《TAIPEI TIMES 焦點》Minister misidentifies map as ROC claims ridiculed

By Alison Hsiao / Staff reporter

Mainland Affairs Council Minister Andrew Hsia （夏立言） incorrectly identified a map of the People’s Republic of China （PRC） yesterday, calling it a map of the Republic of China （ROC）, prompting Democratic Progressive Party （DPP） Legislator Chen Chi-mai （陳其邁） to say that what the government claims as ROC territory is absurd.

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Chen showed the map during a legislative committee meeting and asked Hsia whether it was a map of the ROC.

Hsia responded in the negative, saying that what used to be called “Outer Mongolia” is now the Republic of Mongolia, as recognized by the ROC government in 2002.

Without the Republic of Mongolia, the ROC’s official map and that of the PRC almost completely overlap, which apparently led Hsia to misidentify the map.

Small territorial differences between the two include parts of Pakistan and Tajikistan, which made territorial settlements with the PRC in 1963 and 2011 respectively.

“Are we going to claim that Tajikistan and Taiwan belong to ‘one China’ as [KMT Chairman] Eric Chu （朱立倫） said about the two sides of the Taiwan Strait?” Chen asked.

Hsia said he would not have used Chu’s words to describe the nation.

“It is a joke that the ROC still upholds territorial claims over Tajikistan,” Chen said. “The ROC is Taiwan and Taiwan is the ROC, with its capital in Taipei; it is that easy.”

He asked Hsia for a “correct answer” on the question of the ROC capital’s location, adding that the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of the Interior say that Nanjing, China, not Taipei, is the capital of the ROC.

“I would say it is Taipei,” Hsia said, but added that the Ministry of the Interior would have the “official answer.”

However, near the end of the meeting, Chen proposed to have the council correct the Ministry of the Interior on the location of ROC’s capital.

Hsia said that while the Ministry of Education had sent out a document to public schools in December 2013 identifying Nanjing as the capital, “it later issued another announcement apologizing for the previous statement, calling it ‘overly cursory’ and emphasizing that the ROC capital is Taipei, which houses the central government.”

新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES