It may seem like a minor, technical issue, but it became clear to me on a visit to Taipei earlier this month that the Taiwanese government was furious that it might be blocked from even observing the triennial meeting of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), which is just getting underway in Montreal. (For more background on this issue, see here.) At the time of my visit, ICAO had not yet responded to Taipei’s request to attend as a guest, as it did in 2013. (ICAO is a U.N. body—Taiwan, as a non-member of the U.N., is not invited as a matter of course.) Well, now the organization has responded: Taiwan has been locked out of the meeting, which is largely focused on hashing out safety-related issues in civil aviation.
It’s no coincidence, of course, that ICAO’s current secretary general hails from mainland China. Beijing, viewing the jewel of an island as a rogue province, rejects any recognition of Taiwan as a sovereign state. And that possibly also explains other indignities that Taiwan has suffered over the matter.
For example, ICAO’s published aviation statistics now label Taiwan’s main airport as “TPE, CN,” rather than “TPE, TW.” (That’s Taipei, China, not Taipei, Taiwan.)
Taiwanese journalists have been barred from even covering the event, as well. As the Committee to Protect Journalists recounted, “an ICAO official surnamed Liu…refused to accredit Chia Chang, a reporter for the Taiwanese newspaper The United Daily News, to cover the event…saying the organization could not accept his Taiwanese passport.” Also, “an ICAO official…also refused to accredit Yuli Hu, a reporter for Taiwan’s official Central News Agency, her employer reported. An ICAO official told Hu, who holds a Canadian passport, that because the Central News Agency is a Taiwan media outlet, the organization could not accredit her.”
No surprise there, of course—Beijing treats foreign journalists about as well as it treats its own.
