U.S congressman fights listing of Taiwan as province of China

Washington, April 30 (CNA)
Representative Howard L. Berman of California is unhappy that Taiwan-born voters in his state must list their birthplace as "Taiwan, Province of China" when registering to vote online and has requested state authorities to correct the problem.

The Formosan Association for Public Affairs, a Washington D.C.-based nonprofit group that promotes Taiwan's sovereignty, said Monday that many California residents born in Taiwan have complained in recent weeks about the state's online voter registration system.

The voters have noted that the only option given them on the dropdown menu for listing their birthplace on the website was "Taiwan, Province of China" rather than simply "Taiwan," the group said.

Berman took up the fight Monday and wrote a letter to California Secretary of State Debra Bowen asking that the dropdown menu be corrected to allow Taiwanese-Americans to list their country of birth as "Taiwan."

"The Taiwanese-American community in California is proud of their heritage and birthplace," the congressman said in a statement. "It is unfair to force members of this community to list 'Taiwan, Province of China' as their country of birth when they register to vote online, when their birthplace is Taiwan."

Berman also argued that the U.S. federal government uses the term Taiwan, and "the state of California should do the same."

Berman has long championed this issue. He was a key sponsor of legislation in 1994 that allows Taiwanese-Americans to have "Taiwan," instead of "China," recorded as their birthplace on their American passports.

(By Chou Yung-chieh and Elizabeth Hsu)
enditem/ls