Taiwan protests against name change by Air India

Taiwan on Thursday protested against the renaming of "Taiwan" to "Chinese Taipei" on Air India's website and described the move as a gesture of succumbing to the unreasonable and absurd pressure from China.

Taiwan, present in India as the Taipei Economic and Cultural Center in India (TECC) also lodged a formal complaint with the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) in New Delhi.

Reacting strongly to India's national carrier Air India's move of changing "Taiwan" to "Chinese Taipei" as one of the destinations on its website, the TECC in a statement asked the airlines to promptly restore the name of "Taiwan" on its website.

"TECC Representative Ambassador Chung Kwang Tien calls on Air India to stand up against the unreasonable demand from the government of People's Republic of China and promptly restore the name of "Taiwan" on its official website. Amb Tien stresses the need of consultation with TECC if Air India would choose to change the name of "Taiwan" on its website and hopes the Indian government can provide firm support to its public services and private businesses to defend themselves from a foreign country's bully actions. The TECC has lodged a formal note concerning against the change to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), Government of India, and is currently waiting for the MEA's official response. It is afraid that if such politically motivated bully actions are let prevail, people's freedom in doing business and in their expression of opinion may be undermined; therefore, free and democratic nations should work together to protect their common values and interests," the statement said.

On its part Air India said it had followed the procedure as advised by MEA.