Chunghwa Post Co., Ltd. is the official

postal service The mail or post is a system for physically transporting postcards, letters, and parcels. A postal service can be private or public, though many governments place restrictions on private systems. Since the mid-19th century, national postal syst ...

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

(officially the Republic of China). Chunghwa Post was a

government agency A government or state agency, sometimes an appointed commission, is a permanent or semi-permanent organization in the machinery of government that is responsible for the oversight and administration of specific functions, such as an administrati ...

of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications until 2003, when it was reorganized into a

government-owned corporation A state-owned enterprise (SOE) is a government entity which is established or nationalised by the ''national government'' or ''provincial government'' by an executive order or an act of legislation in order to earn profit for the governmen ...

Its affiliation with the

Universal Postal Union The Universal Postal Union (UPU, french: link=no, Union postale universelle), established by the Treaty of Bern of 1874, is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) that coordinates postal policies among member nations, in addition to t ...

began in 1914, but ended in 1972 when it was replaced by

China Post China Post, legally the China Post Group Corporation ( zh, 中国邮政集团有限公司, Pinyin: ''Zhōngguó yóuzhèng jítuán yǒuxiàn gōngsī''), is the state-owned enterprise operating the official postal service of China, which pro ...

shortly after China's seat in the United Nations was handed over to the

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

International reply coupon An international reply coupon (IRC) is a coupon that can be exchanged for one or more postage stamps representing the minimum postage for an unregistered priority airmail letter of up to twenty grams sent to another Universal Postal Union (UPU) m ...

s are not available to Taiwan, and mail is not delivered to or sent directly from Taiwan, but rather routed through third-party countries, with

Japan Post was a Japanese statutory corporation that existed from 2003 to 2007, offering postal and package delivery services, banking services, and life insurance. It's the nation's largest employer, with over 400,000 employees, and runs 24,700 po ...

as a major route facility for incoming mail sent from

the Americas The Americas, which are sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North and South America. The Americas make up most of the land in Earth's Western Hemisphere and comprise the New World. Along with th ...

region. Under the name " Chinese Taipei", Taiwan is a member of

Fédération Internationale de Philatélie The Fédération Internationale de Philatélie (FIP) was founded on 18 June 1926, and is the world federation for philately based in Zürich, Switzerland. Aims The primary aims of the FIP are: *To promote stamp collecting and philately. *To mai ...

and Inter-Asian Philatelic Federation. It also provides a

savings account A savings account is a bank account at a retail bank. Common features include a limited number of withdrawals, a lack of cheque and linked debit card facilities, limited transfer options and the inability to be overdrawn. Traditionally, transa ...

service.

Facilities

Chunghwa Post delivers standard letters,

registered mail Registered mail is a mail service offered by postal services in many countries which allows the sender proof of mailing via a mailing receipt and, upon request, electronic verification that an article was delivered or that a delivery attempt was ...

, parcels, and express mail throughout Taiwan. There are twenty-three large offices throughout the country which supervises some 1,300 smaller

post offices A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letters and parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post offices may offer additional serv ...

History

Origins of Chunghwa Post

The direct ancestor of Chunghwa Post is the Customs Post Office of the

Qing Empire The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speak ...

, established in 1878 by

Li Hongzhang Li Hongzhang, Marquess Suyi ( zh, t=李鴻章; also Li Hung-chang; 15 February 1823 – 7 November 1901) was a Chinese politician, general and diplomat of the late Qing dynasty. He quelled several major rebellions and served in important ...

at the suggestion of the foreign powers, with branch offices in five major trading cities. On 20 March 1896, the Customs Post Office became the Great Qing Post, which in 1911 became independent of the customs service. Great Qing Post Office mailbox

On 1 January 1912, the

Republic of China Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northeast ...

was established, replacing the

Qing Dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speak ...

. The Great Qing Post changed its name to the Chunghwa Post "Chunghwa" is a transliteration of one of the names of China, which connotes the multi- ethnic nation under a unified

culture Culture () is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, and habits of the individuals in these groups.Tyl ...

of "China". Alternatively spelled "Zhonghua" (in

pinyin Hanyu Pinyin (), often shortened to just pinyin, is the official romanization system for Standard Mandarin Chinese in China, and to some extent, in Singapore and Malaysia. It is often used to teach Mandarin, normally written in Chinese for ...

transliteration), this term is part of the

Chinese language Chinese (, especially when referring to written Chinese) is a group of languages spoken natively by the ethnic Han Chinese majority and many minority ethnic groups in Greater China. About 1.3 billion people (or approximately 16% of the wor ...

name of both the

and the

Early airmail service

Chunghwa post had contracted with aviation groups such as

China National Aviation Corporation The China National Aviation Corporation () was a Chinese airline which was nationalized after the Chinese Communist Party took control in 1949, and merged into the People's Aviation Company of China () in 1952. It was a major airline under the ...

and

China Airways Federal The China National Aviation Corporation () was a Chinese airline which was nationalized after the Chinese Communist Party took control in 1949, and merged into the People's Aviation Company of China () in 1952. It was a major airline under the ...

to deliver

airmail Airmail (or air mail) is a mail transport service branded and sold on the basis of at least one leg of its journey being by air. Airmail items typically arrive more quickly than surface mail, and usually cost more to send. Airmail may be the ...

on the Shanghai-Hankow, Nanking-Peking, and the Hankow-Canton routes in early 1929. It was on the Nanking-Peking route, where renown early-20th century poet

Xu Zhimo Xu Zhimo (, , Mandarin: , 15 January 1897 – 19 November 1931) was a Chinese romantic poet who strove to loosen Chinese poetry from its traditional forms and to reshape it under the influences of Western poetry and the vernacular Chinese langu ...

caught a flight, but died as the airmail-carrier plane operated by China Airways Federal under contract, crashed in rough weather.

