GENERAL INFORMATION  IOC Code: TPE  Country: Chinese Taipei  Continent: Asia  President: Ma Ying-jeou Capital: Taipei  Largest City: Taipei  Currency:  New Taiwan dollar  Official languages: Standard Mandarin   POPULATION  Population: 22,911,292 GDP/inhabitant (US $): 16,274 Density (inhabitants/km2): 633.12 Average age (in years):   Life expectancy (in years):  COMMUNICATION  Internet code: .tw  Calling code: +886

 DESCRIPTION
Chinese Taipei is the designated name used by the Republic of China (ROC), commonly known as "Taiwan", to participate in most international organizations, due to the persistent diplomatic pressure from the People's Republic of China (PRC), which does not recognize the Republic of China (ROC) as a sovereign nation. Currently, the international community frequently avoids the use of the ROC's preferred titles, the "Republic of China (ROC)," "Republic of China" or "Taiwan" so as to avoid offending the PRC by implying that the ROC and the PRC are two separate countries when participating in international organizations (see political status of Taiwan).

The People's Republic of China (PRC), which does not recognize the Republic of China (ROC) and claims the island of Taiwan as part of its own territory, effectively blocks the Republic of China from using their official national title "Republic of China" in international organizations. To the PRC, the name "Republic of China" suggests either the continued existence of a country that the PRC believes it has toppled or the existence of two Chinas, a contravention of the PRC's "One-China policy".

When international organizations downgraded or even expelled Taiwan in the 1970s and 1980s in favor of recognizing the PRC, the Kuomintang (KMT)-controlled Republic of China government refused to be designated as "Taiwan, China" because the title would imply that it was subordinate to the People's Republic of China government. At the time, the Kuomintang government also rejected the names "Taiwan" and "Formosa" because it still considered itself the sole legitimate government of all of China and refused any hint of Taiwan independence. Therefore, it chose what was considered a politically neutral title "Chinese Taipei", after its capital, Taipei.

In November of 1979 the International Olympic Committee and later all the international sports federations adopted a resolution which recognized the National Olympic Committee of Taiwan as the National Olympic Committee of Chinese Taipei[1] and every sports team or athlete from Taiwan would compete as Chinese Taipei. Under this resolution, Chinese Taipei adopted the Chinese Taipei Olympic Flag, which consists of the emblem of the National Chinese Taipei Olympic Committee on a white background, and since the 1984 Summer Olympics has participated always with this name and under this flag at the Olympics, Paralympics and other international events.

The flag, however, is not recognized on some media references. In 1992, during the Winter Olympics in Albertville, France, CBS used the flag of the Republic of China with the official "TPE" code. During the 2004 Summer Olympics, the Australian Baseball Federation Web site used a waving National Flag of the ROC to refer to the island country. Many news networks and web sites also prefer to use the National Flag of the Republic of China rather than the designated Chinese Taipei flag.

Source: www.wikipedia.com