'De-Han-ification'? Executive Yuan webpage edit sparks controversy

Taipei, May 12 (CNA) Updates to an Executive Yuan webpage on ethnic groups in Taiwan sparked a minor culture war over the weekend, after what critics said was a deliberate attempt to obscure the Han Chinese ethnicity of most Taiwanese.

The story first gained attention Saturday, when a user posting on the PTT web forum noted that an Executive Yuan webpage titled "ethnic groups" had removed a section referring to Han Chinese as Taiwan's largest ethnicity, comprising 96.4 percent of the total population.

The revised version of the page, updated as of March 24, said that of the registered households in Taiwan, 2.6 percent were from Indigenous groups, 1.2 percent were of foreign origin, while 96.2 percent were "the rest of the population."

As the changes were picked up by the media, they began drawing sharp criticism from many in the main opposition Kuomintang (KMT), who viewed them as an effort by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)-led government to gloss over any Taiwanese connection to China.

KMT Legislator Chen Ching-hui (陳菁徽) slammed the page's wording as "truly absurd," questioning why minority groups comprising 3.8 percent of the population would be clearly labeled, while the other 96 percent of people would be vaguely referred to as "the rest."

This blurring of Taiwan's ethnic composition "is not only unhelpful in terms of information transparency, but also makes one suspicious about the motive behind it," she said.

In a statement to reporters late Saturday, Executive Yuan spokesperson Michelle Lee (李慧芝) said the government publishes such information every year, and that the ethnicities section is based on definitions found in various laws.

In December 2022, Control Yuan member Hung Yi-chang (鴻義章) said the term Han Chinese comprises various groups, including the Hoklo people, Hakka people and post-Chinese Civil War immigrants, Lee said.

On those grounds, Hung said the use of "Han" and "Indigenous" as two broad population groups was not conducive to eliminating racial discrimination or promoting equality, and suggested the Interior Ministry's Department of Household Registration adjust the page's wording, Lee said.

Lee said that in Taiwan, only Indigenous people legally register their ethnic status, while foreign resident statistics are based on records of their first household registration.

While there are not detailed statistics on other ethnic groups, it would be inaccurate to classify them all as Han Chinese, she said, though she acknowledged that the Hoklo and Hakka peoples and post-war immigrants from China were all part of the Han Chinese group.

The adjustment of the webpage's wording, therefore, was made on the basis of facts, and not any type of political considerations, Lee said.