Update: I received the following email from tha admin:
I am now a postdoc in NCTU, a university in Hsinchu Taiwan. I’ve been in Taiwan for almost a year. My first impressions of the academic environment were very good. Not least to say so because there is free coffee in the common room. The quality of life is also pretty good compared to what I know elsewhere.
What has been on my mind lately is the astonishing finding that on my arXiv user account I can only select the country “Taiwan, Province of China”. This is not how it was previously this year. And I find this provocative and absurd.
In a nutshell, the national party of China (KMT) lost in 1949 the civil war in China to the communists. They then fled to Taiwan where they continued the "real" Republic of China. This was not a democracy until the late 80s, with elections and other political freedoms, the lift of the second longest military law in world history. So since the 90s Taiwan has enjoyed a real democracy. The legacy of all this is the Republic of China.
Taiwan is called the Republic Of China, but only in Taiwan. China and the rest of the world have never accepted this and so, Taiwan is not even a memeber of the UN. For that matter, I know of no world organization that recognizes Taiwan as a sovereign country. But it has been a de facto independent country for the last 60 years.
What is worse is the following. Although there is a fraction of Taiwanese society that want a “Republic of Taiwan”, an actual division of the society, there would be problems with this. Besides the Republic of China naming issue, China maintains that Taiwan is a renegade province in any case. A province that should rejoin the mainland. Any official decleration of independence can result to war.
On the other side of the strait, Taiwanese society might be ambiguous on their identity and lineage. A recent poll shows however that only 6% consider China as their homeland. The question of national identity is still different. And yet different is the actuality that Taiwan is not a province of China. The threat of war and the legacy of KMT's governance impede the question of independence. To the point that it cannot develop naturally unless one is ready to... literally die for it.
China’s international influence has had Taiwan been called by the UN list of names for statistics purporses as “Taiwan, province of China”. And this is the main reference to Taiwan on international paper. So, the ISO-3166 code of names for countries (uk,tw,cn,it, etc) has refered to the UN report. The Internet Asigned Numbers Authority uses the ISO code of names. Which brings us to the arXiv, because the arXiv uses the IANA list of names.
Some time in 2011, the IANA and the arXiv automated their system of importing the names of countries. I have contacted both to know details of what has changed. The replies by both have been unhelpful. My orginal question has been partly answered by a www cache. It shows that curiously the IANA did once in 2011 call Taiwan as Taiwan.
The arxiv admin also tells me I should take matters to the IANA. The IANA admin tells me they are following an international standard by ISO. I admit the ISO standards should be taken with respect. But in this case, the ISO-3166 is rightly described as a virus that propagates the biased view of China. And besides all this, the arXiv has no reason to stick with the IANA list per se.
I find the change in the arXiv intrusive. I can imagine it to be more intrusive to Taiwanese researchers. It should not be considered a political question. Taiwan might have been or might become one day a province of China. Taiwan might or might not have the right to call itself the ROC. This is not for me to decide as I am not Taiwanese. But calling Taiwan a province of China is simply a fallacy. And even more, it is politically biased and unfair to the people of Taiwan. It is only slightly less absurd than calling China a province of the ROC.
On the other hand, the name "Taiwan" is apolitical. Or, the arXiv country input field should be non-obligatory. To which suggestion the arXiv admin replied that it would be inapporpriate.
Dear George,
Thank you for your comments. After careful consideration we have decidedStory ended with a happy end.
to override the default IANA name to just "Taiwan".
I am now a postdoc in NCTU, a university in Hsinchu Taiwan. I’ve been in Taiwan for almost a year. My first impressions of the academic environment were very good. Not least to say so because there is free coffee in the common room. The quality of life is also pretty good compared to what I know elsewhere.
What has been on my mind lately is the astonishing finding that on my arXiv user account I can only select the country “Taiwan, Province of China”. This is not how it was previously this year. And I find this provocative and absurd.
In a nutshell, the national party of China (KMT) lost in 1949 the civil war in China to the communists. They then fled to Taiwan where they continued the "real" Republic of China. This was not a democracy until the late 80s, with elections and other political freedoms, the lift of the second longest military law in world history. So since the 90s Taiwan has enjoyed a real democracy. The legacy of all this is the Republic of China.
Taiwan is called the Republic Of China, but only in Taiwan. China and the rest of the world have never accepted this and so, Taiwan is not even a memeber of the UN. For that matter, I know of no world organization that recognizes Taiwan as a sovereign country. But it has been a de facto independent country for the last 60 years.
What is worse is the following. Although there is a fraction of Taiwanese society that want a “Republic of Taiwan”, an actual division of the society, there would be problems with this. Besides the Republic of China naming issue, China maintains that Taiwan is a renegade province in any case. A province that should rejoin the mainland. Any official decleration of independence can result to war.
On the other side of the strait, Taiwanese society might be ambiguous on their identity and lineage. A recent poll shows however that only 6% consider China as their homeland. The question of national identity is still different. And yet different is the actuality that Taiwan is not a province of China. The threat of war and the legacy of KMT's governance impede the question of independence. To the point that it cannot develop naturally unless one is ready to... literally die for it.
China’s international influence has had Taiwan been called by the UN list of names for statistics purporses as “Taiwan, province of China”. And this is the main reference to Taiwan on international paper. So, the ISO-3166 code of names for countries (uk,tw,cn,it, etc) has refered to the UN report. The Internet Asigned Numbers Authority uses the ISO code of names. Which brings us to the arXiv, because the arXiv uses the IANA list of names.
Some time in 2011, the IANA and the arXiv automated their system of importing the names of countries. I have contacted both to know details of what has changed. The replies by both have been unhelpful. My orginal question has been partly answered by a www cache. It shows that curiously the IANA did once in 2011 call Taiwan as Taiwan.
The arxiv admin also tells me I should take matters to the IANA. The IANA admin tells me they are following an international standard by ISO. I admit the ISO standards should be taken with respect. But in this case, the ISO-3166 is rightly described as a virus that propagates the biased view of China. And besides all this, the arXiv has no reason to stick with the IANA list per se.
I find the change in the arXiv intrusive. I can imagine it to be more intrusive to Taiwanese researchers. It should not be considered a political question. Taiwan might have been or might become one day a province of China. Taiwan might or might not have the right to call itself the ROC. This is not for me to decide as I am not Taiwanese. But calling Taiwan a province of China is simply a fallacy. And even more, it is politically biased and unfair to the people of Taiwan. It is only slightly less absurd than calling China a province of the ROC.
On the other hand, the name "Taiwan" is apolitical. Or, the arXiv country input field should be non-obligatory. To which suggestion the arXiv admin replied that it would be inapporpriate.
