[arch-general] Country Name (ISO-3116) Issues

[Tom Gundersen]

On Sun, Jul 1, 2012 at 7:28 PM, Loui Chang <louipc.ist at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Sun 01 Jul 2012 23:08 +0800, Zero, Chien-An Cho wrote:
>> Hello,
>>
>> First of all, I am sorry to bring political issues to here. I have
>> been using ArchLinux for years, deployed on many servers, though I'm
>> not joining the community until now. The recent changes to the
>> ArchLinux webpages (ex. Downloads, Mirror Status) is really offending
>> Taiwanese people. I would like to bring up this issue, and preferably
>> to resolve this issue.
>>
>> I have posted this message on the forum:
>> https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=144315 . The moderator
>> suggested me to post on arch-general, so here it is. :)
>> There is also a bug tracking issue submitted by other Taiwanese user
>> that I'm requesting for reopen here:
>> https://bugs.archlinux.org/task/30444
>>
>> The following text is the same as the post on forum, except a few
>> modification to make text smoother.
>>
>> The recent changes on the download page named Taiwan as Taiwan,
>> Province of China, which is not reflecting the truth that Taiwan is a
>> independent country which having its own government. I think this
>> might be caused by following the ISO-3166 country name list standard.
>> However, I don't think ISO-3166 is a good list when it comes to the
>> country name.
>>
>> Many open source communities have encountered this problem before.
>> Most of them understand that ISO-3166 is not really a neutral list
>> that we all hope for, and thus made switch to a separate maintained
>> country list. For example, FreeBSD[1], Rails[2], Debian[3]. Many big
>> commercial entities also opt not to use "Taiwan, PRC" in their country
>> list, like: Apple[4], IBM[5], also try Google, Facebook, Twitter, et
>> cetra. A possible solution might be using the country name list from
>> ICU[6].
>>
>> I believed the ArchLinux is trying to expand its user-base around the
>> world, so a neutral country name list would be the best for the
>> benefit of all of us, ArchLinux developers and users. As a Taiwanese
>> ArchLinux user, I'm really happy to see that user base of ArchLinux is
>> growing in Taiwan. Some educational institutions provide mirrors site
>> in Taiwan, Wiki localized in Traditional Chinese in the recent years.
>> I sincerely hope this issue can be resolved as soon as possible. Let's
>> keep the issue simple and not flaming it, thanks.
>>
>> References:
>>
>> [1] FreeBSD: http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/query-pr.cgi?pr=138672
>> [2] Rails: http://www.koziarski.net/archives/2008/9/24/countries-and-controversies/
>> [3] Debian: http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2004/04/msg00798.html
>> [4] Apple: http://www.apple.com/choose-your-country/
>> [5] IBM: http://www.ibm.com/planetwide/select/selector.html
>> [6] ICU: http://source.icu-project.org/repos/icu/icu/trunk/source/data/region/en.txt
>
> I agree. I'm very disappointed by the response of Dave Reisner on that
> bug report. The reality is that the PRC does not have jurisdiction or
> claim over Taiwan. When standards are false they should not be followed.
>
> Dave: Can you educate yourself a little about the Republic of China and
> Taiwan vs the People's Republic of China, before making a final
> decision? Thank you.

This has been discussed a number of times. While no one has so far
questioned the validity of the bug, the consensus seems to be that
this should be taken upstream [0].

I hope it is clear that no offense is intended, and that we do not
want to make any political judgments (and hence defer to the UN).

[0]: <http://www.iso.org/iso/updates_on_iso_3166.html>.