Bob at the Beijing Olympics Blog has some remarks about naming Taiwan’s Olympic team.

Attending an Olympic Games hosted by China was always going to throw up some interesting challenges for the Taiwanese team, and the China’ Taiwan Affairs office have decided to spice things up. The controversy revolves around the name that Taiwan competes under at the Olympics…

The situation is this: in 1989 China and Taiwan agreed that the latter would be referred to as Zhonghua Taipei (中华台北) which translates as Chinese Taipei. Bob’s understanding is that Zhonghua does mean ‘China’ but is not used to refer to the nation that we know today. This week however “Yang Yi of China’s Taiwan Affairs Office has suggested that Zhongguo Taipei (中国台北) is just as valid as an Olympic designator” (via Shanghaiist). Zhongguo being the name used to refer to modern China, as we know it.

The implication of the change in semantics is probably best put; it’s like changing from ‘Chinese Taipei’ to ‘China’s Taipei’.

I’ve got to admit that with my limited Chinese, both zhonghua and zhongguo would be translated “of China”, but it’s an interesting distinction. But if this is the extent of Chinese-Taiwanese tensions, that’s pretty good.

I think the perfect solution is to allow Taiwan their own Olympic team, but then count the medals towards China’s total!

Via Taiwan’s Olympic Name - Chinese Taipei or China’s Taipei? « Beijing Olympics Blog