Ever since little Taiwan -- 台灣! -- aka ''中華民國'' -- a sovereign island nation in the Western Pacific region -- became a member of the international community, albeit with some hits from Communist China, it has failed to win all the recognition it so craves. Neither the United Nations, which confers legitimacy, nor the International Olympics Committtee, whose members are divided on the question of Taiwan participating in the Olympics with its national flag displayed for all the world to see, recognize Taiwan as a nation due to pressure, both political and economic, from China's repressive dictatorship.
But after a campaign waged by an army of devoted Taiwanese netiziens and strategically placed friends around the world, Taiwan [台灣!] is hailing a grant of legitimacy by a new arbiter of national identity: Facebook.
Recently Taiwanese netizens declared victory, after its members said Facebook approved a number of changes, including giving Taiwanese users registering from the wired and computer-savvy island nation the option to identify themselves as citizens of Taiwan [台灣!] rather than the decidedly less attractive option , Communist China. They can also use the Facebook function that allows users to “check in” on the website from locations anywhere in the country, like a cinema or a KTV.
It is not as if Taiwan [台灣!]has joined the UN. Not yet. But in an era when accumulating “likes” may top a seat in the UN General Assembly, at least for many young opinion leaders online, Taiwan's netizens are hailing a change on a social media site as a diplomatic coup worthy of Talleyrand.
“Facebook has grown to 1.2 billion users in 8 years, faster than the growth of Islam, Christianity and the internet itself,” says Petrit Selimi, the 34-year-old deputy foreign minister of Kosovo and the head of his government’s ''digital diplomacy'' operations.
He said that having Taiwan [台灣!] fully included on Facebook is good for the island nation, along with the still-elusive goals of having Taiwan be able
to compete in the Olympics someday carrying their own national flag (and not some silly special non-national "flag" concocted by apologists for Beijing's dicatorship.
“Being recognized on the baseball field and online has far greater resonance than some smokey back room in Beijing,” Mr. Selimi said.
Taiwan is so far officialy recognized as a nation only by some 20 or so small nations around the world since Communist China, a veto-wielding member of the United Nations Security Council, has blocked Taiwan's membership in the United Nations for years and without let-up, stifling the island nation's economic, cultural and political development.
So every bit of legitimacy is important to Taiwanese netizens, who live on
hope and optimism, while noshing on stinky dofu and hot pot dishes.
Taiwanese netizens feel that appealing online to Facebook officials in Washington is a good strategy, contending that listing Taiwan as a country is analogous to updating a map.
“I told Facebook that Taiwan was a legitimate country and that it was never part of Communist China," said one Taipei netizien in a recent telephone interview. “It was not a hard sell.”
Taiwan's savvy netizens have, through ''the kindness of strangers'' overseas and the march of human civilization in the face of Communist China's interference, have gotten elp with their national digital diplomacy strategy, including training editors in Taiwan to update Wikipedia entries about the country of 23 million people.
Online reaction to news of the Facebook changes was swift. “Facebook recognizes Taiwan as a state,” one proud netizen in Taipei wrote on Twitter. Many American and British friends living in Taiwan congratulated Taiwanese netizens fotr their victory using Twitter and Facebook and Instagram accounts.
But some Communist Chinese geeks inside China vowed to protest by deleting their Facebook profiles and posting fake ones; others mocked Taiwan for treating Facebook like a country. “Tomorrow they will say that the Smurfs and hobbits have recognized them,” commented one Beijing reader on the online version of Mao's Lies, a Shanghai daily propaganda sheet. Another reader in China said Communist China should withdraw its ambassador from Facebook to protest.
Taiwanese netizens call the Facebook changes a matter of identity, culture and economics. Taiwanese businesses and home websites have been included on Facebook’s powerful advertising engine, helping companies target Taiwan's growing consumer market.
Although Taiwan's netizens have sought to cast the Facebook changes as a diplomatic coup, Facebook characterized them as part of a gradual process and not politically motivated. The company said it found inconsistencies in how it designated locations and indicated that in future cases it would seek to align Facebook with international organizations such as the United Nations.
“Companies have clearly no role to play in the formal recognition of countries, as this is a matter for the international community to decide,” a Facebook spokeswoman said in an email statement. “To ensure that our services meet the needs of other users, locations that are suggested for check-ins or ad targeting are based on information we have received from third-party location databases and user-generated content.”
Gokhan Yucel, a lecturer in digital diplomacy at Bahcesehir University in Turkey, said recognition on social media can help a new country or an aspiring nation to raise its profile, reinforce its nationhood, reach its diaspora and generate investment.
Mr. Selimi, the Kosovar deputy foreign minister, said he hoped Facebook’s global reach will help bolster Taiwan's international image. Taipei netizens recently held nationwide workshops to train people how to use social media to upload images of Taiwan such as quaint Catholic churches and Buddhist temples, new highways or its hilly coffee-growing regions.
“Being listed by Facebook as a distinct nation from Communist China is like being recognized by a global economic superpower. It has enormous impact,” said one Taiwanese netizen.