日本語/ Pe̍h-ōe-jī / 漢羅 /中文

We require to call Taiwan rather than Chinese Taipei!

In international competitions of sports, “Taiwan” is called as “Chinese Taipei.”

The term “Chinese Taipei” was created by a political pressure of Chinese government based on an assertion that “Taiwan is a part of China.” Chinese government has been promoting its assertion across the international society by utilizing international sports competitions for political issues.

However, Taiwan is not China but definitely Taiwan.

As it is apparent from Sunflower Student Movement in 2014 and the presidential election in Taiwan in 2016 as well, I believe that people across the world have understood the existence of strong identity as Taiwanese in the country.

Recently, a movement refusing to use the term Chinese Taipei has erupted in venues of international sports events setting up banners indicating “Taiwan is Taiwan.”

In sympathy with their claim, we ask the international society to recognize that “Taipei is Taipei” not Chinese Taipei.

We do believe it possible to change the term Chinese Taipei into Taiwan by approval from people in a lot of countries and recognition by the international society.

Finally, from a perspective of Japanese who have launched this signature campaign, we keenly hope Taiwan to participate by the representation of Taiwan in 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.

This signature campaign has been launched by Japanese and Taiwanese volunteers in Japan.

We also hope that various groups to appeal “Taiwan is Taiwan” appear in countries across the world.

While we have embarked on this signature campaign, it is not the only method to appeal Taiwan’s identity. Based on respect of freedom of thoughts and expression, we hope that people who take actions freely and peacefully by their own method will increase.

Taiwan 2020 Tokyo
http://taiwan2020tokyo.org