Taiwanese “China Airlines” want to change its name

Taiwan’s China Airlines (CAL) may change its name according to a report from “the other China.”

Taiwan News reports that the Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) said it would be open to renaming the airline.

Ever since China Airlines was founded many years ago there has been endless confusion by passengers and the media over China Airlines (the national airline of Taiwan) and Air China (the national airline of mainland China) and this persists even today.

Lin Chia-lung, Taiwan’s Minister of Transport and Communications, stated that he had an “open mind” about the name change.

However he also said a name change is a major decision which would involve aviation rights and routes.”

New names have been proposed such as “Formosa Airlines” or “Taiwan Airlines.”

The self-ruled island has been held up as a model for tackling the virus with fewer than 400 confirmed cases despite its proximity to China.

In recent weeks it has donated millions of face masks and other medical supplies overseas.

Much of that aid has been ferried on China Airlines jets, sparking some confusion on arrival – and online – over whether the largesse has come from Taiwan or China.

“Our people feel proud of exporting the masks but they are being mistaken as coming from the country where the outbreak emerged,” transport minister Lin Chia-lung told lawmakers on Wednesday during a parliamentary debate.

“No matter how small a country is, its airline should not bear the name of another country that confuses people all over the word,” argued Chiu Hsien-chih, of the New Power Party.

Renaming China Airlines would need shareholder approval – although a government-controlled foundation is the largest shareholder.

Earlier this week Premier Su Tseng-chang suggested the airline could add more prominent Taiwanese flags and symbols to its planes.

But some warn renaming the airline might provoke China, especially if references to Taiwan were added.

“If China Airlines was renamed, relations between Taiwan and China could never go back,” said lawmaker Chen Hsueh-sheng from the opposition KMT party, which now favours warmer relations with Beijing.

China’s communist party views Taiwan as its territory and has vowed to one day seize it, by force if necessary.

Since 2016 it has ramped up diplomatic, economic and military pressure because current president Tsai Ing-wen refuses to recognise the concept that Taiwan is part of “one China”.

It has also pressured businesses to refer to Taiwan as a province and balks at any naming convention which suggests Taiwan is a sovereign and independent nation.