Taiwan’s aid shipments to countries battling the coronavirus have sparked a fierce debate on the island about whether it should rebrand its national carrier China Airlines.

The self-ruled island has been held up as a model for tackling the virus with fewer than 400 confirmed cases despite its proximity to China.

In recent weeks it has donated millions of face masks and other medical supplies overseas.

Much of that aid has been ferried on China Airlines jets, sparking some confusion on arrival — and online — over whether the largesse has come from Taiwan or China.

“Our people feel proud of exporting the masks but they are being mistaken as coming from the country where the outbreak emerged,” transport minister Lin Chia-lung told lawmakers on Wednesday during a parliamentary debate.

“No matter how small a country is, its airline should not bear the name of another country that confuses people all over the word,” argued Chiu Hsien-chih, of the New Power Party.

China Airlines is frequently mistaken for Air China, the mainland’s national carrier.

The name is a throwback to the aftermath of the Chinese Civil War when the defeated Kuomintang (KMT) nationalists fled to Taiwan.

Their Republic of China — Taiwan’s official name — set itself up as a rival to the People’s Republic of China.