Netizens slammed the Sports Affairs Council (SAC) and the Tourism Bureau over their “friendly reminders” to Taiwanese travelers planning to attend the Olympic Games in London not to bring Republic of China (ROC) flags with them, saying the move was “self-degrading” to Taiwanese sovereignty.
Last week, the Taipei Association of Travel Agents (TATA) posted an announcement on its Web site, informing its members that if they are taking tour groups to attend the Olympic Games in London to be aware of the “Olympic model.”
The “Olympic model” refers to an agreement reached between Taiwan and the International Olympic Committee that only the name “Chinese Taipei” — not “Taiwan” or “ROC” — can be used at Olympic venues and that only the Chinese Taipei Olympic Committee flag — not the ROC flag — can be used at Olympic events.
“According to regulations, items prohibited in the venues include flags of non-competing countries (our Olympic team uses the Chinese Taipei Olympic Committee flag),” the announcement said.
“In order to prevent unnecessary disputes because travelers are not aware of the regulations, please contact the Chinese Taipei Olympic Committee to send a representative to explain the Olympic model to those taking part in Olympic Games tour groups,” it added.
The announcement was delivered to the organization from the SAC through the Tourism Bureau.
“I guess this is what people would call ‘self-castration,’” netizen Alain Chen said about the announcement on his Facebook page.
“If you look down on yourself, how do you expect others to respect you?” asked Jennifer Lin, another Facebook user.
Mimiko (米果), a writer, posted a photo that she took during a World Baseball Classic (WBC) games in 2009 in Tokyo, in which a group of Taiwanese baseball fans held up a giant ROC flag in the audience on Facebook.
“I don’t know what the announcement is supposed to mean, but I know that in the WBC preliminary games of the Asia region, the organizers also applied the Olympic model. The Taiwanese national team competed under the name ‘Chinese Taipei’ and used the Chinese Taipei Olympic Committee flag, but this was what happened in the audience when the Hymn to the National Flag was sung,” she wrote. “The tour guides who took the fans to the game didn’t do anything, the security of the Tokyo Dome didn’t do anything and neither did the organizers — why is the Tourism Bureau so afraid?”
Responding to the criticism, SAC Deputy Minister Chen Yun-lien (陳雲蓮) said it was routine for the council to forward regulations on Olympic Games to the Tourism Bureau, and that it was only a friendly reminder, denying that the act was “self-degrading.”
The announcement was removed from the TATA Web site yesterday afternoon.
FIREPOWER: On top of the torpedoes, the military would procure Kestrel II anti-tank weapons systems to replace aging license-produced M72 LAW launchers Taiwan is to receive US-made Mark 48 torpedoes and training simulators over the next three years, following delays that hampered the navy’s operational readiness, the Ministry of National Defense’s latest budget proposal showed. The navy next year would acquire four training simulator systems for the torpedoes and take receipt of 14 torpedoes in 2027 and 10 torpedoes in 2028, the ministry said in its budget for the next fiscal year. The torpedoes would almost certainly be utilized in the navy’s two upgraded Chien Lung-class submarines and the indigenously developed Hai Kun, should the attack sub successfully reach operational status. US President Donald Trump
TPP RALLY: The clashes occurred near the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall on Saturday at a rally to mark the anniversary of a raid on former TPP chairman Ko Wen-je People who clashed with police at a Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) rally in Taipei on Saturday would be referred to prosecutors for investigation, said the Ministry of the Interior, which oversees the National Police Agency. Taipei police had collected evidence of obstruction of public officials and coercion by “disorderly” demonstrators, as well as contraventions of the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法), the ministry said in a statement on Sunday. It added that amid the “severe pushing and jostling” by some demonstrators, eight police officers were injured, including one who was sent to hospital after losing consciousness, allegedly due to heat stroke. The Taipei
NO LIVERPOOL TRIP: Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting, who won a gold medal in the boxing at the Paris Olympics, was embroiled in controversy about her gender at that event Taiwanese boxer Lin Yu-ting (林郁婷) will not attend this year’s World Boxing Championships in Liverpool, England, due to a lack of response regarding her sex tests from the organizer, World Boxing. The national boxing association on Monday said that it had submitted all required tests to World Boxing, but had not received a response as of Monday, the departure day for the championships. It said the decision for Lin to skip the championships was made to protect its athletes, ensuring they would not travel to the UK without a guarantee of participation. Lin, who won a gold medal in the women’s 57kg boxing
The US has revoked Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) authorization to freely ship essential gear to its main Chinese chipmaking base, potentially curtailing its production capabilities at that older-generation facility. American officials recently informed TSMC of their decision to end the Taiwanese chipmaker’s so-called validated end user (VEU) status for its Nanjing site. The action mirrors steps the US took to revoke VEU designations for China facilities owned by Samsung Electronics Co and SK Hynix Inc. The waivers are set to expire in about four months. “TSMC has received notification from the US Government that our VEU authorization for TSMC Nanjing
RSS