On July 24, an extraordinary meeting of the East Asian Olympic Committee, acting at China’s behest, revoked Taichung’s right to host next year’s East Asian Youth Games.
Current and past members of Taiwan’s national sports teams have been blaming the Team Taiwan Campaign for 2020 Tokyo Olympics for this setback.
They say that as the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has already written a letter in which it clearly stated that Taiwan will not be allowed to change the title of its team from “Chinese Taipei” to “Taiwan,” the campaign is flogging a dead horse while expecting innocent sportspeople and coaches to bear the consequences.
They are angry about this and say it is very unfair.
However, there are other national-level sportspeople who say that Taiwan is our country’s proper name and only that title can bolster our sportspeople’s fighting spirit.
In Taiwan, different people have different dreams about our national identity, and this has always been the case. When the Croatian team, with their checkered shirts and flags, reached the final of soccer’s FIFA World Cup, we saw how sport acts like a religion in bringing a nation together.
What is China so afraid of? Why has it taken such heavy-handed action, even though the referendum proposal has not even been officially established?
It must be because if “Chinese Taipei” really becomes “Team Taiwan,” that would gradually foster a strong identity in the nation and Taiwanese would naturally want to cut the umbilical cord with China.
It is sad to say, but some people in Taiwan are still taking China’s side and blaming the Team Taiwan campaign for China’s domineering behavior. Yet the referendum does not demand that the government should tear up the 1981 Lausanne Agreement by going straight out and unilaterally changing the team’s title.
Rather, the hope is, through the process of proposing the referendum and applying to rename the team, to review and re-examine the agreement, which Taiwan signed with the IOC back in the days of martial law.
In 1979, when Taiwan was still under one-party rule by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), the IOC recognized the People’s Republic of China’s Olympic committee as representing China and told the Taiwan-based Republic of China Olympic Committee that its title would be changed to the “Chinese Taipei Olympic Committee.” That was playing hardball.
In contrast, the main text of the referendum proposal contains a very important word, namely that we should “apply” to take part in the Olympic Games under the title of “Taiwan.” Without the word “apply,” to call for the government to take part under the name of “Taiwan” would be playing hardball.
It is unlikely that such an application would be turned down by the IOC’s executive board straight after being proposed, because the 2020 Games’ host country is Japan. There would therefore be a strong chance of the proposal going to a vote in a plenary session of the IOC, where 206 countries have one vote each, so China would not have a strong chance of winning. That is why China is so afraid of the Team Taiwan campaign.
Some people think that Taiwan could end up losing the right to compete, but that is even more unlikely to happen, because every member nation of the IOC has the right to use its proper name. Why on Earth would we be punished for asking for our own rights?
Even though Russia was disqualified from competing at the Winter Olympics in South Korea in February, some Russian sportspeople were still able to compete under the title “Olympic athlete from Russia.”
Besides, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Central Election Commission cannot approve a referendum proposal that the government would have no chance of implementing. In that case, the aim of correcting the team’s title would obviously be out of reach.
It is even more unreasonable to blame the Team Taiwan campaign for hurting Taiwan’s young athletes and dragging young athletes from all over East Asia down with them. Do people imagine that our respected national sportspeople do not care about the name of their team, about whom they represent or about their country’s dignity?
If they really only care about playing in competitions and matches, totting up points, and getting subsidies and prize money, then it does not matter what flag they play under.
Let us take a broader view and unite as one. Who is being unreasonable and domineering here? Can sportspeople who have been nurtured by Taiwan be so heartless as to turn around and blame Taiwanese for longing to be their own masters?
Chu Meng-hsiang is an executive board member of the Team Taiwan Campaign for 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Translated by Julian Clegg
George Santayana wrote: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” This article will help readers avoid repeating mistakes by examining four examples from the civil war between the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) forces and the Republic of China (ROC) forces that involved two city sieges and two island invasions. The city sieges compared are Changchun (May to October 1948) and Beiping (November 1948 to January 1949, renamed Beijing after its capture), and attempts to invade Kinmen (October 1949) and Hainan (April 1950). Comparing and contrasting these examples, we can learn how Taiwan may prevent a war with
A recent trio of opinion articles in this newspaper reflects the growing anxiety surrounding Washington’s reported request for Taiwan to shift up to 50 percent of its semiconductor production abroad — a process likely to take 10 years, even under the most serious and coordinated effort. Simon H. Tang (湯先鈍) issued a sharp warning (“US trade threatens silicon shield,” Oct. 4, page 8), calling the move a threat to Taiwan’s “silicon shield,” which he argues deters aggression by making Taiwan indispensable. On the same day, Hsiao Hsi-huei (蕭錫惠) (“Responding to US semiconductor policy shift,” Oct. 4, page 8) focused on
Taiwan is rapidly accelerating toward becoming a “super-aged society” — moving at one of the fastest rates globally — with the proportion of elderly people in the population sharply rising. While the demographic shift of “fewer births than deaths” is no longer an anomaly, the nation’s legal framework and social customs appear stuck in the last century. Without adjustments, incidents like last month’s viral kicking incident on the Taipei MRT involving a 73-year-old woman would continue to proliferate, sowing seeds of generational distrust and conflict. The Senior Citizens Welfare Act (老人福利法), originally enacted in 1980 and revised multiple times, positions older
Taiwan’s business-friendly environment and science parks designed to foster technology industries are the key elements of the nation’s winning chip formula, inspiring the US and other countries to try to replicate it. Representatives from US business groups — such as the Greater Phoenix Economic Council, and the Arizona-Taiwan Trade and Investment Office — in July visited the Hsinchu Science Park (新竹科學園區), home to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC) headquarters and its first fab. They showed great interest in creating similar science parks, with aims to build an extensive semiconductor chain suitable for the US, with chip designing, packaging and manufacturing. The
RSS