Director: Daniel C. Levy

The China Name Game in Taiwan

(Entry by Yingxia Cao)

PROPHE Summary:

Taiwan's Ministry of Education has announced it will not compel private higher education institutions to remove the words "China" or "Chinese" from their names after opposition lawmakers threatened to freeze a large part of the ministry's budget. The ministry had sent a letter earlier to all universities and colleges with the sensitive nomenclature, strongly suggesting they change their names to underscore Taiwan's identity and avoid confusion with mainland China following Taiwan's executive cabinet plan of changing the names of all of the nation's overseas missions and state-owned enterprises before the Dec. 11 legislative elections.

For the full story see Global News Wire - Asia Africa Intelligence Wire, China Post. "MOE Denies Forcing Private Universities to Change Names", January 21, 2005. Also see "After an Uproar, Taiwanese Ministry Disavows Effort to Purge 'China' From Colleges' Names". The Chronicle of Higher education, February 1, 2005 (shown with permission). Available online at http://chronicle.com/temp/reprint.php?id=dxbqgsvqj3znyp5gz5j9ry39fg3je0wr

PROPHE Observation:

Private colleges and universities worldwide often include a specific country or regional name to gain legitimacy Yet educational ministries may control such usage for various reasons, including educational quality. However, the Taiwan case is atypical in that the ministryhad solely a political reason when it came to nomenclature about China and then, under political pressure from the opposition, invoked a political reason, private higher education autonomy, to explain why it would not pursue the nomenclature restriction.