Wikipedia:Naming conventions (Chinese)/Taiwan

Text should treat the Republic of China as a sovereign state with equal status with the People's Republic of China. Text should not take a position on whether they are considered separate nations. Text should not imply that Taiwan is either a part of China or not a part of China. Text should not imply that Taiwan is a part of the People's Republic of China. Text should not imply that mainland China, Hong Kong, and/or Macau are part of the Republic of China.

As a general rule of thumb, the official political term "Republic of China" or "ROC" should be used in political contexts (that is, to describe the existing governments or regimes) rather than the imprecise terms like "Taiwan." One should write "one must be an ROC citizen to vote in the ROC presidential election" as opposed to "one must be a Taiwanese citizen to vote in the Taiwanese presidential election." In addition, the side-by-side usage of the terms "China" and "Taiwan" in a political context (phrases such as "China warns Taiwan") should generally be avoided.

Text should merely state the fact that Taiwan is governed by an independent government/state/regime called the "Republic of China" (however it is not necessary to use the term de facto when doing so as that might imply a POV that the term de jure does not also apply). When it is necessary to describe the political status of Taiwan, special note should be made of Taiwan's complex position. The term "Taiwan Province" can be offensive to some people in some contexts and should only be used when attributed to its source or referring specifically to the existing division under the ROC (for example, "James Soong was the only popularly elected governor of Taiwan Province").

For organizations and international events, such as the Olympic Games or APEC, official terms should be used. In the case of the Olympics, one refers to the Chinese Taipei team, instead of the "Taiwanese team" or the "ROC team." Special care should be taken to put these terms in context—the "China" team in the 1952 Olympics, for example, should not be called the "Chinese Taipei" team as the latter term did not exist.

Generally following the established convention of alphabetizing countries under their common names, the Republic of China (i.e. Taiwan) should be alphabetized under "T" while the People's Republic of China should be alphabetized under "C". The former can be listed, depending on context, either as "[[Republic of China]] (Taiwan)" or "Taiwan ([[Republic of China]])".

Following is the consensus guide on when to use which term in reference to subjects related to the Republic of China (Taiwan).

Republic of China
variants: ROC, RoC
Republic of China (Taiwan)
variant: Taiwan (Republic of China)
Taiwan
.
Taiwan Province
.
  • When specifying official titles (e.g. President of the Republic of China)
  • When giving the names of official state organs (e.g. Republic of China Navy)
  • When referring to the pre-1949 Republic as it existed on Mainland China.
  • When referring to the state in article space after appropriate disambiguation has been given (Do not replace all instances of "Republic of China" with "Republic of China (Taiwan)" unless explicitly part of the official title.).
  • When identifying the state and attempting to differentiate it from the PRC (e.g. "Taipei is the capital of the Republic of China (Taiwan).") In general, this only needs to be done once, subsequent references to the ROC need not include "(Taiwan)". Exceptions can be made if there is a very long separation between mentions of the ROC.
  • When identifying the state in a general, non-specific way (e.g. "The American Institute in Taiwan serves as the de facto embassy of the United States to the Republic of China (Taiwan).")
  • When providing disambiguation in articles with Republic of China in their titles, though generally this only needs to be done once (e.g. The Republic of China Navy is the maritime branch of the armed forces of the Republic of China (Taiwan))
  • When identifying nationality (e.g. "Lee Teng-hui is a citizen of the Republic of China (Taiwan).")
  • When identifying a location outside the island of Taiwan (e.g. "Magong City is the capital of Penghu County, Taiwan (Republic of China).")