A rose by any other name ...... still has thorns

It's all Change for some of Taiwan's best know state owned enterprises. As of this week 5 of them are sporting new name.

While such an event would not normally attract the attention of a (right wing/reactionary/scandal  mongering/all of the above) blog such as this, this particular round of corporate re branding is quite notable in that all of the companies involved appear to have purposefully chosen names that either exclude or play down the word "China"

• Chunghwa Post Co Ltd - Taiwan Post Co. Ltd
• Chinese Petroleum Corp - CPC Corp, Taiwan
• China Shipbuilding Corp - CSBC
• Central Bank of China - Central Bank of the Republic of China: Taiwan (English name only)
• Taiwan Province  Water Corp - Taiwan Water Corp
  

According to Taiwanese officials, the name changes are formalities designed to prevent the firms from being confused with Mainland Chinese forms.

"The reason is to avoid confusion with the postal system of Mainland China" Hong Yao-kuang, spokesperson, Taiwan Post Co. Ltd

However, it is doubtful that official in Beijing will see things the same way. Beijing traditionally acts with visible hostility to any move on Taiwan's part that draws a line between Mainland China and Chinese-Taiwan. The former of which claims dominion over the latter, and the latter of which has maintained a state of de facto independence since 1949, and currently appears to be acting to sever "implicit and implied connections" between it and the Mainland.

Beijing refers to Chinese-Taiwan as "Taiwan province",  bans all references to it being a separate entity from books and other media, has threatened to go to war if Taipei ever formally declares independence.

Note

中華 (Chunghwa) is an alternative rendering of "China". It's Mainland rendering is "Zhonghua"

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