TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – “Taiwan” should be part of the name of each representative office overseas, activists and legislators said Wednesday.

Due to Chinese pressure, most Taiwanese missions outside of its 12 diplomatic allies include the name “Taipei” instead. One exception is Lithuania, where the opening of a “Taiwanese Representative Office” in 2021 led to Chinese diplomatic and economic sanctions against the Baltic nation.

Following recent comments by Lithuanian politicians critical of the name, a non-governmental organization called Hello Taiwan devoted an international news conference in Berlin to the subject, per CNA.

The group argued that the missions represented all 23 million residents of Taiwan, not just the city of Taipei, and therefore should bear the country’s name. All the offices now named “Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office” should change their name to “Taiwan Representative Office,” DPP Legislator Huang Jie (黃捷) said at the news conference.

The name change would allow the international community to clearly see Taiwan rather than a vague identity. Taipei City Councilor Miao Po-ya (苗博雅) told the Berlin news conference that using the name of the capital was an irony left over from history. The geopolitical environment had changed, so the name of Taiwan’s offices should reflect its status as a de facto country, she said.