Name change needs support
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) echoes China in its opposition to Taiwanese competing as “Taiwan” or “Formosa” — instead it prefers “Chinese Taipei.”
Olympic medalist Chi Cheng (紀政) proposed holding a referendum for Taiwanese athletes to compete under the name “Taiwan” at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Japan.
Unfortunately, Chi’s campaign upset China and it called an extraordinary meeting of the East Asian Olympic Committee in Beijing on July 24 to revoke Taichung’s right to host the East Asian Youth Games next year.
According to Beijing’s “one China” principle, Taiwanese must accept the so-called “1992 consensus” and have no right to rectify the name. Of course, Taiwanese cannot and will not accept this. Taiwanese are entitled to make decisions for their own futures, which includes changing the nation’s name and the modified Olympic five-ring flag they compete under.
Taiwan is entitled to rename its national sports team and a referendum is the best way to reach that goal. Unfortunately, most political parties have taken no action to support the referendum, which gave China a good excuse to bully Taiwan.
The referendum to change the name of the Taiwanese team is a democratic movement that still has a long way to go. It needs support from all Taiwanese.
John Hsieh
Hayward, California
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