Premier Chang Chun-hsiung (張俊雄) said yesterday that Taiwan's inclusion on the planned "overseas" route of the torch relay for next year's Olympic Games is acceptable to the nation.
Taiwan rejected the original route announced by the Beijing Organizing Committee for the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG) on April 26 because it included Taiwan as China's first "domestic" stopover and would have seen the torch arriving in Taiwan from Vietnam before heading on to Hong Kong. The arrangement was viewed as an intentional move to cast aspersions on the nation's sovereignty.
The two sides later started negotiations on the issue, and Beijing seemed to have softened its stance when it changed "Taipei, China" to "Chinese Taipei" after a protest was lodged with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) by the Chinese Taipei Olympic Committee.
However, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) had insisted that four prerequisites be met before the torch could pass through Taiwan -- that China follow IOC protocol and regulations, that the government of Taiwan must approve the route, that Taiwan's sovereignty not be downgraded and that all relevant activities be conducive to future interaction between the two sides.
Chang's comments came after the organizers of the Beijing Olympics said on Thursday night that the torch relay would commence in Beijing on March 31 next year and visit 22 overseas cities on five continents and 113 cities and regions in China.
Jiang Xiaoyu (蔣效愚), executive vice president of the BOCOG, stated again that the committee would like to include Taipei as a stop on the torch's route, a news release from China's Taiwan Affairs Office said.
This time, Jiang called Taipei "one of the 22 overseas cities."
When asked to comment on Jiang's statement, MAC Chairman Chen Ming-tong (陳明通) yesterday reasserted that Taiwanese would welcome the Olympic torch as long as the nation's status as a sovereign state was not degraded.
"The term `overseas' is certainly a more neutral way to say it," Chen said.
However, Chen said that only a tentative consensus had been reached on the route during a press conference held at the council's offices.
"The two sides are only one step away from signing an agreement [on the torch route], but that step may be one step too far if side issues are raised," Chen said.
He declined to elaborate.
"I will not disclose what those side issues may be, but I believe Beijing will definitely understand what they are," Chen said.
He said he would only "clarify everything after an agreement is signed."
Chen backed his statement with the results of a survey conducted on Monday and Tuesday, which showed that 78.5 percent of respondents would like the Olympic torch to pass through Taiwan if China does not degrade Taiwan's status. Describing the nation as one of the "overseas" stops was acceptable to 58 percent of respondents.
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