Taiwanese baristas are now required to compete under the name 'Chinese Taipei' at the World Coffee Championships (WCC), a decision that has angered the island's coffee community. The Taiwan Coffee Association announced the change on Wednesday, stating it was a 'basic and unavoidable condition for participating'. The move applies retroactively, meaning past winners like Berg Wu, who won the 2016 World Barista Championship, now represent an entity they do not recognise.
Wu, the first Taiwanese to win the competition, described the process as 'extremely opaque'. He told the Guardian: 'None of us competitors and no one in the wider coffee community had heard anything about this beforehand.' The decision mirrors the 'Olympic formula' used by the International Olympic Committee, where Taiwanese athletes compete as 'Chinese Taipei' due to pressure from China, which claims Taiwan as its territory.
The WCC's ruling has sparked outrage on social media, with one barista on Threads saying he was 'so angry [he] was shaking'. Critics see it as part of a broader campaign by China to erase Taiwan's international presence, which has seen the island's diplomatic allies shrink to just 12 countries. International companies are also increasingly referring to Taiwan as a 'province of China' to avoid losing access to the Chinese market.
After 19 years of competing under the name Taiwan, including at the 2026 World Latte Art Championship in April where Taiwanese barista Lin Shao-sing won, many are questioning the WCC's decision. The Taiwan Coffee Association is in talks with the WCC, but Wu acknowledges that non-compliance effectively means exclusion from competition. 'When an organisation like the WCC makes this kind of announcement, if you don’t agree, it effectively means you can’t compete,' he said.
