Dear Gallup, On your chart of 'well-being' you list Taiwan as 'Taiwan, Province of China'. On this email form the country option is 'Taiwan, Republic of China'. The former is wrong, the latter more accurate. Please can you achieve some consistency in naming. Taiwan is not a 'province' of China. It is a fully de facto independent country under the name 'Republic of China on Taiwan'. Please can you correct your map. Best wishes
In return, 'Jim' sent me this coagulation of international normative nonsense:
Ben,Thank you for contacting Gallup.Country names on Gallup’s web site are based on international standards developed by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). This organization documents standard country names and codes in ISO 3166-1 based on input from the countries’ leaders and United Nations (UN) expert sources. Taiwan is named Taiwan Province of China in ISO 3166-1. By adhering to the internationally accepted standards of ISO 3166-1, Gallup maintains our political neutrality.You can find additional information about the International Organization for Standardization, the United Nations, and ISO 3166-1 online.Kind regards,JimGallup Client Support
Gallup claims to maintain political neutrality but in fact their position utterly contradicts with the actual experience of Taiwanese as they run their nation under the name of Republic of China (Taiwan), a nation that has over 20 full international diplomatic relationships. But then, I guess ISO 3166-1 and comments from political leaders and UN 'experts' outweigh the opinions of 23 million people clearly operationalising their own sovereign country. Sorry, Jim. Thanks for the reply but a big 'F' on your answer.
What is interesting is that in the PDF of the Global Wellbeing report, Taiwan is listed as 'Taiwan', alongside 'China' and 'Hong Kong'. Is the website out of synch with the report or the other way around?
