde once said, “The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about.”
While the increased sympathy may be insufficient to counter Beijing’s use of implied economic threats when conducting namefare, it has led to dialogue among governments and citizens surrounding just how far China will go to protect its own interests.
China = Mordor
Common China…. What next?
Gas chambers?
白恆禮 Taiwan is a province of China, UN does not recognized Taiwan, even ur so called supporters/backers like US, England, EU, Japan, Koea, Asean nation, OIC, African nations, does not Taiwan. Just telling facts.
Don’t know the whole issue here, but if the article is saying that the policy of bullying international carriers to consider Taiwan as part of China is backfiring, he didn’t seem to present one lick of evidence.
You should read it again to found out how it is backfiring
Robert Li
1) CHina was refusing flights in the past, lets make that even
2) We should shoot those members on the spot, they are filth
3) not happening, every student can go where he wants
4) there was never a consensus to begin with, show me a signed agreement
5) you didn’t earn wu mao
Robert Li , ur sick… it’s like denying the holocaust ever happened!, so in xinjiang nothing is going on as well??
Fer Galicia
The Tiananmen "massacre" was already proven to be an empire fake news 3 months after the story broke. Nicholas Kristof, the NYT journalist who filed the initial massacre story in June 1989 retracted his original posting when he wrote his own rebuttal to the story 3 months later. (Google this)
Secret US embassy cables obtained by wikileaks proved that there was no massacre in the square.
In fact the whole episode was a regime change attempt by the CIA and british intelligence aided by their students-cum-agent-provocateurs like Chai Ling, Wu’er Kaixi, Wang Dan, etc. These people were in turn supported by CIA and MI6 agents posting as journalists being directed from the US embassy. The faux pas "noble laureate" Liu Xiaobo was specially flown from Cornell to lead the student demos. The CIA station chief was expelled by the chinese government and he scooted out to HK to carry on his subversion of china from there.
白恆禮
1) Refusing to allow for additional flights from the mainland to taiwan for taiwanese working and studying in china this spring festival (Chinese New Year). Thousands of taiwanese were stranded or arrived back in taiwan late for family reunion.
2) Harassing New Party members for possession of a few remaining RMB notes after their trip to the mainland.
3) Pressuring high school students against applying to mainland university and colleges.
4) Not recognising the 92 consensus that resulted in taiwanese farmers having to throw away excess agricultural produce like bananas, pineapples, etc, which were traditionally exported to the mainland.
And more…
The same two guys running around the comment section discussing Tiananmen for no discernable reason. Does that make you that Taiwanese ershiwumao?
We do not have travel restrictions to the PRC or any other country you idiot…every taiwTaiwa reading your comment will know ur just a wumao
Jef Mabone Yeah, just mention "Tiananmen Square Massacre 六四天安門事件" and their own sistem block them
Tianamen Square Massacre
Peter Seo, +200 social credit points for you for this patriotic comment our Chinese Reich, "Führer-cum-Emperor Xi Hitler Jinping" would certainly appreciate it but -300 social credit points for reading this "illegitimate" foreign article. We’ll definitely sort things out within time timespan of Our Thousand-Year Chinese Reich, I’ve just sorted you out.
" A poll conducted in May revealed that nearly 80% of Taiwanese thought China was unfriendly toward Taiwan."
The poll was conducted by the DPP’s "deep green" faction. Other independent media organisations’ poll results consistently put die-hard pro-independence forces at less than 5% of taiwanese population.
" By engaging in namefare, Beijing appears to have abandoned its soft-power approach to win the hearts and minds of the Taiwanese and is willing to accept a decline in its popularity among Taiwanese."
In the first half of this year, china announced 31 incentives to lure taiwanese of all ages and persuasion to visit, study and do business in china. In no time, young taiwanese college / university students were queuing up at the doors of Xiamen, Sun Yatsen, Beijing, Tsinghua, Fudan, Wuhan, Jiaotong universities vying for admission with local students.
Foxconn just listed its "internet" flavoured company on Shanghai "A" shares board. TSMC had recently opened its 10nm fab plant in Nanjing. Young entrepreneurs from taiwan were given rebates for office rentals, preferences for business licenses and tax free incentives for between 5-10 years. Private taiwanese citizens are moving to the mainland in droves to the point that the Tsai Ingwen government had to restrict the movements of these people by imposing unecessary travel restrictions to the mainland.
To the author of this article : your credibility will be greatly enhanced if you care to lift your head up from the cesspool of the empire’s fake news media once awhile to smell the fresh air blowing in from the other side.
n
Backfiring? Come 9n. It’s only in your American mind. Just leave Taiwan alone. It will sooner or later sort out its problems with China. You can see only the Americans are doing the shouting.