Taiwanese athletes might not be able to compete at this year’s Gay Games in Paris under the name “Taiwan” after the French delegation of the Federation of Gay Games (FGG) unexpectedly changed the team’s name from “Taiwan” to “Taipei,” the Taiwan Gay Sports and Taiwan Gay Development Movement Association said yesterday, adding that it would continue to negotiate with the organizers to rename the team.
Although China has not openly commented on Taiwan’s participation in the Games, it has been widely speculated that the French government instructed the FGG to change Taiwan’s designation on its Web site due to pressure from Beijing.
On Tuesday, Beijing successfully lobbied the East Asian Olympic Committee to revoke Taichung’s right to host the first East Asian Youth Games in August next year as punishment for a grassroots campaign promoting a referendum proposal to rename Taiwan’s national sports team from “Chinese Taipei” to “Taiwan” for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Photo courtesy of the New Power Party
FGG officials had agreed to allow the athletes to compete as “Taiwan” and display the nation’s flag when they invited Taiwanese to participate in the event in February last year, association president Yang Chih-chun (楊智群) told the Taipei Times.
However, an hour after the team held a news conference on Monday to announce their plan to participate in the Gay Games, he discovered the team’s name had been changed from “Taiwan, ROC” to “Taiwan (Chinese Taipei),” he said.
The designation was changed to “Chinese Taipei” that evening and then to “Taipei” on Wednesday, he added.
“We have established a task force to handle the issue. At the moment, nothing is set in stone,” Yang said.
Negotiations would continue with the organizers, he said, adding that there is a meeting scheduled for two hours before the nine-day event begins on Saturday next week.
“We are sad about China’s intervention and France’s decision to compromise, but we will follow the rules of the Games,” Yang said.
The team would not withdraw from the Games and would participate in the spirit of celebrating LGBT rights, he said.
Meanwhile, the FGG has appeared to be struggling to please both sides.
In a statement issued on Wednesday, it explained its rules for displaying national flags or renditions of national anthems, saying: “No flags are provided to participants in any events and no national hymns are played during regular events; the exception being host country national anthems at the opening ceremony.”
However, individuals are not banned in any way from showing their individual, team, local and regional pride throughout the Games, the statement said.
The FGG’s decision to unilaterally change the team’s name has sparked widespread criticism in Taiwan, with many questioning whether it has undermined the very values it was founded to safeguard.
“The FGG should not become a spokesperson for the oppressor, as that contradicts the spirit of equality and human rights it aims to celebrate,” New Power Party (NPP) Executive Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) said yesterday.
The NPP plans to continue to promote a referendum proposal to rename the national sports team and make the name “Taiwan” more widely known to the international community, he said.
“I will still attend the Games, but I will be bringing two flags with me: a whale flag [representing Taiwan] and a flag of Taiwan in rainbow colors. I hope to show these flags at the Games to bring attention to Taiwan,” said swimmer Jason Tan (唐聖捷), an NPP member who is to compete at the Games.
The US government has signed defense cooperation agreements with Japan and the Philippines to boost the deterrence capabilities of countries in the first island chain, a report by the National Security Bureau (NSB) showed. The main countries on the first island chain include the two nations and Taiwan. The bureau is to present the report at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee tomorrow. The US military has deployed Typhon missile systems to Japan’s Yamaguchi Prefecture and Zambales province in the Philippines during their joint military exercises. It has also installed NMESIS anti-ship systems in Japan’s Okinawa
‘WIN-WIN’: The Philippines, and central and eastern European countries are important potential drone cooperation partners, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung said Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) in an interview published yesterday confirmed that there are joint ventures between Taiwan and Poland in the drone industry. Lin made the remark in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper). The government-backed Taiwan Excellence Drone International Business Opportunities Alliance and the Polish Chamber of Unmanned Systems on Wednesday last week signed a memorandum of understanding in Poland to develop a “non-China” supply chain for drones and work together on key technologies. Asked if Taiwan prioritized Poland among central and eastern European countries in drone collaboration, Lin
Renewed border fighting between Thailand and Cambodia showed no signs of abating yesterday, leaving hundreds of thousands of displaced people in both countries living in strained conditions as more flooded into temporary shelters. Reporters on the Thai side of the border heard sounds of outgoing, indirect fire yesterday. About 400,000 people have been evacuated from affected areas in Thailand and about 700 schools closed while fighting was ongoing in four border provinces, said Thai Rear Admiral Surasant Kongsiri, a spokesman for the military. Cambodia evacuated more than 127,000 villagers and closed hundreds of schools, the Thai Ministry of Defense said. Thailand’s military announced that
CABINET APPROVAL: People seeking assisted reproduction must be assessed to determine whether they would be adequate parents, the planned changes say Proposed amendments to the Assisted Reproduction Act (人工生殖法) advanced yesterday by the Executive Yuan would grant married lesbian couples and single women access to legal assisted reproductive services. The proposed revisions are “based on the fundamental principle of respecting women’s reproductive autonomy,” Cabinet spokesperson Michelle Lee (李慧芝) quoted Vice Premier Cheng Li-chiun (鄭麗君), who presided over a Cabinet meeting earlier yesterday, as saying at the briefing. The draft amendment would be submitted to the legislature for review. The Ministry of Health and Welfare, which proposed the amendments, said that experts on children’s rights, gender equality, law and medicine attended cross-disciplinary meetings, adding that
RSS