MONTEREY PARK : Planned Name Change for Taiwan Offices Spurs Protest

What’s in a name? Plenty, when it comes to Taiwan.

On Wednesday, a group of Taiwanese Americans protested plans by their government to change the name of its diplomatic offices in the United States.

Because of the U.S. policy of recognizing only one China--the People’s Republic of China--when setting up offices in this country, Taiwan’s government has been forced to call itself by a long, euphemistic name: The Coordinating Council for North American Affairs.

With relations now warming between the United States and Taiwan, the Taiwanese government is mulling over new names, including Taipei Institute in America.

That angers Taiwanese Americans who want the name changed to Taiwan Institute in America. “Taiwan is Taiwan and we should promote that name and not confuse the general public,” Jack Liu, a prominent Taiwanese American activist, said at a Wednesday news conference in Monterey Park.

Taiwan’s ruling party, the Kuomintang, whose leader, Chiang Kai-shek, fled the mainland when the Communists took over in 1949, maintains that it is the only legitimate government and hopes one day to reunite with the mainland.

But Liu and others say that cannot happen and that their homeland should accept the new name of Taiwan to reflect that political reality. A spokesman for the coordinating council said his government is studying every option and that the final decision will be made after discussions with the U.S. government.