But many Taiwanese were angry at the Universiade organizers, and more specifically at Taipei mayor Ko, for extending the use of “Chinese Taipei” even when referring to Taiwan as a physical place.

“I didn’t study geography properly, can someone teach me where on this planet there’s an island called Chinese Taipei?” wrote one Facebook user below a post (link in Chinese) by lawmaker Freddy Lim mocking the use of the moniker.

The public anger over the use of the Chinese Taipei name is another reminder of how hard Beijing continues to squeeze what’s left of Taiwan’s diplomatic space—an effort that has intensified since president Tsai Ing-wen, whose party espouses pro-independence views, took power last year. Two of Taiwan’s traditional allies—Panama and the African island nation of São Tomé and Príncipe—recently broke ties with Taipei to switch allegiance to Beijing. Beijing has also tried to block Taiwan from participating in international bodies such as Interpol and the World Health Organization, prompting Tsai to take to social media (paywall) in a more active way of late to promote Taiwan as a democratic nation.

For one lawmaker, Huang Kuo-chang, the Universiade is a diplomatic opportunity squandered. He posted on Facebook (link in Chinese): “How can such an absurd English phrase be published in the Universiade media guide?… This should have been a great chance for Taiwan to promote itself to the world, but we have to use such a belittling way to do so instead.”

Correction: The article previously misspelt “taekwondo” as “taekwando.”

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