Early postal service in Taiwan

In 1888,

Liu Mingchuan Liu Ming-chuan (1836–1896), courtesy name Xingsan, lived in the late Qing dynasty. He was born in Hefei, Anhui. Liu became involved in the suppression of the Taiping Rebellion at an early age, and worked closely with Zeng Guofan and Li Ho ...

, Qing Governor of

Taiwan Province Taiwan Province (; Pha̍k-fa-sṳ, PFS: ''Thòi-vàn-sén'' or ''Thòi-vân-sén'') is a nominal Administrative divisions of Taiwan, administrative division of the Taiwan, Republic of China (ROC). Its definition has remained part of the Constit ...

, established the Taiwan General Post Office (GPO) of the Great Qing Postal service (大清郵政官局). However, in 1895, Taiwan was ceded to

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

following the

first Sino-Japanese war The First Sino-Japanese War (25 July 1894 – 17 April 1895) was a conflict between China and Japan primarily over influence in Korea. After more than six months of unbroken successes by Japanese land and naval forces and the loss of the po ...

. The Taiwan GPO was abolished, with postal service in Taiwan conducted by a variety of bodies such as the Field Command postal service, and after 1924, the Letters Department of the Ministry of Transport.

After World War II

Taiwan was taken over by the

in 1945. In 1946, the Republic of China government incorporated the postal service in Taiwan with the Directorate General of Posts. In 1949, the

lost control of much of

mainland China "Mainland China" is a geopolitical term defined as the territory governed by the People's Republic of China (including islands like Hainan or Chongming), excluding dependent territories of the PRC, and other territories within Greater China. ...

to the

Communist Party of China The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), officially the Communist Party of China (CPC), is the founding and sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Under the leadership of Mao Zedong, the CCP emerged victorious in the Chinese Civil ...

which founded the

. Soon after, postal service was restricted to Taiwan, several surrounding islands, and a few islands off the coast of

still under the control of the

government. In 2003, the Directorate General of Posts of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications was restructured from a government department to a

, and renamed Chunghwa Post Co., Ltd.

Name changes

In February 2007, ROC President

Chen Shui-bian Chen Shui-bian (; born 12 October 1950) is a retired Taiwanese politician and lawyer who served as the president of the Republic of China (Taiwan) from 2000 to 2008. Chen was the first president from the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) whic ...

announced that the name of the postal service would be changed to Taiwan Post, with sign changes occurring at branches in Taiwan on February 12. Media reports noted that "Taiwan Post" was more consistent with the name Governor Liu Ming-chuan used when he founded the Taiwan Post Administration in 1888. Furthermore, Taiwan Post began printing "Taiwan" instead of "Republic of China" on postage stamps. On February 9, the board of directors resolved to change the name of the corporation to Taiwan Post Co. (台灣郵政) after a delay of several hours due to protests from unions. However, a bill to recognise the change of law was blocked by the KMT-dominated legislature. As a result, the law still mandated the postal monopoly for "Chunghwa Post" despite the name change. In 2008, the

Kuomintang The Kuomintang (KMT), also referred to as the Guomindang (GMD), the Nationalist Party of China (NPC) or the Chinese Nationalist Party (CNP), is a major political party in the Republic of China, initially on the Chinese mainland and in Tai ...

took power in Taiwan following a legislative election victory and the election of

Ma Ying-jeou Ma Ying-jeou ( zh, 馬英九, born 13 July 1950) is a Hong Kong-born Taiwanese politician who served as president of the Republic of China from 2008 to 2016. Previously, he served as justice minister from 1993 to 1996 and mayor of Taipei from ...

to the presidency. Following his election,

publicly stated that he did not wish his inauguration commemoration stamps to be marked "Taiwan Post", because the name change was illegal. The postal service marked the inauguration stamps with

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...

characters for the "Republic of China", as well as "Republic of China (Taiwan)" in

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

. On 1 August 2008, the company resolved to reverse the name change and restored the name "Chunghwa Post". The Board of Directors, as well as resolving to restore the name of the corporation, also resolved to re-hire the chief executive dismissed in 2007, and to withdraw defamation proceedings against him.台灣郵政改回中華郵政
(''"Taiwan Post" Has been Changed Back to "Chunghwa Post"'')

References

External links

* {{authority control Government-owned companies of Taiwan Companies established in 1878 Postal system of Taiwan Companies based in Taipei Taiwanese brands 1878 establishments in China