A diplomatic dispute over a flag is playing out in the small town of Hope, B.C.
Owing to its status as a regional crossroads, years ago, Hope put some thought and effort into its main bus stop, putting up flags of dozens of countries to welcome their citizens.
Hope’s effort at outreach had inadvertently stepped into one of the world’s thorniest subjects: the status of Taiwan.
Hope had been displaying the Taiwanese flag at that bus stop and China wasn’t happy about it.
Last summer, Beijing’s Consulate in Vancouver emailed Hope Mayor Victor Smith, saying the flag needed to come down.
“It’s kind of funny because we had it up there for about 12 years and one day we get a notification,” Smith told Global News.
Town officials decided to take down Taiwan’s flag and put up China’s flag.
Smith said they thought they got the protocol correct; however, last month, another email came from a Taiwanese visitor, who noticed that flag was missing.
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This week, the council voted to put the flag back up, alongside China’s, in a bid to stay neutral in the geopolitical dispute.
“We want to stay welcoming to people,” Smith added.
The two nations have a long and complicated history.
At the end of the Second World War, Japan relinquished control of any territory it had taken from China, including Taiwan, which was then brought under rule by the Republic of China.
When then-leader Chiang Kai-shek was defeated by Mao Zedong in 1949, he and his followers fled to Taiwan, where he established a dictatorship and ruled until the 1980s.
Following his death, Taiwan began a transition to democracy.
–with files from Paul Johnson and BBC News
© 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
