Taiwan's DPP faces widespread criticism for rebranding local ethnic Han people

TAIPEI -- Taiwan's Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) authorities have drawn intense criticism after reclassifying people of the Han ethnic group as the island's "other" population in its official demographic data.

The move has been widely condemned as a politically charged attempt to sever cultural and historical ties between Taiwan and the Chinese mainland.

On the official website of Taiwan's executive body, descriptions of the island's demographic groups were quietly rephrased earlier this month to state that Taiwan's current registered population is composed of 2.6 percent indigenous residents, 1.2 percent immigrants, and 96.2 percent "others."

The revision erased explicit recognition of the Han people -- Taiwan's largest ethnic group, which has constituted the island's majority for centuries.

Chi Chia-lin, chief of a Taiwan history research association, told Xinhua that the revision exposes the DPP's ideological push to cut the historical ties between Taiwan and the mainland.

"This is blatant distortion of objective data," he said. "It is a betrayal of our history and ancestry."

Chen Ching-hui, a lawmaker from the Chinese Kuomintang party (KMT), accused the DPP of waging a "cognitive warfare" campaign.

"The standard statistical practice is to present the majority first and label the rest as 'others.' The DPP's method is truly bizarre," Chen said.

The revision has triggered outrage and ridicule online, with one social media user writing in a sarcastic post, "We are the others now, and soon we will be the spares."

In addition to rebranding the Han ethnic group, the DPP authorities also removed a description of people from Minnan, who are descendants of migrants from the south of Fujian province on the mainland.

The Taipei-based China Times has noted in an editorial that the DPP authorities are trying their utmost to avoid mentioning that people from Minnan make up the largest portion of Taiwan's population.

"The DPP seeks to fabricate a vague and incoherent 'Taiwan independence' ideology by distorting historical facts, evading truth, and twisting history," the article reads.

The rephrasing of Taiwan's demographic descriptions follows a series of DPP-led initiatives to downplay the island's Chinese cultural heritage, including those to dilute Chinese history in school curricula and minimize Han cultural references.

The United Daily News called these actions a carefully-designed campaign to exclude the Chinese culture in the name of promoting diversity.