Is Taiwan a Country?

Last fall, my family was headed to Taiwan for a few days.  I planned to use my Citi ThankYou Premier as a primary method of payment on the trip.  Because I recalled Citibank’s tendency to flag out-of-town charges as fraudulent, I decided to notify them of our travel plans ahead of time.

The last time I called Citi’s customer service about travel notification, it didn’t go smoothly.  The agent had never heard of the UAE, thought Dubai was a country, and entered “Italy” into the system after I said I was going to India.  So, when I learned that the Citi website now had a self-service Travel Notification tool, I was delighted.  Being able to select my destination(s) from a drop-down box seemed far superior to spelling the names of foreign countries, three times each, over the phone.

I logged on, and looked for Taiwan in the drop-down box.  Here’s what I saw:

Province of China?  I was surprised by the choice of words here.  Especially because I hadn’t seen Taiwan being referred to as such anywhere else, it felt like Citi was going out of its way to make a statement.  Is Taiwan a country?  It’s not a easy question with a simple yes-no answer.  Yet Citi did not seem shy to take a stance on this sensitive political issue.

 

BACKGROUND

Taiwan, the island that makes the world’s best whiskey, is full of historic ties and unresolved complexes with the neighboring China.  Following the defeat in the civil war, the Republic of China (ROC) government retreated to Taiwan in 1949.  The victorious communist party stands as the People’s Republic of China (PRC), now governing the world’s largest group of people and second largest economy.  Both governments insist on the “One-China Policy”, the view that only one country may have the rightful claim to the name “China”.  The ROC (Taiwan) initially carried more weight with its historic legitimacy, but the PRC soon gained mainstream international recognition as it actually ruled the big chunk of land that people referred to as “China” for several thousand years.  The ROC was a charter member of the United Nations, but got expelled 26 years later to make room for the PRC.  For the ROC government and the people in Taiwan, things got progressively more awkward from there.

For all practical purposes, Taiwan is a sovereign state.  It has an independent government, economy, and military.  Anyone visiting or doing business with the island will have to follow its own set of laws and regulations.  However, the question gets more complicated than that.  Who recognizes Taiwan as a country?  If no country acknowledges the island as being a country, is it still a country?

Unfortunately, Taiwan does not have very influential friends.  It is formally recognized by 22 countries including the Holy See (Vatican City).  If that doesn’t sound too few, do note that these countries house only 1.2% of the world’s population, and have a combined GDP less than the state of Indiana.  Ever heard of Kiribati?  Neither have I!  Further, in international forums from the World Trade Organization to the Olympic Games, Taiwan’s participation bears the (deliberately ambiguous) name of “Chinese Taipei”.    Its access to the World Health Organization remains restricted with an “observer” status, and it has not regained entry into the UN for 45 years.

Two recent events related to Taiwan’s international status:

• There is an ongoing petition in UK to formally recognize Taiwan as a country, but it has not gotten very far.
• A recent ISIS propaganda declaring a list of its enemies was a rare occasion for the Taiwanese flag to appear on international stage, and made somewhat of an international news.

All this ambiguity has to do with China’s claim over Taiwan (to be fair, the official ROC stance also claims ownership of China, but few people take that seriously these days).  The frustration has led to increasingly more active movements in Taiwan to declare formal independence, with objectives as far as severing all tangible and perceived ties with China.  With these opposing ideologies, anyone answering definitively to the question “is Taiwan a country” is guaranteed to piss off tens of millions of people.

 

TRAVEL-RELATED COMPLICATIONS

For people not actively engaged in political debates, the most common symptoms of the Taiwan-China issue can be found in the world of travel.

Travelers from Taiwan carry a green passport issued by Republic of China (ROC, the name of the government in Taiwan).  For those passionate about the independence movement, it’s a struggle to continue bearing the name “China”.  A few months ago, some creative individuals created a set of stickers that covered up the front of the passport with the words “Republic of Taiwan”.  These stickers reportedly became a big hit and many people bought them as a way to protest the status quo.  While unauthorized modification of a government-issued ID is obviously illegal, it didn’t stop many people from traveling the world with it.

Republic of China has ambiguous recognition around the globe, but Republic of Taiwan simply isn’t a thing.

Even in the absence of diplomatic relationships, the ROC (Taiwanese) passport is quite useful around the world.  It has visa-free privileges with 161 countries.  That’s pretty sweet, considering that even the all-mighty US only has such agreements with 171 countries.  However, China (among a few other countries) does not recognize it.  In order to enter China, a person from Taiwan must obtain a special ID that implies Taiwan to be a special territory of China’s.  For the pragmatic travelers, the good news is that obtaining this ID is far less costly than getting a visa for a foreign passport holder.  However, it also serves as a reminder that Taiwan’s neighboring giant does not see it as independent.

Just as we thought these dramas were limited to the two sides of Taiwan Strait, my sister was recently given a hard time when applying for a Chinese visa with her U.S. passport.  Even though she is an American citizen, the Chinese embassy required extra documentations of her simply because her passport said that she was born in “Taiwan”.  Further, they insisted that she change the place of birth on her visa application to “China”.  While we understood that such policies were in-line with PRC’s One-China Policy, we never realized that they micro-managed it to such a granular level.

 

BACK TO CITIBANK

So here we are, back on Citi’s website, staring at the words “Taiwan (Province of China)”, and wondering what to make of it.

For those who want to argue the technicalities, the label does not specify which China.  Administratively, the island of Taiwan is the one and only province of the Republic of China.  It is possible to vaguely interpret this label as to address “Taiwan, Republic of China”, which is how the Taiwan/ROC government officially refers to the island.

But that argument won’t hold much water since the same list also has “China” listed, and I doubt there’s any confusion over which country/government it refers to.  As such, I can only infer that Citi’s travel list makes a deliberate point to state that both Mainland China and the Island of Taiwan belong to the same country.

I take issues with this for two reasons.

• First, Citi’s ThankYou program is a transfer partner of Eva Air, a Taiwanese airline whose customer base includes a lot of people serious about their identity.  You would think that the bank should be a little more sensitive about taking a political stance against the place that these people call home.
• Second, when it comes to travel logistics, referring to Taiwan as a part of China is simply incorrect.  You may have the opinion that Taiwan belongs to China, but the reality is that showing up at TPE with a Chinese visa and a wad of Renminbi won’t actually allow you to enter the island or buy anything there.

I am a pragmatic guy and don’t usually mind misspelling or poor pronunciation of things, as long as the point gets across.  When it comes to the Taiwan-China politics, I also don’t feel too strongly about people leaning one way or the other.  However, this is an online tool for travelers that we’re talking about here.  Citi is doing its customers a disservice by confusing a very practical matter.  Perhaps the label is an honest oversight?  But I find it hard to believe that a company like Citi would be so careless about a very sensitive political issue.

Do note, also, that the level of specificity is unnecessary for the purpose of this particular online tool.  All the travel websites that I can think of, online travel agencies, and USPS refer to Taiwan simply as Taiwan.  The physical location is what matters given the context, and adding the political perspective can be inflammatory.

What do you think?  Am I reading too far into a simple label?  Or is there a good reason for Citi to refer to Taiwan as a province of China?