Chinese Taipei

"Chinese Taipei" is the term used in various international organizations and tournaments for groups or delegations representing the Republic of China (ROC), a country commonly known as Taiwan.

Due to the One-China principle stipulated by the People's Republic of China (PRC, China), Taiwan, being a non-UN member after its expulsion in 1971 with ongoing dispute of its sovereignty, was prohibited from using or displaying any of its national symbols such as national name, anthem and flag that would represent the statehood of Taiwan at international events. This dissension eventually came to a compromise when the term "Chinese Taipei" was first proposed in the Nagoya Resolution in 1979, whereby the ROC/Taiwan and the PRC/China recognize the right of participation to each other and remain as separate teams in any activities of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and its correlates. This term came into official use in 1981 following a name change of the Republic of China Olympic Committee (ROCOC) to Chinese Taipei Olympic Committee. Such arrangement later became a model for the ROC/Taiwan to continue participating in various international organizations and affairs in diplomacy other than the Olympic Games, including the World Trade Organization, the World Health Organization, the Metre Convention, APEC, and international pageants.

"Chinese Taipei" is a deliberately ambiguous term, which is equivocal about the political status of the ROC/Taiwan. The meaning of "Chinese" (Zhōnghuá, Chinese: 中華) is also ambiguous, meaning either party can interpret it as national identity or cultural sphere (similar to ethnonyms as Anglo, Arab, Hispanic or Iranian). "Taipei" is only reflected as its capital city which does not specify the territorial extent of the ROC. Since the IOC has ruled out the use of the name "Republic of China", the neologism was considered as an expedient resolution and a more inclusive term than just "Taiwan" to either the Kuomintang, the ruling party of the ROC at the time during the Nagoya Resolution, or the PRC, whilst both sides were contending their legitimacy over the whole "China" that regarded to encompass both of mainland China and Taiwan. To the PRC's perspective, whose persistent policy is to keep Taipei isolated on the world stage and balks at any use of "Taiwan" as official title, lest it lend Taiwan a sense of international recognition for its "independent statehood" that may present it as a separate entity from the PRC. The term "Taiwan, China" or "Taipei, China" was rejected by the ROC government because it would simply be construed as Taiwan being a subordinate region to the PRC.

The popular opinions in Taiwan have changed drastically in regard to the cross-strait relations and the nationalistic discourses since the democratization of Taiwan and the end of one-party rule by the Kuomintang, "Chinese Taipei" has constantly been viewed as anachronistic, aggravating, or even a humiliating and shameful symbol by many Taiwanese. The Taiwan Name Rectification Campaign sought alteration of the formal name from "Chinese Taipei" to "Taiwan" for the representation in Olympic Games or further potential international events. A nationwide referendum was held in 2018, in which a proposal for the name change was rejected. The main argument voting against such a move was concerning that the consequence of the renaming impact is immensely uncertain, at worst, the renaming dispute could be used by China as an excuse to exclude Taiwan from participating in the Olympic Games completely and force its existing membership to be revoked. This was the case when Taiwan was stripped of the right to host 2019 East Asian Youth Games amid its renaming issue with China during that year.