Taiwan Parliament votes in favour of rebranding China Airlines

An Airbus A350 of China Airlines. Photo: © Sebastian Kissel (fraviationphotography)

Taiwan’s Parliament has voted in favour of rebranding national carrier China Airlines.

China Airlines has long been mistaken for an airline from mainland China because of its name. However the airline based in capital Taipei is one of the two big carriers in self-governed Taiwan (Republic of China, ROC) and is not related to the three national airlines of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), namely Air China, China Eastern and China Southern.

The ongoing Coronavirus pandemic has amplified calls to change the airline’s branding. As part of international relations, Taiwan recently sent medical aid abroad, using China Airlines aircraft for transportation. For those not familiar with the airline it was often unclear that the resources where actually coming from Taiwan, not China’s communist government in Beijing.

On Wednesday, the parliament in Taipei decided with 100 percent of the present votes to rename partly state-owned China Airlines to avoid future confusion. Pro-‘One-China’ opposition party Kuomintang refused to participate in the vote.

It has yet to be decided how the airline’s name would be changed. However, the resolution, which also included removing ‘Republic of China’ from its citizens’ passports, specifically mentioned highlighting ‘Taiwan’ instead of ‘China’. As of right now, there is no set timeline for any changes, and details still have to be evaluated.

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