Taiwan sticks to state firm name changes despite US concerns

TAIPEI,(AFP)

Taiwan on Saturday vowed to uphold decisions to drop "China" from the names of state enterprises in favour of "Taiwan" in an assertion of local identity despite criticism from the United States.

"The (Taiwan) government has the sovereignty and leadership in deciding its own policy and this is part of the domestic affairs," said deputy presidential secretary-general Cho Jung-tai.

"We will continue to walk this path," he told reporters.

Taiwan's state-run postal, petroleum and shipbuilding companies on Friday decided to replace "China" or "Chinese" with "Taiwan" in their names despite strong union opposition. The rebranding was estimated to cost the companies between 20 and 70 million Taiwan dollars (2.12 million US). Premier Su Tseng-chang reiterated that the new names will prevent the Taiwanese firms from being mistaken for Chinese ones.

"The state-run companies change their names to avoid confusion with (those in) China...It will not affect employees' benefits and will enhance their competitiveness," he said. Changing the names of state-run firms was pushed by independence-leaning President Chen Shui-bian as part his efforts to create a Taiwanese identity separate from mainland China. But the move was met with criticism from Washington which said it would raise tension between the two rivals.

"We do not support administrative steps by the Taiwan authorities that would appear to change Taiwan's status unilaterally or move toward independence," the State Department said in a statement.

"The United States does not, for instance, support changes in terminology for entities administered by the Taiwan authorities," it said. Following Friday's board meetings, Chunghwa Post Co. will change its name to "Taiwan Post Co."

The English name of Chinese Petroleum Corp (CPC) will be changed to "CPC Corporation, Taiwan" and the word "Taiwan" will be added to its Chinese-language name replacing "China."

The China Shipbuilding Corporation (CSBC) will also change its English name to "CSBC Corporation, Taiwan." Its Chinese-language name will be "Taiwan International Shipbuilding Corp."

Over half of Taiwanese people opposed the change according to a poll released by local news channel TVBS late Friday. Some 55 percent of the 975 people surveyed on Thursday rejected the move while 21 percent approved. The rest had no comment.

Names and titles are highly symbolic issues in the row between Taiwan and China, which split at the end of a civil war in 1949. Beijing still regards the island as part of its territory awaiting reunification, by force if necessary.