The government yesterday said it supported China's bid to host the 2008 Summer Olympic Games, but that it was too early to discuss Beijing's invitation to Taipei to co-host the international sporting event.
"We'd like to see Beijing win the bid to host the 2008 Olympic Games. As for the question of whether Taipei would accept Beijing's invitation [to co-host,] it is too early to discuss it," vice chairman of the Mainland Affairs Council Chen Ming-tong (
The report said that the Beijing 2008 Olympic Bid Committee was seriously considering the possibility of inviting Taiwan to co-host the 2008 Olympic Games, adding that relevant governmental departments were studying the situation.
PHOTO: LIBERTY TIMES FILE PHOTO
"If the 2008 Olympic Games are to be held in Beijing, some of the mass events like soccer, baseball and basketball may be held in Chinese cities including Shanghai (上海) and Guangzhou (廣州), but why not Taipei?" a committee official said.
Opposition lawmakers in Taiwan were optimistic about co-hosting the events with Beijing calling it a gesture of goodwill extended from China.
"To put political differences aside, the development of cross-strait relations will benefit from cultural, sports and trade exchanges across the strait," People First Party Legislator Chung Shao-ho (鍾紹和) told the Taipei Times yesterday, adding that Taiwan could no longer isolate itself from the international community.
KMT Legislator Apollo Chen (
"This will be a good opportunity for Taiwan to distinguish itself from China so that the international community knows that Taiwan and China are different under the `one China' principle," Chen said, adding that Taiwan's co-hosting the game with Beijing would enhance Taiwan's exposure to the international community.
DPP legislator Su Huan-chi (
"It's a gesture of goodwill, but we need to evaluate carefully what strategies were behind their offer," Su said, adding that Taiwan should avoid falling into the trap of unification propaganda (
A source from Hong Kong -- who preferred to remain unidentified -- told the Taipei Times that Chinese authorities have been very active in asking Taipei to co-host sporting events with Chinese cities. The source said China expressed the same wish last time when Hong Kong was bidding for the Asian Games, though Hong Kong failed to win the bid.
Su, nevertheless, said that Taiwan should not turn down the offer immediately.
A Taiwanese member of the International Olympic Committee (國際奧會) Wu Ching-kuo (吳經國), however, said that there is no possibility that Taiwan could co-host the 2008 Olympic Games with Beijing according to the committee's charter.
"However, what would be more ideal and realistic is that Taiwan coordinates with Beijing after Beijing wins the bid to host the Games. Some sporting events can then be held in Taipei," Wu told local media on Friday.
Meanwhile, Vice President Annette Lu (
Delivering a speech at a Presbyterian church, Lu said that as long as "we use love, peace and blessings," cross-strait relations will be improved. She cited Taipei's support of Beijing's Olympic bid as an example of this.
According to Lu, the aim of the Olympic Games is to take a stand against violence, military means and the use of force, and if Beijing wins the bid to host the 2008 Games next July, it will have to "show love and peace" to Taiwan and the rest of the world in the next few years, which she said would in turn provide "a new chance for cross-strait relations."
CREDIT-GRABBER: China said its coast guard rescued the crew of a fishing vessel that caught fire, who were actually rescued by a nearby Taiwanese boat and the CGA Maritime search and rescue operations do not have borders, and China should not use a shipwreck to infringe upon Taiwanese sovereignty, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. The coast guard made the statement in response to the China Coast Guard (CCG) saying it saved a Taiwanese fishing boat. The Chuan Yu No. 6 (全漁6號), a fishing vessel registered in Keelung, on Thursday caught fire and sank in waters northeast of Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台). The vessel left Keelung’s Badouzih Fishing Harbor (八斗子漁港) at 3:35pm on Sunday last week, with seven people on board — a 62-year-old Taiwanese captain surnamed Chang (張) and six
RISKY BUSINESS: The ‘incentives’ include initiatives that get suspended for no reason, creating uncertainty and resulting in considerable losses for Taiwanese, the MAC said China’s “incentives” failed to sway sentiment in Taiwan, as willingness to work in China hit a record low of 1.6 percent, a Ministry of Labor survey showed. The Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) also reported that the number of Taiwanese workers in China has nearly halved from a peak of 430,000 in 2012 to an estimated 231,000 in 2024. That marked a new low in the proportion of Taiwanese going abroad to work. The ministry’s annual survey on “Labor Life and Employment Status” includes questions respondents’ willingness to seek employment overseas. Willingness to work in China has steadily declined from
The Legislative Yuan’s Finance Committee yesterday approved proposed amendments to the Amusement Tax Act (娛樂稅法) that would abolish taxes on films, cultural activities and competitive sporting events, retaining the fee only for dance halls and golf courses. The proposed changes would set the maximum tax rate for dance halls and golf courses at 50 and 20 percent respectively, with local governments authorized to suspend the levies. Article 2 of the act says that “amusement tax shall be levied on tickets sold or fees charged by amusement places, facilities or activities” in six categories: “Cinema; professional singing, story-telling, dancing, circus, magic show, acrobatics
INFLATION UP? The IMF said CPI would increase to 1.5 percent this year, while the DGBAS projected it would rise to 1.68 percent, with GDP per capita of US$44,181 The IMF projected Taiwan’s real GDP would grow 5.2 percent this year, up from its 2.1 percent outlook in January, despite fears of global economic disruptions sparked by the US-Iran conflict. Taiwan’s consumer price index (CPI) is projected to increase to 1.5 percent, while unemployment would be 3.4 percent, roughly in line with estimates for Asia as a whole, the international body wrote in its Global Economic Outlook Report published in the US on Monday. The figures are comparatively better than the IMF outlook for the rest of the world, which pegged real GDP growth at 3.1 percent, down from 3.3 percent
RSS