Taiwan is not part of China, not even in Surrey Libraries.  However, on Saturday 3^rd April I visited Woking Library, browsing the international travel guides I was dismayed to discover a tourist guide to Taiwan nestled under C next to China, not placed near T for Thailand.  I could understand this, if the book was entitled Republic of China… (one of Taiwan’s many names), but equally if it was entitled Formosa… (another of Taiwan’s names) I would expect it to be placed under F.  I took the liberty of placing Taiwan under T before leaving the Library and as this is not the first time I have seen British bureaucracy decisively settle matters regarding Taiwanese sovereignty, the first involving the BBC.  I will be writing to the Woking Library to enquire as to why Taiwan is listed under C and to request that it is not, but meanwhile I do urge readers of this blog to check their local library and bookstore etc, and liberate Taiwan from the clutches of China to a position closer to democratic Thailand.  Hong Kong and Tibet for now remain another story, while I have doubts many tourist guides to Kosovo are yet in print and stocked in our local libraries, the same action may be needed as many an enthusiastic staff member may decide that such books may be better placed under S, as people may look there as Kosovo was a former province of Serbia.

Back in 2004 I complained to the BBC, as when reporting news stories online about Taiwan, the BBC always added a paragraph explaining that China claimed Taiwan as its own territory, without equally stating that the government of Taiwan disputed this.  I suggested to the BBC that this was unbalanced reporting and queried whether it was as a result of pressure from China. The reply from the BBC to me was that it felt that many people assumed Taiwan was an independent nation and that it was merely correcting this assumption and would not be making changes that I had requested when reporting on Taiwan.  I felt that this was overstepping the remit of the BBC, essentially biased reporting, for the sake of educating the British public, giving the Chinese view without the corresponding Taiwanese view.  It was not until the matter was taken up by my MP at the time Ed Davey that the BBC finally saw sense.

The issue of sovereignty over Taiwan is not for Surrey libraries to assume or decide, it is not for the BBC, it is not even for China, it is for the people of Taiwan.