Print

Mail

wiki links

Premier has hope, but deadline may snuff out the torch

Premier Chang Chun-hsiung (張俊雄) said yesterday that the government still hoped the Olympic torch could come to Taiwan, as long as the nation's sovereignty is not compromised.

Chang was responding to media speculation that should the torch standoff continue until the deadline reportedly set by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), 7am today, it would mean the breakdown of talks and an end to any hope of the torch coming to Taiwan.

Cabinet spokesman Shieh Jhy-wey (謝志偉) said that faced with China's lack of respect for democracy, the government had "made all possible preparations" for a breakdown in the talks.

Sports Affairs Council Vice Chairman and spokesman Lee Kao-hsiang (李高祥) said the council had not received any official papers from the Chinese Taipei Olympic Committee and that it was not appropriate for the council to comment on the matter.

He said that after Jiang Xiaoyu (蔣效愚), executive vice president of the Beijing Olympic organizing committee, said on Sept. 6 that Taipei would be included as an overseas city on the torch relay route, Taipei had accepted the arrangement.

But China then at the last minute added other conditions, including that no national flags or emblems of the Republic of China (ROC) should appear, nor should the ROC national anthem be heard while the torch is in Taiwan.

Chinese Taipei Olympic Committee Chairman Tsai Chen-wei (蔡辰威), who has been negotiating on the matter over the past six months, expressed hope that the situation could still be resolved.

He said the IOC hoped the torch could go through Taiwan and had indeed set today as the deadline for the talks but admitted that unless both sides could come to an agreement on the outstanding issues, he saw little hope that the talks can go on.

Beijing announced in April its planned route for the torch relay. According to Beijing's plan, the torch was to enter Taiwan from Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam before heading on to Hong Kong.

Taipei rejected the planned route at the time on the grounds that it downgraded Taiwan's status as a sovereign state.

Taiwan initially requested that the torch arrive and exit via a country other than China but accepted Beijing's route plan after China agreed to designate the Taiwan leg of the relay as part of the overseas route and to address Taiwan as Chinese Taipei rather than Taiwan, China, in Olympics-related documents.
This story has been viewed 1649 times.