|
Germany asked to amend ‘Chinese’ label of Taiwan
By Loa Iok-sin / Staff reporter
Amid controversy surrounding Germany’s labeling of Taiwan as part of China, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that it had become aware of the situation in June, raising the issue with Germany and receiving a positive response.
The nationality issue caught public attention when a Taiwanese national working as an intern in Germany posted a message on Facebook saying that his nationality was labeled as “479 chinesisch” — with the number “479” being the nationality code for the People’s Republic of China (PRC), and chinesisch meaning “Chinese” in German.
The man said he then asked a German colleague to help him rectify the record.
However, the German government told them that the code for Taiwan had been canceled at the beginning of the year, and all Taiwanese nationals were to be labeled with the code for the PRC and as “Chinese.”
The ministry said yesterday that it had received several complaints in June and protested to the German government, which responded positively.
“We contacted our representative office in Germany as well as several German government agencies as soon as we received complaints back in June,” ministry spokesperson Anna Kao (高安) said. “As a federal country, it may take longer for Germany to handle the issue.”
A unnamed ministry official said that there had been a separate code of “465” for Taiwan which was canceled in 2011, but the code had been reactivated following the ministry’s intervention.
source: Taipei Times
|
