Many Taiwanese were outraged in late April when the Pew Research Center demographic report on Asians in the US categorized them as part of the larger Chinese population. However, in a rare victory against China’s increasingly aggressive campaign to erase Taiwanese identity from the international sphere, the Washington-based think tank rectified the report earlier this month to show separate numbers for people who identify as originating in the two countries.
There is still a row in the chart that shows combined Chinese and Taiwanese totals, and the text still lumps the two peoples as “Chinese-origin Asians.” Nonetheless, the change is a positive development, as Pew responded to the backlash and further released a report by senior demographer Jeffrey Passel explaining the complexities behind counting Taiwanese in the US.