Colorado high school caves to China's demands on how to reference Taiwan

A Colorado high school wanted to send a student to cover the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, but first, the school had to placate China and change their website to say that Taiwan is a "Province of China."

China has a seat on the UN Commission on the Status of Women, and before they would allow the Colorado high schooler to attend the commission, they demanded the school change their words to suit the CCP's propagandist political agenda.

It was after the Regis Jesuit High School applied for their credentials that they were informed they must make the change or have those credentials denied. Christina Vela is the teacher responsible for the application, and told the Wall Street Journal that "We are small potatoes."

She also said that the article on the Regis Jesuit website that the CCP demanded be changed was rather obscure, saying that "No one was ever going to randomly stumble upon that webpage." After Vela made the change, the school's application was approved.

The request was made by the CCP in May, when they held up the application process until Regis Jesuit would make the change. China made this request in their capacity as sitting on the UN Committee on NGOs, which has the authority to approve or deny groups participation in UN functions. Regis Jesuit is just one of the groups that has fallen under the scrutiny of the CCP for how they reference Taiwan.

The CCP also came down hard on "the World Bicycle Industry Association, a French nature society called the Association of 3 Hedgehogs and For All Moonkind, a volunteer team of space lawyers trying to preserve lunar landing sites so they don’t become tourist traps in the far-off future," the Wall Street Journal reported. The World Yoga Community was also asked to make the change, and they did.

The UN also refers to Taiwan per the dictates of the Chinese Communist Party, calling it "Taiwan, Province of China." The UN goes further, however, and demands compliance from NGOs as well, asking "NGOs to respect UN terminology for all geographical names."

Most groups just make the change in order to get the UN access they are seeking. They feel that their efforts would be best expended once they have the access they desire, rather than not getting access due to non-compliance with CCP language requirements.

The UK's Environmental Association for Universities and Colleges made the changes the CCP requested, and Iain Patton, chief executive of the group, said "we did it because we're intent on getting in and influencing that system from within."

Despite minor pushback from a US representative on the committee, China's demands have won out. Chinese representative Zhang Zhe said that "'sovereignty and territorial integrity of UN member states' is a core U.N. principle, so 'using correct terminology is one of the most basic criteria for submitting applications.'"